NTFS stands for NT File System. It was initially introduced in Windows NT version 3.1, serving as the operating system's default file system. The majority of the external drives are formatted to NTFS by default as Windows is more extensively used than macOS.
How To Format Hardrive To Ntfs For Mac
If you want to know how to format a disc on a Mac, you can use the Disk Utility option. The approach outlined below will help you get your new equipment into working order. Continue reading to learn how to format Drive Mac.
For someone who doesn't want to format NTFS drives and needs to directly access the drive data and files, you need another solution. It is to add read and write support to NTFS drives on Mac computers.
Oftentimes, when you have a new flash drive, it's formatted with different file systems, including common ones such as exFAT, FAT32, and NTFS. While exFAT and FAT32 are popular between both Windows operating system and macOS, NTFS is less compatible since it only fully works on Windows PC.
If you need to format a flash drive to NTFS on Mac, you've come to the right place. This post will walk you through all possible methods to format drive to NTFS on Mac with step-by-step tutorials. Before that, let's dive in to see what is NTFS format exactly.
Aside from the above advantages, NTFS has more to explore. One thing that can't be avoided when talking about NTFS on Mac is compatibility. Can you format a drive to NTFS on Mac? Read on to know more.
Since NTFS is a proprietary file system owned by Windows, macOS can't natively format your flash drive to NTFS. Although Mac has a drive management tool named Disk Utility to perform multiple tasks on your flash drive, including First Aid, Erase, and Partition, there's no NTFS option when you choose the file system when reformatting.
Fortunately, it's possible to change the format of your flash drive to NTFS on Mac with Terminal. Mac Terminal is the default gateway to all command lines on your Mac. Instead of pointing and clicking, you can format a hard drive to NTFS by typing in command prompts and your Mac will respond.
Hard drives connected to your Mac will appear then, including information about the drive location, the type name, and the size of your drives. With these details, you can select which drive you want to format.
In this case, if you want to format the disk2 to NTFS, you should type in diskutil eraseDisk NTFS External /dev/disk2 and hit enter. Your Mac will automatically start to erase, unmount, create a new partition map, and format the drive with a new file format. Wait for the procedure to be done.
NTFS format is not available when you format a flash drive in Mac's disk management tool, Disk Utility. By making use of an NTFS for Mac tool, you can extend your format options apart from the original ones on your Mac, including APFS, HFS+, FAT, and exFAT.
Step 4. Select the flash drive you want to format. Detailed information will appear on the right window. Click on the Erase to NTFS button to format your drive to NTFS with just one click.
Update: Sadly, Apple has changed the entire mount process on macOS Ventura. It removed the previous kernel-based architecture - /System/Library/Extensions/ntfs.kext. It means all free NTFS for Mac drivers including Mounty for NTFS and others and terminal commands will not function on macOS 13 Ventura anymore.
When you connect an NTFS drive to macOS, you'll notice the drive is read-only and you can't write to it, including editing, renaming, modifying, moving files to NTFS drives, etc. For users who want to use NTFS drives on Mac without formatting NTFS drives on Mac, there are mainly three ways to achieve this goal.
The easiest and most effective way to enable NTFS write support on Mac is to use a commercial third-party NTFS driver. To name one of the best NTFS drivers on Mac, iBoysoft NTFS for Mac. Without formatting, iBoysoft NTFS for Mac promises to offer reliable, fast writing speed, and full compatibility with most Mac devices when writing to NTFS drives on Mac.
Jessica Shee is a senior tech editor at iBoysoft. Throughout her 3 years of experience, Jessica has written many informative and instructional articles in data recovery, data security, and disk management to help a lot of readers secure their important documents and take the best advantage of their devices.
Mac OS uses HFS (Hierarchical File System) for the drives. On the other hand, Windows uses NTFS for file storage systems. So, people look for options to format their drives in HFS to NTFS for better compatibility.
If you are a Mac user and wondering if you can format drives to NTFS on MAC, then the good news is that you can do it. But before you see the method on how to format the drive to NTFS on Mac, let's see some common reasons why people do it in the first place.
If you have a substantial NTFS drive and Mac, that drive is useless for you. The best way around is to make your drive format NTFS in Mac. It will allow you to transfer, store quickly, and share large files on it.
The last part explained why the NTFS format is essential. Usually, operating systems come with disk utility software that allows you to format drives. However, in Mac, the disk utility software does not come with the option for NTFS file format.
Once you have the drive in NTFS format, you can use highly reliable software that is EaseUS NTFS for Mac to enable read/write access to NTFS drives on macOS. It is efficient and can do the job with just one simple step.
How can I change the format so that I can write files to the hard drive with my MacBook. The hard drive has its own programs such as unlocking the hard drive etc so I don't want to remove/damage those files. The hard drive is a Western Digital My Passport.
Do you need to use the drive with Windows PCs as well as with your Mac? If so then format it to FAT32 or exFAT using a Windows PC. You will probably find that the programs for unlocking the drive require it to be formatted to NTFS, so if you need to change the formatting of the drive you will almost certainly lose that functionality.
If you only need to use the drive with your Mac then use Disk Utility which you can find in Applications -> Utilities and format it to 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)'. Again the drive specific programs won't work.
Once the drive is formatted you can return the data, including the programs. The drive will now work well with Mac's or PC's of XP-Win 7 and there is no need for problematic paid software to have a license to use/access the NTFS format.
Nope, that's the way to do it. However, turn off 'quick format' and let it take a few minutes to format it properly - esp if you want to use it with the Mac. Leave everything else as-is except the File System Format - select exFAT or FAT32.
I tried to do the full format, but it took like half an hour to move a tenth of the way, and then just gave an error message and stopped doing it. After that I just did the quick format, and it took 2 seconds, and everything is working fine now
Want to use NTFS drives on a Mac? Well, you're in luck because in this guide we're going to help you do just that! And the good news is, it's not as tricky as it sounds. Stick with us as and we'll show you exactly how to use those Windows-formatted drives in macOS.
There's an ongoing debate about whether the best Windows laptops and PCs are better than the best MacBooks and Macs and let's face it, that one won't be getting settled any time soon. But, there's no denying that Windows computers are more widespread, which is why the best external hard drives and USB sticks tend to come pre-formatted to NTFS.
As things currently stand, Apple don't have this license, which is why you can only open and view files on Windows drives but not make any changes to them. While it's great that your Mac has been designed to read NTFS-formatted drives, it's likely that you're going to want to do more than that, which is where we come in.
If reformatting your NTFS drive for Mac is not an option, you can enable write support for specific Windows disks using macOS Terminal. This is an experimental feature and could lead to data loss, so make sure to do a full backup of both your Mac and any data on the drive before continuing.
This allows you to boot both operating systems on your Mac. Once set up, Windows 10 will function on your Mac in just the same way as it would on a regular PC. This includes working with NTFS-formatted drives.
Another great thing about APFS is that it will duplicate your files, even the very large ones, instantaneously. Unlike other formats, which require you to wait to basically copy the file a second time, APFS just magically duplicates it right in front of you in a split second.
You may be familiar with this option as it is the default option that appears when you go to format a hard drive on your Mac. You may have commonly heard this referred to as HFS+ or Hierarchical File System, though the MacOS Extended (Journaled) option is actually an improved version of HFS+.
exFAT is an interesting option for users. It works on both Mac and PC and can share files back and forth. In fact, I have a client who works exclusively on PC, and I work exclusively on Mac, and we format all of our shared drives as exFAT so we can work collaboratively if needed. 2ff7e9595c
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