Most external hard drives are designed to work for Windows computers. So if you're trying to connect an external hard drive to a Mac, you might have to format the drive before you can use it. Here's how to do that:
- How To Format Disk Mac Os
- How To Format A Disk Mac
- How To Format Disk Mac Laptop
- How To Format Disk Mac
- How To Format Dvd Disk
Navigate to Applications Utilities and choose Disk Utility. Select the drive you want to format from the left-hand navigation menu. Click Erase in the bottom right-hand corner. Select a file system to format the drive with. If you're not sure, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is a safe bet. Formatting an external drive for use with an Apple Mac. Before you can use a new (or old) drive with a Mac you will need to format it. There are several options which we will look at to help you choose the correct format for you and show you how to ready the disk for use. Step 1: Launch Disk Utility. Otherwise, you can format a USB drive for Time Machine by opening Disk Utility, selecting the drive you want to format, clicking Erase, and choosing the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. Once formatted, open System Preferences, click Time Machine, click Select Disk, and choose your USB drive from the available options. Jul 05, 2017 To format a drive on a Mac, you'll need the built-in Disk Utility application. Press Command+Space to open the Spotlight search dialog, type 'Disk Utility', and press 'Enter' to launch the app. You can also open a Finder window, select 'Applications' in the sidebar, and head to Utilities Disk Utility. NTFS: As the default file system in Windows, it can only read by Mac OS, writing to it is not available. Luckily, there are third-party tools to help you do so. Part 2: Format External Hard Drive for Mac with Disk Utility. Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it.
How to Format a Hard Drive for Mac
How To Format Disk Mac Os
Note: If you already used your external hard drive on a PC, be sure to back up any files on it. Formatting your drive will wipe out all the data in it.
- Connect an external hard drive to your Mac. Some external hard drives need to be plugged into an outlet to work.
- Go to Spotlight Search, type in Disk Utility, and click the first option. This will open the Disk Utility app, where you will find all the internal and external drives that are connected to your Mac.
- Then click View in the top-left corner of the window and select Show All Devices.
- Click the external hard drive you want to format. You can find this on the left-hand side of the screen under External Hard Drives. For the best result, select the disk (the highest option in the external tree).
- On the top menu, click Erase. This will open a small pop-up window with a warning that erasing the drive will delete all data stored on it and that it can't be undone.
- Choose a name, format, and scheme for your drive. You can choose whatever name you want, and you should choose GUID Partition Map for the Scheme in most cases. However, you can choose between the following formats:
- Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is the best option for most Mac users since it is compatible with all Macs.
- APFS (Apple File System) is only for newer Macs running macOS 10.13 or later.
- exFAT is compatible with both PC and Mac.
- MS-DOS (FAT) is also compatible with Mac and PC, but you can only transfer files smaller than 4GB.
- When you're done with providing the setup details, click Erase. This will immediately wipe the entire drive.
If you get an error message that states, 'Erase process has failed. Click done tocontinue,' don't freak out about it. This is an issue caused by Time Machine running on your externaldrive.
You will need to turn off Time Machine. You can do this by opening System Preferences and unchecking the boxnext to 'Back Up Automatically'.Then click Options beside 'ShowTime Machine in menu bar.' This will open another window. Click Cancel and it will turn off the Time Machine. Adobe reader update for mac 11 0 12.
After you turn off the Time Machine, redo steps 4 to 6.
How to Partition anExternal Hard Drive on Mac
If you have formattedyour drive, you can then partition the drive, which will splitthe drive into two formats. This is perfect for anyone who uses Macs and PCsand wants to transfer files between the different operating systems with anexternal drive. Here's how to do that:
- Open Disk Utility and select the drive that you want to partition. It is best to click View > Show All Devices so you can selectthe disk rather than a container.
- In the top menu, select Partition.
- Then click the plus sign at the bottom of the pie chart. Every time you click this plus sign, a new partition will becreated.
- Choose a name, format and size for each partition. You can also change the size of each of the partitions bydragging the white dots at the edge of the circle.
- Finally click Apply.
Why Partition a Hard Drive?
Partitioning an external hard drive allows youto have separate drives for Mac, PC, and any other operating system. Now youdon't have to go out and buy hard drives for every computer you use.
A partition also gives you a dedicated space foryour Time Machine back-up files or a bootable backup of your operating system.It also helps protect your data if your drive gets infected with malware, as itwould be contained within one of the partitions.
