Guide to initialize and format external hard drive on Windows PC Tips: To prevent data loss during formatting, make sure you haven't saved important files on the drive. Then, you need to choose the best file system for your external hard drive when erase it. To format external hard drives on Mac, you'll need the built-in disk management tool called Disk Utility.
How to format external hard drive for Mac? More importantly, you will know how to format external hard drive for Mac and PC and make external hard drive compatible with Mac and Windows PC without formatting. Then, after reading this post, you'll know what is the best format for your external hard drive and what is the best format for your Mac and PC. Though the default hard disk file system (also known as format) of Windows and Mac are different, there should be some ways to format an external hard drive for Mac and PC.