Guid table formatting for intel mac start up disks. During the formatting process, the system erases and writes over old data, preventing old information from being accessed through data recovery programs. One of the major limitations of this format is that its not able to write files larger than 4gb, which can be quite a setback. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. The easiest way to erase the hard drive is to boot the macbook from another boot disk, cddvd or usb drive and then use disk utility to format or erase the other drive. Use disc utility to erase format a hard disc, ssd, flash drive or other storage device. Jan 15, 2020 learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive.
Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. First, back up the data on the macformatted drive if you have anything important on it. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. When the driver is installed, you format your ntfs disks with disk utility where you select windows nt filesystem as the format. Click on the view button in the upper lefthand side, change to show all devices. Click the icon for your external hard drive in the sidebar on the left. I explain how to format a storage device for your mac. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. It is not as complicated to reformat an external hard drive for use with mac os x as it may look.
Even though most people associate formatting with system installation, there are many other reasons why you might want to format your hard drive. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your mac. There are all kinds of reasons why you might want to format a storage drive for your mac from cleaning it up for a fresh install of os x to creating an encrypted drive for work. Mar 25, 2018 where and with working to reformat my new hd, i have been directed to base support and then knowledge base answer id 3865. However, when we connect a ntfs formatted disk to mac, mac os x doesnt allow us to write files to the drive neither edit files, though it can read a ntfs drive. Format external hard drive for mac with disk utility. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. Select the nonindented entry for your seagate drive.
This mode is only available on apple computers made after 2009 that were running os x lion or later. How do i reformat my hard drive in os x mountain lion. As it is mentioned above, after formatting a hard drive, all data on the hard drive will be erased. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. Launch disk utility and then click to select the external hard drive listed on the left. Sep 06, 2019 the simplest way to install macos or os x on a new hard drive is by using internet recovery mode. There is only one rule that you need to keep in mind when reformatting a drive. You just have to reformat your hard drive and reinstall a clean version of the. Upon restart, could not get the os to boot, so i started from dvd to reformat the hard drive. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. Some mac users may require the ability to erase a disk or erase a hard drive from the command line on mac os, a task which is typically performed through the disk utility application from the gui. Somehow i was lead to believe that a 2009 mini would run high sierra so i formatted the new drive as apfs and installed 10. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac.
Open the disk utility app on your mac using one of the following methods, depending. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. You cannot reformat a volume when you are currently booted to an operating system on. When the installer screen appears, do not click continue. Is there a more basic way to reformat this particular external drive, to. Dec 26, 2017 weve shown you how to securely wipe a hard drive with your mac, and doing so in recovery mode isnt really different from doing so within macos. Both mac os x and windows allow users to format their hard drives using builtin utilities. The hard drive failed wont even spin up so i bought another. Before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it using disk utility. The simplest way to install macos or os x on a new hard drive is by using internet recovery mode. Format external hard drive for mac reformat external hard. You are ready to go in a few quick measures, so you can transfer your backup data to the hard disk, keep your documents safe so give you peace of mind. Erasing a disk or volume permanently deletes all of its files.
Step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. If you decide to reformat or partition your drive at a later date, use disk utility supplied with the mac os x operating system. May 26, 2017 i explain how to format a storage device for your mac. This insures that you will have a compatible hard drive with. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. If your mac is from before 2009 or never had os x lion, click here to jump to the next section. Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. How to properly formatreformat a hard drive for mac os a hard drive or hard disk can be used in any type of computer, whether for pc windows or for mac. Fortunately disk utility, built right into macos, can help. You should create multiple partitions on your external hard drive, in order to have enhanced file organization. How can i reformat a hard drive from apfs apple community. In this video we look at the process of formatting a hard drive, flash drive, or ssd on an apple computer. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac.
Before formatting a drive, save any important data it contains. Jan 02, 2016 msdos fat is the most popular format amongst external hard disks, as its both readable and writable by nearly all operating systems, windows and os x included. Quit disk utility and continue with a reinstall of os x mountain lion. If you do not see the scheme option, then you have selected the volume and not the drive. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. From the volume format menu, choose mac os extended journaled.
The mac os x extended volume format is optimal for macs. This is very easy to carry out, and only requires a few moments of your time. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through. Select the volume format from the volume format popup. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc.
Quit out of the disk utility app, and this time choose reinstall os x and continue. How hard is it to reformat the hard drive on a mac computer. If you have a mac lying around, you can plug the drive into a mac and back up the files. How to properly formatreformat a hard drive for mac os. In this video i cover how to format internal and external hard drives, solid state drives, thumb drives, and sd cards with disk utility in mac os x 10. Format external hard drive for mac reformat external. For example, here wed type select disk 2 finally, type clean and press enter. Msdos fat is the most popular format amongst external hard disks, as its both readable and writable by nearly all operating systems, windows and os x included.
