- Format Hdd For Mac And Pc Use
- Format Hdd For Mac Terminal
- Best Hdd Format Software
- Format Hard Drive Windows 10
To format an external drive on a Mac: Open Finder and go to /Applications/Utilities and double-click on Disk Utility. Select your drive in the left-hand sidebar and go to the Erase tab. Under the 'Format' menu, choose the file system you want to use. See the above section for more details on which one to pick.
So, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable SSD and wanted to use it on your Mac. But somehow, macOS doesn’t allow you to write data to the drive.
That’s all because it’s been initialized with Windows NT File System (NTFS), which is primarily for PCs. Apple Mac machines support a different file system.
- The /Applications/Utilities folder will open. Launch Disk Utility. Click the icon for your external hard drive in the sidebar on the left. Click the Erase tab along the top of the window. From the Volume Format menu, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Enter a name for the external hard drive in the Name field. Click the Erase button.
- Therefore, this leads to our third point of discussion on how to format any drive on your Mac. Disk utility is the vital application in Apple product. It makes the Mac world to be easy and interesting to use as it removes the obstacles between NTFS and HFS+. As usual, insert the drive let us say the hard disk.
In this post, I’m going to show you how to format your external drive for a Mac compatible file system i.e. Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Just follow this easy step-by-step guide and you’re all set.
Important note: If you have useful files stored on the external drive, be sure to copy or transfer them to another safe place prior to formatting. The operation will erase all data and your files will be gone for good. You could use a recovery program like Data Rescue to retrieve them, but the odds of recovery vary.
Pro tip: If your external drive has a large volume, like mine – a 2TB Seagate Expansion. I highly recommend you also create multiple partitions. I’ll also show you how to do that below.
Format Hdd For Mac And Pc Use
Most External Hard Drives Are Initiated with NTFS
During the last several years, I’ve used several removable drives, including a 500GB WD My Passport, 32GB Lexar flash drive, and a few others. Pokemon for mac.
Three weeks ago, I bought a brand new 2TB Seagate Expansion to backup my MacBook Pro before I updated to the latest macOS, 10.13 High Sierra (also see those High Sierra issues I encountered).
When I connected the Seagate to my Mac, the drive icon showed up like this.
When I opened it, the default content was all there. Since I wanted to use it on Mac, I clicked the blue logo with the text “Start_Here-Mac”.
It brought me to a webpage on Seagate’s site, where it clearly indicated the drive was initially set up to work with a Windows PC. If I wanted to use it with Mac OS or Time Machine backup (which is my intent), I’ll need to format the drive for my Mac.
I then right-clicked the external drive icon on Mac desktop > Get Info. It showed this format:
Format: Windows NT File System (NTFS)
What is NTFS? I’m not going to explain here; you can read more on Wikipedia. The problem is that on macOS, you can’t work with files saved on an NTFS drive unless you use a paid app Paragon NTFS for Mac.
How to Format an External Drive to Work with Mac (from NTFS to Mac OS Extended)?
Note: The tutorial and screenshots below are based on macOS Sierra 10.12.5. They might be different if your Mac has a different version.
Step 1: Open Disk Utility.
The quickest way to do this is a simple Spotlight search (click the search icon on the upper right corner), or go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
Step 2: Highlight your external drive and click “Erase”.
Make sure your drive is connected. It should show up on the left panel under “External”. Select that disk and click the “Erase” button, the one highlighted in red in the screenshot below.
Step 3: Select “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” in Format.
A new window will pop up asking which file system you’d like to format the external drive to. By default, it’s the Windows NT File System (NTFS). Select the one shown below.
Pro tip: If you want to use the external drive for both Mac and PC, you can also select “ExFAT”. Learn more about the differences between these file systems from this thread.
By the way, you can also rename your external drive.
Step 4: Wait until the erasing process is complete.
For me, it took less than a minute to format my 2TB Seagate Expansion.
You can also check to see if the format was successful. Right-click on the icon for your external drive on Mac desktop, then select “Get Info”. Under “Format”, you should see text like this:
Congratulations! Now your external drive has been formatted to be fully compatible with Apple MacOS, and you can edit, read, and write files to it as you want.
How to Partition an External Hard Drive on Mac
If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive (in fact, you should for better file organization), here’s a step-by-step guide:
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Step 1: Highlight your drive and click “Partition” in Disk Utility.
Open the Disk Utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Make sure you select the disk icon right under “External”. If you select the one below it, the Partition option will be greyed out and become unclickable.
Step 2: Add partitions and allocate volume for each one.
After clicking “Partition”, you’ll see this window. Located on the left is a big blue circle with the name of your external drive together with its volume size. What you need to do next is click the add “+” button to increase the number of partitions on your external disk. Then allocate the desired volume to each partition. You can do that by clicking the small white circle and dragging it around.
After that, you can rename each partition and define a file system for it.
Step 3: Confirm your operation.
Once you hit “Apply”, a new window pops up asking for your confirmation. Take a few seconds to read the text description to make sure it reflects what you intend to do, then click the “Partition” button to continue.
Step 4: Wait until it says “Operation successful.”
