How to Format an External Drive for Mac Compatibility. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through all connections, be they USB, Firewire, or Thunderbolt. Formatting a drive will erase all data and partitions on the disk: Connect the hard drive or USB key to the Mac. Sony xqd xqd-sb1 card reader driver for mac. How to format an external hard drive for use with a Mac Most external hard drives come pre-formatted for using with a PC/Windows computer. If you have a Mac you should format the drive for Mac immediately, before you start using it. This is really easy to do and will take about a minute. Still I’ve found so many of my customers didn’t do it – or didnt even know they should have performed this important step (and just maybe might save from drive problems and even potentially a lot of money spent on expensive data recovery in the future*.) We’ll cover why formatting for Mac is important later, so for now just follow these simple steps to prepare a new hard drive to use with your Mac (and prevent some potential headaches in future). ![]() HOW TO FORMAT A NEW EXTERNAL DRIVE FOR USE WITH A MAC • • Connect the hard drive to your Mac, with the supplied cable to a your Mac (USB port most likely) If your drive has a separate power supply plug that in too of course. • • Launch Disk Utility (Located in APPLICATIONS> UTILITIES). • • Locate the drive name from the left hand side of Disk Utility and click on it. If its a 2TB Seagate drive, it might say “SEAGATE 2TB” or something like that) Here you can name the drive what you would like (ie, Backup) • For type of format: OS X EXTENDED JOURNALED • Click on the “Erase” tab across the top. You will be warned that “Formatting a drive will erase everything on the drive”. In our case we know its a new drive and you have nothing you care about on it yet, so you can be sure you won’t lose data. Click OK, wait a 30 seconds or so while its working, and when its done, you are ready with a nice Mac Formatted Hard Drive. Just be sure not to select your System Drive (likely says, Macintosh HD!) The reason to prepare a PC formatted hard drive to use with a Mac is pretty simple but not obvious to many people. It will work best that way. If you just purchased an external hard drive that you will use exclusively with your Mac, its best to prepare it for Mac OS’s file system. Between PC, Linux, and Mac there are a number of different file systems. Windows uses NTFS and FAT. Mac uses HFS+. PC’s can not read Mac drives. However Mac’s (being better!) – CAN read most PC drives and even write to them. But not Vice-Versa. PC’s can’t read Mac drives normally. Still though we should format for Mac if you are ONLY using it with the Mac. Your files will be safer and more stable this way (with Apple’s file system). While a PC Disk will theoretically work on your Mac, by not making it a Mac HFS+ formatted drive there is a increased possibility of having file problems at some point down the road. If you will be swapping the external drive on a Mac AND also a PC — well thats different, you would need to use PC formatting, so keep the drive As-Is. PC’s can’t read a Mac drive. I’ve had a number of clients who have used a drive for years with their Mac, didn’t realize that the drive was a “Windows drive”, and just kept putting files on it like that. One day perhaps they don’t properly disconnect it and bang – suddenly the drive is not being recognized and now they need to rescue data off it, and possibly need Data Recovery, which tends to be either of two things: kinda expensive or very expensive. Long story short, just prep the drive following the steps above so you are never in that boat. Also see (it doesn’t matter that this says “for Aperture”. Its universal). You can buy a drive that says specifically “For Mac” but a) they always charge more for the same drive and b) this is really not needed as the steps to format are as you see really easy and simple. Be sure to think about this before you start putting files on your new drive. If you intend to use the drive as a TIME MACHINE drive, as soon as you plug a new drive into your computer Mac OS will ask you “do you want to make this a Time Machine drive”. If you want this and answer yes, it will format it for mac automatically. The above formatting instruction is for when you just want to use an external drive as “extra storage” for files. I do recommend every Mac user have a Time Machine backup drive for their computer. Prevent data loss and backup your computer! As far as Mac photo editing software goes, you should be able to find a basic editing program for under $100, typically starting for as little as $30. Paying more than $100 will often land you a professional editing program with additional editing tools and presets compared to the basic versions. Software for mac to convert pdf to word. With the best photo editing software for Mac 2018, it is actually possible to create perfect photos. Choose one of the photo editors above and you will not be disappointed. All of them come with free trial periods whose lengths differ from one to the other. The Mac is still the best device for serious photo editing, so you need some serious photo editing apps to make an impact. The built-in Photos app on Mac offers several useful photo editing tools. You can crop, adjust lighting and color, set the white balance, add filters, remove unwanted blemishes, and a few more things. Even if you can't afford to purchase photo editing software, you can still find free software to create and edit images. 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