Can a Terabyte for a Computer Be Wiped Clean and Reuse Again

If yous buy an external drive—such every bit i of our recommended portable or desktop hard drives, portable solid-country drives, or USB 3.0 flash drives—you may need to reformat it to work with your operating organisation of choice, since different operating systems use different file systems to procedure data.

Although information technology'due south true that any bulldoze is compatible with both Windows and macOS once it's formatted properly, nigh drives come preformatted for Windows out of the box. But if y'all purchase a drive secondhand or if yous program to switch betwixt operating systems, you may withal demand to reformat it for use on Windows. If y'all use a Mac, the likelihood that you'll have to reformat the bulldoze is college. But fear not: The process is simple.

Choosing the right format for your bulldoze

Non-Linux computers tin use 5 main file systems: NTFS, HFS+, APFS, exFAT, and FAT32. Then how do those five file systems differ, and which one is right for you?

If yous plan to apply your drive for File History backups on a Windows computer, and you use merely Windows, stick to NTFS (New Engineering science File System). NTFS is native to Windows, and about hard drives are preformatted for this file system. macOS and Linux computers, however, can merely read files stored on such a drive; they cannot write to an NTFS-formatted drive.
If y'all plan to use an external hard drive (HDD), which costs less than an external solid-state drive (SSD) for more storage capacity just has the downside of slower transfer times and a far less durable design, you should utilise HFS+ (Hierarchical File System Plus, too called macOS Extended Journaled). Typically, if an external drive is physically larger than a deck or cards or has more than than 2 TB of storage, it's an HDD. (Check the product list to confirm; the drive will be labeled every bit an HDD or SSD.)
If y'all're using an SSD, there is a newer format called APFS (Apple File System), which is intended for born drives and external SSDs for newer Macs.
If you need to transfer files betwixt Mac and Windows computers, exFAT (extended File Allocation Tabular array) is the best option, although it doesn't work with File History or Fourth dimension Machine. exFAT works on both macOS and Windows, and information technology doesn't have the 4 GB file-size limit that FAT32 does, so you'll be able to dorsum up movies and other big files.
FAT32 (File Allocation Tabular array 32) is an older file system that both Windows machines and Macs withal back up. FAT32 was introduced in Windows 95 in 1997, merely information technology remains useful considering nearly every organization tin can piece of work with information technology. Unfortunately, FAT32 isn't any adept for storing movies and other large files, as it has a size limit of 4 GB per file, then your files have to be pocket-size.
If you want to use a single external difficult drive for both File History and Time Machine backups, you tin partition it so that some of the bulldoze is NTFS and the remainder is HFS+. Offset, partition the drive using Disk Utility in macOS and (using our walk-through below) format i part as HFS+ and the other as FAT32; then, plug the drive into your Windows PC and reformat the FAT32 portion as NTFS. Now your figurer will meet your single physical drive as multiple, smaller drives. Brand sure to leave plenty of room for future backups on both partitions. Information technology'due south possible, but tricky, to change the size of a partitioning after on in Windows and macOS; we recommend backing up the data on your drive before attempting the job, since it's possible to wipe your drive doing this.

At present that you've figured out the differences, it's time to reformat your difficult drive. Reformatting deletes all data stored on the drive, so if you lot know y'all'll need to reformat a bulldoze, do so as presently as y'all buy it. If you already have data stored on the drive, back that information upwardly elsewhere, reformat the drive, and then put your data back on the drive.

Reformatting your drive in Windows

A screenshot of the disk formatting menu for an external drive plugged into a Windows computer.

To reformat a bulldoze on Windows:

Plug in the drive and open up Windows Explorer.
Right-click the bulldoze and choose Format from the drop-downward card.
Select the file system you desire, give your drive a proper noun under "Volume characterization," and brand sure the Quick Format box is checked.
Click Start , and the estimator will reformat your drive.

When y'all've completed the process, yous tin open the external drive in Windows Explorer.

Reformatting your drive in macOS

A screenshot of the Disk Utility software on a Mac computer, open on the disk formatting menu.

To reformat your drive for macOS:

Plug in the bulldoze and open the Finder.
Click the Go card, select Utilities from the driblet-down menu, and open Deejay Utility.
Choose your external bulldoze from the left sidebar and click Erase .
Give your drive a name and select the file system yous want from the Format drop-downward: macOS Extended (Journaled) for an HDD or APFS for an SSD.
Keep the Scheme set to GUID Sectionalisation Map .
Click Erase , and the organisation will reformat your bulldoze.

When you've completed the procedure, you tin open the external drive past clicking the drive's icon on the desktop of your Mac.

If yous formatted your hard bulldoze using HFS+, you lot'll need to add some other partition so that you can both store files and use Time Machine. The partition you simply created volition shop files; this 2d division will be dedicated to Time Machine.

Select your hard drive from the left sidebar.
Click Partition on the pinnacle of the window.
Select macOS Extended (Journaled) .
Enter a name and then prepare how much of your hard drive you desire to dedicate to your Time Machine sectionalisation. (A Time Machine partitioning should be at least twice the size of the files you want to back up.)
Click Utilise .

If you lot want to apply an external APFS-formatted drive for both Fourth dimension Automobile backups and file storage, you'll need to complete a few simple additional steps in Disk Utility to create a new storage volume.

Select the external bulldoze in the left sidebar.
At the top of the window, click the minor plus sign over the Volume label.
Name your file-storage book (or Time Machine volume; information technology doesn't thing which is which at this betoken).
Go on APFS selected.
Click Add .

A screenshot of the Mac Time Machine software open on the storage space partition menu for an external hard drive. — If you brand two APFS-formatted partitions on an external bulldoze, y'all can use one for Fourth dimension Machine backups and the other for normal storage without having to make them stock-still capacities.

When you lot fix upwardly Time Auto, you'll now encounter the ii storage volumes you created on the external drive. Choose the ane you intended for Time Auto, and the other volition then become usable for saving files like any other external drive. If you're using 2 APFS volumes, they will automatically take up equally much room on the external drive as they require, so y'all ordinarily have no need to set whatsoever partition or volume sizes.

Note: Using the formatting options higher up on a drive that has data on it may not be enough to forbid some of that information from beingness recoverable. If you're formatting a bulldoze in order to give it abroad, sell it, or recycle it, make sure to securely erase the drive to prevent data recovery.

This article was edited past Signe Brewster and Marking Smirniotis.