Formatting your Hard Drive
for Mac and PC Use
By Brian Bellman
1) The first step to formatting your drive for Mac and PC format is to connect both the data and power cable to a Mac. This holds true for both internal and external hard drives. In addition will also need to turn on the power switch if you are using an external drive.
2) If your drive has never been formatted, you should get this pop-up message. Click initialize and it will bring you to "Disk Utility" and Skip to step 4. If you didn't get this pop up, continue to step 3.
3) Once the drive has spun up, navigate to and open the "Disk Utilities" under "Applications" and open "Disk Utility"
/Applications/Utilities/DiskUtility.app
4) Once you have opened "Disk Utility", click on your new drive on the left hand side and then click on the "Erase" tab on the right.
5) From the "Volume Format:" Field select "MS-DOS (FAT)"
6) Name the Drive and Hit the "Erase" button.
7) You will be prompted with a warning message "Erasing a disk will destroy all information on the volume of the disk." Click Erase. You will see a progress bar, once it is finished you will see your new drive on your desktop. You have completed formatting your drive for use on both the Mac and PC.
By Brian Bellman
1) The first step to formatting your drive for Mac and PC format is to connect both the data and power cable to a Mac. This holds true for both internal and external hard drives. In addition will also need to turn on the power switch if you are using an external drive.
2) If your drive has never been formatted, you should get this pop-up message. Click initialize and it will bring you to "Disk Utility" and Skip to step 4. If you didn't get this pop up, continue to step 3.
3) Once the drive has spun up, navigate to and open the "Disk Utilities" under "Applications" and open "Disk Utility"
/Applications/Utilities/DiskUtility.app
4) Once you have opened "Disk Utility", click on your new drive on the left hand side and then click on the "Erase" tab on the right.
5) From the "Volume Format:" Field select "MS-DOS (FAT)"
6) Name the Drive and Hit the "Erase" button.
7) You will be prompted with a warning message "Erasing a disk will destroy all information on the volume of the disk." Click Erase. You will see a progress bar, once it is finished you will see your new drive on your desktop. You have completed formatting your drive for use on both the Mac and PC.
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