How To Find The External Hard Drive On Mac

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Empathise how to add an external hard drive to your computer. While some external hard drives will be usable immediately after plugging them into an bachelor USB port on your computer, well-nigh external hard drives need to be formatted to fit your reckoner's specific file system earlier y'all can use them.
- Formatting is a quick process that you can perform from within your reckoner'due south congenital-in settings.
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Cheque your figurer's connections. Almost computers have USB three.0 ports—which resemble rectangular holes in the side or front of your computer's housing—but modern Macs and some Microsoft-produced Windows computers utilize USB-C connections instead:
- USB 3.0 — A rectangular port found on the majority of computers produced before 2017. Almost external difficult drives utilise USB 3.0 connectors.
- USB-C — An oval port found on MacBooks and some Microsoft laptops. If you lot take a USB-C port, you'll either need to buy a USB 3.0 to USB-C adapter or detect an external hard drive that includes a USB-C cable.
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Consider your space requirements. External difficult drives usually come up in flavors of anything from 512 gigabytes to several terabytes in size. Make sure that you buy a hard drive that has more space than you demand.
- Generally speaking, it isn't much more expensive to buy a terabyte (1024 gigabytes) hard bulldoze than it is to buy a 512 gigabyte hard drive. Storage also tends to get cheaper the more than of it you buy (due east.k., a 2 terabyte hard drive will cost significantly less than two one terabyte hard drives).
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Cull between a traditional hard drive and a solid-state drive. Solid-state drives (SSDs) are significantly faster than traditional external difficult drives, simply they're also much more than expensive. If yous're planning on running an operating system or editing software from the external drive, though, an SSD volition be better for responsiveness than a traditional hard bulldoze.
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Know which brands to wait for. Storage is cheap, but you'll still want to make sure that you're ownership from a reputable manufacturer; don't pay more for a difficult drive with a fancy case merely a low-quality bulldoze inside. If you're bankroll up something important, you want to make sure information technology's going to work!^[one] Popular external difficult bulldoze manufacturers include the post-obit:^[ii]
- Western Digital
- Adata
- Buffalo
- Seagate
- Samsung
- Likewise check that the hard drive company will embrace information recovery afterwards down the road if there are issues with the difficult bulldoze.^[iii]
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Buy an external hard drive that fits your requirements. Once you lot've purchased your drive from a tech department shop or an online outlet, you can proceed with installing it on your Windows computer or Mac.

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Observe your computer's USB port. You lot'll commonly observe your estimator's USB 3.0 or USB-C on one of the sides of the housing, though desktop users may notice the USB port(s) on the front or side of the tower.
- Make sure that you're plugging the external difficult drive into a USB port on your computer itself, not a hub or a keyboard USB port.
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Plug one stop of the external hard drive's cable into the USB port. If the cable uses a USB 3.0 connection, it should merely fit one way. USB-C connections can be inserted in any way that fits the port.
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Plug the other cease of the cablevision into your external hard drive. The other finish of the cable volition usually be a proprietary connection that only fits one port on the external hard drive.
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Open up File Explorer . Click the binder-shaped File Explorer app icon at the bottom of your computer'southward screen to practise so.
- If you don't see the File Explorer app icon, press ⊞ Win+E to open File Explorer.
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Click This PC . Information technology'southward on the left side of the window, though yous may take to roll up or down in the left-manus pane to find it.
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Right-click your external hard bulldoze's proper name. You should see information technology below the "Devices and drives" heading. A drop-downwardly menu will appear.
- If you don't see annihilation listed below the "Devices and drives" heading, double-click the heading to expand it.
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Click Format . It's in the drib-down menu. The Format window will open.
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Click the "File system" drop-downward box. This is in the centre of the Format window. A drop-downwardly menu will appear.
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Select a file system. Click one of the post-obit options in the drop-down menu:
- NTFS — Select this choice if you only desire to use the hard bulldoze with Windows computers.
- exFAT — Select this choice if you want to use the hard drive with both Windows and Mac computers.
- FAT32 — Select this option if y'all want to use the difficult drive with computers and non-computer sources alike. Some Linux computers or installations will require a FAT32 bulldoze.
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Click Start . It's at the bottom of the window. Doing so will prompt Windows to begin formatting your external drive.
- If the drive belonged to some other person before you lot, consider first unchecking the "Quick format" box. This will cause the formatting process to take significantly longer, merely it will also overwrite completely the hard bulldoze.
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Click OK when prompted. This is at the lesser of the window. Doing and then closes the Format window; your drive should at present exist formatted.

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Find your Mac'due south USB port. You lot'll usually find the USB port on the sides of the housing (MacBook) or on the back of the monitor (iMac).
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Plug ane stop of the external difficult drive'due south cablevision into the USB port. If the cablevision uses a USB 3.0 connexion, information technology should only fit one style. USB-C connections can exist inserted in any way that fits the port.
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Plug the other end of the cable into your external hard drive. The other finish of the cable volition unremarkably be a proprietary connection that simply fits ane port on the external hard bulldoze.
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Open Spotlight . Click the Spotlight icon, which resembles a magnifying drinking glass, in the peak-right corner of the screen.
- When you plug in an external drive, it will oftentimes evidence upwardly in Finder on the left hand side, so y'all don't even have to try and locate it on the desktop.^[iv]
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Open up Deejay Utility. Type in disk utility, so double-click Disk Utility when information technology appears in the search results. The Disk Utility window will pop up.
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Select your external hard drive. In the upper-left side of the Disk Utility window, click your external hard drive's proper name.
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Click Erase . It's a tab at the elevation of the Deejay Utility window. Doing so prompts a pop-up window.
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Click the "Format" drib-down box. You'll find information technology in the middle of the pop-upward window.
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Select a file system. Click ane of the following options:
- Mac OS Extended (Journaled) — Select this option if you just want to use your external hard drive with a Mac estimator.
- ExFAT — Select this option if y'all want to use your external hard bulldoze with both Windows and Mac computers.
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Click Erase . It's at the lesser of the window.
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Click Erase when prompted. Doing so will prompt your Mac to begin formatting your drive. In one case the formatting process is complete, you lot can proceed with using your drive as yous please.

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Add New Question

Question

Can I run a separate operating organisation on it?

Yes. You could put Windows, Linux or iOS onto an external drive. You tin can put anything on information technology.
Question

Do I demand to overwrite my external hard drive to brand a more than current image of my C: drive?

Yes. Alternatively, yous could endeavor to specifically overwrite certain parts of the external hard drive merely.
Question

Will I know if my new difficult drive needs to exist formatted?

They are generally pre-formatted. Y'all can either try copying a file to it or double-clicking on the drive in My Computer; if the drive needs to exist formatted, your OS will tell you.

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Many non-computer items that allow for external hard drives (eastward.g., consoles) will offer formatting from within the Storage department of the Settings carte du jour.

Not all file systems are uniform with other computers. If you utilise a proprietary file organisation (due east.thousand., NTFS on a Windows computer), attempting to add the external difficult drive to a not-Windows computer will issue in an error.
Formatting a drive will erase its contents.