Home > Questions

How to format Toshiba hard drive for Mac, help!

I bought a Toshiba Canvio Basics hard drive, but it says that it needs to be formatted for Mac. (I hate these things... Why can't they make a HD that is already formatted for a Mac and just needs to be plugged in??) Anyways, how do I do that? I found some articles on the net, but it doesn't work for me... First of all the Toshiba is not shown on my desktop when I plug it in... Second, when I go to disc utility it only shows my internal HD and no Toshiba...Please help! Thanks.

Best Answered by

iBoysoft author Amanda Wong

Amanda Wong

Answered on Wednesday, May 31, 2023

If you bought a new external hard drive and it needs to format so that you can use it as usual. You can make it with Mac's Disk Utility, the default disk manager on macOS.

Actually, some external hard drives are formatted before entering the market. If you want such an external hard drive, you should ask for clarification at the time of purchase given that most external hard drives are designed for Windows, that's why the new Toshiba drive is not compatible with Mac.

Besides, the new drive could also be uninitialized, a state of being not reading to use. Whatever, you will need to format the Toshiba drive on Mac via Disk Utility. Here's how:

  1. Open Disk Utility from Finder > Applications > Utilities.
  2. Connected the Toshiba drive to your Mac.
  3. Click View and choose Show All Devices.
  4. Select the Toshiba drive and click Erase.
  5. Enter a name for the drive.
  6. Select APFS for Mac running macOS High Sierra and later, and Mac OS Extended for Sierra and earlier. Select FAT or exFAT if you want to use the drive for both Mac and Windows PC.
  7. Click Erase to format the drive.

Now, you can use the Toshiba drive on Mac without a problem, if the external hard drive still doesn't show up on the Desktop or in Finder, head to Finder's settings to change the preferences under General and Sidebar and tick the box of External Disks.

People Also Ask

Read More Questions

Read More Advice From iBoysoft's Computer Experts

fix external hard drive not showing up on Mac

External Hard Drive Not Showing up on Mac, How to Fix It?

All about fixing the external hard drive not showing up on Mac and recovering lost data from unrecognized external hard drives on macOS Ventura/Monterey/Big Sur/Catalina/Mojave/High Sierra.

Mac Data Recovery Tips

format external hard drive on Mac

How to Format an External Hard Drive on Mac?

Don't know how to format an external hard drive on a Mac? This article tells you how to erase external hard drives on Mac in the best format.

How to Tips

How to use NTFS drive on Mac

[Best 4 Ways] How to Use NTFS Drive on Mac in 2022

This article tells you how to use NTFS drive on Mac with 4 comprehensive and proven ways, and helps you read and write to your NTFS drive on Mac.

NTFS for Mac Tips