Format a hard drive for mac

In this video we look at the process of formatting a hard drive, flash drive, or ssd on an apple computer. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Furthermore, youll dive into what best format you can use for your mac hard drive and what causes you to format a hard drive. This insures that you will have a compatible hard drive with. But dont forget to back up your important data in the drive into a safe place before formatting. This is a great thing to do when you first purchase a drive or when you are looking to. Formatting a hard drive or ssd is the same as buying a new hard drive since the process erases all the data in one fell swoop.

Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. So, whether you wish to format the internal hard drive, external drive, or a usb flash drive, the procedure is the same for all. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. If it does not you will need to rightclick and delete the volume first. As earlier stated, you need to first back up your usb drive before formatting the drive as you may not be able to recover the contents again. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. For some mac models, the partition option would be greyed out in disk utility.

The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. In this article, we will introduce 5 disk formatting tools for windows and mac to help you securely format hard drive usb flash drive or memory card on a pc or a mac. If the external hard drive is pre formatted for mac, disk management will list 3 partitions and you will not be able to delete the health efi system partition because its a protected partition. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and. Select your macs hard drive in the lefthand column, to reveal more options, then select the partition button. Select your startup drive on the left typically macintosh hd, switch to the erase tab and choose mac os. Apr 30, 2020 to format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below.

Verify that the correct hard drive is selected in the left column. Change the partition layout from current to 1 partition. Use the disk utility application to erase the drive. Heres how to format a drive if you are planning to use it with a mac. Formatting is a very simple procedure which is operated in a similar way for all sorts of storage media. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple. Then select disk utility from the utilities window and click continue.

It stands for extended file allocation table and is developed by microsoft. Before a hard drive can read or write data, it must first be formatted, or erased and reconfigured. The mac os x extended volume format is optimal for macs. The operating system has an inbuilt tool, which is known as disk utility. Aug 30, 2019 its easy to format an external hard drive. The sidebar now shows your disks devices and any containers. How to format a hard drive on windows or mac avast. In the partition information box, enter an appropriate name for. External hard drives use either spinning disks or solid memory to save your files. Here are the steps to partition an external hard drive for mac and windows pc, which is a little tricky. Choose view show all devices from the menu bar in disk utility. Uses the mac format journaled hfs plus to protect the integrity of the hierarchical file system. Using it, you can erase a hard drive, create new partitions, and even repair your disk as well.

Though, here are some of the most commonly used and compatible formats. Heres how to format a drive using a mac including how to format a drive for windows and mac so the contents can be read on both platforms, and what format to use for time machine. Mac os x installation basics sata drive seagate support us. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. It is the fastest way to format an external hard drivedevice under mac os.

For most reasons to erase, including when reformatting a disk or selling, giving away, or trading in your mac, you should erase your entire disk. It will likely already be formatted, either for use. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. Use the security options to format a previously used hard drive.

Turn on your macintosh notebook computer or desktop system and login. Formatting a drive will erase all data and partitions on the disk. Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software. In this post, youll learn how to format an external drive to a mac compatible file system and recover files from a reformatted hard drive. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac.

Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it using disk utility. Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. Once disk utility is open youll see the list of available drives on the left. On mac computers, use the finder app to browse and manage files on your computer and external hard drives. Since formatting an external hard drive will erase all of its files if you wish to save them you must back them up copy. May 29, 2018 to format external drive to file system compatible with mac and pc, connect the drive to your computer and follow the detailed steps given below take formatting hard drive to exfat in windows 7 for example. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac.

How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. When you format your hard drive, you can clean internal as well as. Click the erase tab, choose a volume format from the dropdown menu and then type a name for the drive.

Make your mac feel like new again with a fresh install of os x. Please remember that all data will be deleted from the drive, so make sure you have made a backup. Click go on the top tool bar, and select utilities. Which mac file system is best for an external drive.

How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. The instructions below are for windows 10, but other versions of windows from windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exfat for use with mac as. Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. Launch disk utility and then click to select the external hard drive listed on the left. Macclean360 is one of the best disk cleaning and management software for mac os. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. You can choose whatever name you want, and you should choose guid partition map for the. Once youve unboxed your new drive, connect it to your mac. So, if you want to use an external hard drive on both windows and mac, you need to format it to a filesystem that is compatible with windows pc and mac. Dec 29, 2015 the instructions below are for windows 10, but other versions of windows from windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exfat for use with mac as well.

When prompted, select the mac os extended journaled format. Step 2 on the left side of the utilities screen, find the name of the external hard drive you want to format and select it. Dont click the format disk button or windows will erase the contents of the driveclick cancel. In the partition layout dropdown menu, select 1 partition. Now, you can follow the steps to be highlighted below to get it successfully formatted. Choose one of the following mac os extended file system formats for compatibility with mac computers using macos 10.

Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Yet when you connect a macformatted drive to windows, youll be informed that you need to format the disk in drive x. How to format an external drive for mac launch disk utility. You can run it on your mac, and use it to format external hard drive or device on your mac. Here are two outstanding mac hard drive format software tools you can rely on.

Step 1 connect the external hard drive you want to format to your mac, then start the disk utility app that you can find under applications utilities. Click on the erase option from the four options available in the main window. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. Click on disk utility then continue first of all to get your macs hard drive wiped. If you desire encryption, then select mac os extended journaled, encrypted format instead. Select disk utility, and then choose the drive to format. How to format a hard drive in mac os x connecting external hard drives. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. Give the drive a descriptive name and leave the default settings. How to format a hard drive using the command prompt toms. They might be different if your mac has a different version. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac youtube. How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or flash. The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at.

Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. In the format partition section, select the file system. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. In this post, youll learn how to format a hard drive for your mac. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need.

Jun 02, 2017 in this video we look at the process of formatting a hard drive, flash drive, or ssd on an apple computer. If you are having a hard time using the command line, try the disk utility app, which is simpler and uses the gui. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. Select the external hard drive on the lefthand side.

Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. When the application is open, select the files you want to retrieve from the formatted drive. If you want to format a hard drive or usb flash drive on your computer, disk formatting tool is the best choice. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. Major formats of hard drive for mac and pc over the time, more than a hundred different kinds of file systems and formats have been developed for mac and pc hard drive.

Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. To format a hard drive on your mac, follow these instructions. Sep 26, 2018 need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Aug 30, 2016 you can, however, format a windows hard drive from a mac if you connect the windows hard drive to the mac and format it through disk utility, or the command line as described above. Just like windows, macos also gives us a seamless option to format hard drive for mac and pc. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility.

If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. You can then rightclick in the empty space and select new simple volume to create a partition and format it with the windows ntfs or fat32 file systems. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop. Connect the hard drive or usb key to the mac launch disk utility, located in applications utilities locate the drive name from the left hand side of disk utility and click on it. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. As a comprehensive data erasure tool, aweeraser for mac can help you securely and permanently format a hard drive or device under mac os. Remember that you should not install the application on the formatted drive. So, we suggest that its better to use a pc to partition an external hard drive for macos and windows. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another.