Now that you know how to format an external drive for Mac, check out our blog on the difference between an HDD and an SDD.
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Related Articles
In our guide today we will talk about how to format Macs if you want to reinstall Apple's operating system from scratch and maybe try to solve a problem that does not allow you to perform an operation.
Content index
Preliminary operations
Before discovering the precise instructions for formatting a Mac, you need to do a couple of preliminary steps. In particular, you need to backup your data to create a backup of the most important files and have a USB stick with at least 8 GB if you want to install macOS from a pendrive.
In this case we list below some guides to be taken into consideration for backing up your data and for choosing the most suitable memory stick if you did not.
How to format a Mac using Recovery
Now that you know how to format an external drive for Mac, check out our blog on the difference between an HDD and an SDD.
Was this article helpful?
Related Articles
In our guide today we will talk about how to format Macs if you want to reinstall Apple's operating system from scratch and maybe try to solve a problem that does not allow you to perform an operation.
Content index
Preliminary operations
Before discovering the precise instructions for formatting a Mac, you need to do a couple of preliminary steps. In particular, you need to backup your data to create a backup of the most important files and have a USB stick with at least 8 GB if you want to install macOS from a pendrive.
In this case we list below some guides to be taken into consideration for backing up your data and for choosing the most suitable memory stick if you did not.
How to format a Mac using Recovery
The first solution that we propose to restore your computer as new via formatting is to use the Recovery mode called Recovery. This includes a number of tools that allow you to do many things, including restoring backups using Time Machine.
That said, let's see the steps to follow:
How To Format A Disk Mac
- Turn off your Mac by choosing Turn Off from the menu that appears after pressing the Apple logo on the top left.
- After that, turn the Mac back on while holding down the Cmd + R keys until the Apple logo appears and a loading bar in the center.
- Now, click on the word Use English as the main language and go to the next window by pressing the arrow at the bottom.
- At this point, click on Disk Utility and click Continue to access the archive disk management tool.
- In the window that appears, click on the icon relative to the hard disk or that of the SSD present in the computer through the left sidebar and click on Format.
- In the next step, fill in the Name field, set Mac OS Extended (Journaled) in the drop down menu of Format and Partition Map (GUID) in the Schema drop down menu.
- Now, all you have to do is click on the Format button to start formatting the Mac drive. Please note that the steps may be slightly different from version to version but the procedure is quite intuitive.
- Once the formatting has been successfully completed, close the Disk Utility tool , choose the MacOS Reinstall option from the MacOS Utility window and click Continue to proceed with the download and installation of the latest version of Apple's operating system on the PC.
How to format a Mac using a USB stick
How To Format Disk Mac Laptop
In case you would prefer to use an alternative solution to the Recovery tool, then you can rely on a simple pendrive and the DiskMaker X program. It is a completely free application that allows you to create a bootable USB stick in order to install macOS in just a few simple steps.
How To Format Disk Mac
Let's see how to make the most of the program: Latest quicktime update mac.
How To Format Dvd Disk
- The first operation to do is to download the latest version of macOS (eg macOS Mojave ) from the Mac App Store to copy it later on the pendrive. To do this, simply type macOS in the Search field of the store and proceed with the download or go to the Purchased tab and choose Install that you find in correspondence with the previously downloaded operating system.
- At this point, log onto the official website of DiskMaker X using a simple browser (ie. Chrome, Firefox, or Safari ) and click Download DiskMaker X.
- After installing the free software, connect the USB stick to one of your Mac's USB ports and start the app.
- Now, from the window that appears, select the version of macOS downloaded from the Apple store just before to copy it to the pendrive.
- Then, click on the Use this copy button and confirm the formatting of the USB stick by pressing on An 8 GB USB Thumb Drive.
- In the next step, select the name of the pendrive on which you want to copy macOS, press the Erase keys then create the disk and Continue and type in the password of the Apple account to start copying the files.
- After completing the previous operation, restart the computer by holding down the Alt key on the keyboard.
- From the menu that appears, select the icon of the USB stick containing the operating system (which should be called Install macOS).
- From here, start the Disk Utility tool, select the Mac disk icon on which to install the OS via the left sidebar and press Format.
- After setting the Name, Format and Scheme (following the instructions given earlier), click on Format to start formatting.
- Once the operation is complete, close the tool and press the Install MacOS icon.
How to install macOS
Since we have already written and published a guide on the installation of the Apple operating system, we advise you to read it to properly perform this procedure. Find it below. Free sound editor mac os x.
