Formatted External Hard Drive (FAT32) Cannot Be Recognized in Windows 7, Help
I read that changing the drive's format to Fat32 would make it compatible with both Windows and Mac. I took hours to format the external hard drive using DOS on Windows. However, after formatting, it was just unrecognizable on Windows 7. How can I fix this problem?
Best Answered by
Roxanne· Answered on Sep 18, 2023
To make the external hard drive work on Mac and Windows computers, many users will format their drives to FAT32. However, there comes an issue: Windows cannot recognize the external hard drive formatted as FAT32. In this article, I will teach you solid solutions to help you out of this problem.
The FAT32 file system can only support files smaller than 4 GB and is outdated compared to other new formats. On the contrary, NTFS will give you a fresh start as the only file system that Windows systems support. Mac can not read and write on an NTFS external hard drive, but various tools can make the NTFS drive readable and writable.
Phase 1. Convert FAT32 Drive to NTFS on Windows
I recommend you run EaseUS Partition Master, an Omni-bearing partition expert, which can format the FAT32 external hard drive to NTFS effortlessly without losing data. Below is what you should do in detail:
Step 1. Click the download button to install EaseUS Partition Master on your computer.
Step 2. In Partition Manager, locate the FAT32 external hard drive, choose "Advanced," and click "NTFS to FAT."
Tap the "Proceed" option in the dialog box to continue.
Step 3. Click "Apply" to start the formatting process.
If you are interested in more information about converting FAT32 to NTFS, you may like the following article:
Read More: Convert NTFS to FAT32
Phase 2. Enable Read and Write on the NTFS External Hard Drive
After phase 1, your external hard drive is NTFS, which is unrecognizable on Mac. In this case, you can install EaseUS NTFS For Mac on your Mac, enabling you to access the NTFS drive in one click.
