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How to format or reformat an external drive
October 25, 2023 Yves Lefebvre

How to format or reformat an external drive

If you are working with Windows and your new external drive is not detected, you need to reformat and optimize your drive’s compatibility with NTFS or ExFat Formatting. If the external drive is not new and has content in it but cannot be viewed, the drive is thus formatted for MAC only. You need a Mac to read it (data). BEWARE!!! If you reformat, you will erase all content/data.

How to Reformat on PC:

  1. Plug drive into computer.
  2. Open the File Explorer.

    Windows Task Bar with File Explorer circled
  3. Right click on the drive, and select Format.

    File Explorer window with Format circled
  4. Select FAT32 or exFAT from the drop down box, and click on Start.

    Formal Removable Disk with exFAT and start highlighted
  5. Follow the prompts.

How to Reformat on Mac:

  1. Open Disk Utility. The program icon looks like this:

    Disk Utility icon
  2. Select the external drive you want to format on the left hand side of the window.

    Disk Utility - select NO NAME circled
  3. Click the Erase button.

    Disk Utility - Erase circled
  4. Select FAT32 or exFAT format from the drop down menu.

    Disk Utility - ExFAT circled
  5. Click Erase and follow the prompts.

    Disk Utility - Erase circled

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