Formatting Hdd And Windows For Windows 10 Or Partition

You might want a drive that works with Macs and PCs, or maybe you want to partition it, which will split it up into two different formats.

Formatting Hdd And Windows For Windows 10 Or Partition

Heres how to format an external hard drive for Windows 10 or partition it.

So if your external hard drive already has important files on it, make sure to back them up before proceeding.

If your external hard drive is working, your computer will automatically detect it, and the drive will appear under Devices and Drives next to your internal drives in the This PC window.

By default, Windows computers will choose NTFS (New Technology File System) for you because thats the native Microsoft filing system.

But if you want the external hard drive to also work on a Mac, you should choose exFAT.

Depending on the size of the drive, and if there are files to be deleted in it, this can take a few to several minutes to finish.

This means youre splitting the drive into two formats, one for Mac and one for PC.

If this option is not available to you, reformat the drive to NTFS and try again.

If you want to use the rest of the space, enter the maximum disk space indicated above it.

Letters that have already been assigned to other drives will not be on this list, so dont worry if there are missing letters.

Windows will choose NTFS for you because thats Microsofts native filing system.

If a pop-up appears telling you to format the disk, click Format Disk.

After that, the newly formatted disk will open automatically.

If you want to know how to format a hard drive for Mac, check out our previous article here.

Formatting Hdd For Mac And Windows