This is the new file system that apple bought to macs with high sierra and it will be. Aug 30, 2016 how to erase a disk from command line in mac os x aug 30, 2016 47 comments some mac users may require the ability to erase a disk or erase a hard drive from the command line on mac os, a task which is typically performed through the disk utility application from the gui. Make your mac feel like new again with a fresh install of os x. Depending on how you started recovery mode, you may be presented with the option to start disk utility right away, as seen above. If you plan on using the hard drive with a mac booting from os 9, or believe that this might be a possibility, then select the checkbox to install the mac. Where and with working to reformat my new hd, i have been directed to base support and then knowledge base answer id 3865. For instructions on how to format a drive in mac os 10. In order to get started and partition your external hard drive, follow the simple instructions below. Be sure to doublecheck this you could accidentally wipe the wrong drive if you select the wrong disk here. May 15, 2016 in this video i cover how to format internal and external hard drives, solid state drives, thumb drives, and sd cards with disk utility in mac os x 10. Click the erase tab, select your hard drive, and then erase the disk.
Once your data is backed up and youve signed out of everything that might connect your old mac to your personal information, you can erase everything on it by reformatting the hard drive. May 01, 2020 how to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Install mac os 9 disk driver there is an option to install mac os 9 disk drivers. This command erases the entire selected disk, including all its files and partitions whether. Click the erase tab, choose a volume format from the dropdown menu and then type a name for the drive. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. For apple mac users, the easier way to format usb flash drive to fat32 is using the disk utility. This process wont actually convert the file system.
Reformatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting. Unformat mac hard drive recover formatted hard drive on mac. Heres how to reformat a hard drive with mac os x 10. Follow the instructions that appear on screen, license agreements and all, and choose the hard drive to use in.
From this you can select one of two options in order to restore the operating system. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. How hard is it to reformat the hard drive on a mac. Here are two ways offered and you can choose on based on your own situation. Click on apple id on macos mojave and older, click on icloud.
How to wipe your mac and reinstall macos from scratch. After realizing that you can reformat wd hard drive to fat32 or exfat to make it compatible with mac os x and still can be used under windows, it is time to check out how to reformat wd hard drive for mac and pc in windows successfully. If you are going to resell, donate or give away your mac hard driveexternal hard drive, super eraser for mac is your best choice to format the hard drive and permanently destroy all data. Immediately after the startup sound, press and hold the c key to start up from cd. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. How to format or partition an external hard drive on mac. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it.
To open disk utility, double click on your internal hard drive mounted on the. The zero out data option is the fastest formatting option and. Os x can default read ntfs disks, but not write to them. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. What disk utility looks like in lion through yosemite. Then proceed to highlight your computers hard drive. Dec 31, 2019 partition external hard drive on mac os x. Apr 16, 2008 heres how to reformat a hard drive with mac os x 10.
Select the drive you want to reformat in the lefthand sidebar and go to the erase tab. Before you can use it though, you need to properly format or reformat a hard drive so that it will become compatible or readable with the operating system that you are using. If you selected the drive name instead of its description you wont see the scheme option. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. If you only want to remove the files in your user account you could just create a new user account and then delete the old user account. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. How to format a disk to ntfs using mac os x ask different. Where, i am seeing instruction links, for mac operating system, for as far back as mac os x 10. This procedure will destroy any data currently on the drive. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps. A hard drive or hard disk can be used in any type of computer, whether for pc windows or for mac. Instead, well just be wiping the drive and starting over from scratch. Formatting a hard drive will take a while and wait for it patiently.
Select mac os extended if you plan to use the drive as a media capture scratch drive. 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. With advanced data erasure technology, super eraser for mac can easily format the hard drive under macos 10. Set the format to mac os extended journaled and the scheme to guid partition map. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. I have tried mac os extended, mac os extended journaled, ms dos file system and unix file. So, while it takes longer to erase files, the security of the hard drive is increased. The command line approach to disk erasure in macos is a bit different and it requires precise syntax to insure that you are erasing the proper disk, making this method of erasing any disk only. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. How to install macos or os x on a new hard drive for your mac. Weve shown you how to securely wipe a hard drive with your mac, and doing so in recovery mode isnt really different from doing so within macos. Erase and reformat a storage device in disk utility on mac apple. The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the.
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