To check whether the operation is really successful, go to your Mac desktop. You should see multiple disk icons show up. I chose to create two partitions on my Seagate Expansion — one for backup, the other for personal use. You can find more info in this post: How to Backup Mac to an External Hard Drive.
That wraps up this tutorial article. I hope you find it helpful. As always, let me know if you have any issues during the formatting or partitioning process.
'How do I format my hard disk on MacBook Pro? Do I need to go to Apple? Please help!'
There are various reasons behind formatting hard drives. Maybe due to space issues or you want to sell your Mac or privacy issues, or simply you want to refresh everything for a better experience. Formatting hard drive for Mac has been very difficult for the users, though Disk utility lets you perform the task smoothly, mostly you will need some help if you are a first time user. So, before you take any decision or run to the nearest Apple store, read the steps below to understand the process. Then you may not have to ask for help every time you are in need of formatting your hard drive.
Part 1: How to Format a Hard Drive for Mac
If you are wondering how to wipe a hard drive or format disk terminal Mac you are just at the right place. Although the erasure process is a bit difficult, the tool to format the hard drives is built-into the MacOS. It is called Disk Utility. It's easy to use only if you know the right way to do it. The process below shows how to format a hard drive for Mac easily:
1. Open your Mac, navigate to 'Applications' and launch'Disk Utility'.
1. Open your Mac or restart the device if you were already using it.
2. The left side of the Disk Utility panel will show all the drives and partitions connected to your Mac.
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3. Select the drive you want to format.
4. The moment you select that particular drive, all of the drive information including a partition map, its capacity, and the S.M.A.R.T. status will be displayed.
5. Now, the panel will go and new warning messages will pop-up. It will warn you that formatting that drive will erase all of its contents.
6. You will also be given the option to name the new partition.
7. A new panel will open, it is called 'Erase panel'.
8. Type the name of the new partition in the Erase panel.
9. In the Erase panel, there is a drop-down file system list; you have to select one among them.
10. OS X Extended (Journaled) is the default choice.
11. There is also a partition map in the Erase panel, choose 'GUID Partition Map'.
![Format Hdd For Mac Format Hdd For Mac](/uploads/1/3/4/1/134143551/268428378.png)
12. This is also the default choice and works on every Mac.
13. There are also two other options available, but they are designed for specific needs.
14. Finally, you have completed all the selections, now click on the 'Erase' button. After that Disk Utility will start its work and erase the drive and then format it.
15. Lastly, a new partition will be created on your Mac.
16. After you are finished click on the 'Done' button.
So, now you know how to reformat a hard drive for Mac. This is the easiest way to format a Mac drive. Just remember that the format options on the Erase panel change with time. In case you want to format an external hard drive or you want to know how to format flash drive on Mac
1. Connect the external drive or USB to the Mac.
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2. Run the Disk utility app on Mac.
3. Find the name of that drive on the left side of the Disk Utility panel.
Password manager for mac. 4. Then click on the 'Erase' tab on the top.
5. Now, just beside format click on the MacOS Extended (Journaled) as the system.
6. If you want to change the name of the drive you can do it.
7. Finally, click on 'Erase' button to confirm the command.
That is all! You can format any small hard drives, SSD's and USB or flash drives very quickly but bigger hard drives will take longer to format.
Extra Tip: How to Recover Data from Formatted Hard Drive
Often many users forget to back up their hard drive and they carelessly format the Mac and in the end, the entire drive gets deleted. Usually, it would be impossible to recover those lost files but Tenorshare Any Data Recovery has the capability to complete that impossible task.
Tenorshare Any Data Recovery for Mac is designed for both Mac and Windows. It is a very powerful data recovery app, which is able to recover anything from lost/ deleted data or files, regardless of data type. You can recover photos, videos, documents, audio etc. It can even recover call history, contact information, and messages. It also works on other iOS devices like iPhone, iPad etc.
The user guide to use this app on Mac is mentioned below. You are going to use the app in 'Lost File Recovery' mode. It will allow you to recover deleted files even after you have formatted the hard drive. You can also recover data from external drives and USB drives as well.
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1. Download, install and run the app on Mac.
2. Now, on the main panel, all the volumes of Mac are visible. You need to select the one where you lost the data and then click on 'Scan'to begin scanning.
3. After the scanning is complete, all salvageable files will be displayed.
https://treecruise802.weebly.com/blog/fetch-for-mac. 4. Select the ones you need and then click 'Recover' to get the files.
All your selected data will be recovered in minutes. So, basically, you do not have to worry about anything anymore if you have accidentally deleted some files or documents or formatted the hard drive. You can recover them easily with the help of Tenorshare Any Data Recovery.
Overall, formatting a Mac hard drive is significantly difficult if compared to Windows drive formatting. But still, it is not so difficult that every time you are in need to erase a drive, you have to rush to your nearest Apple service center. This article has widely discussed the formatting process of your Mac hard drive as well as how to format a USB on a Mac or any other external hard drives so that you can do it on your own easily. So, before you do anything just go through the article, it will surely help you a lot. And just in case, you format the drive without backup, you know what to do, go for Any Data Recovery app and you will be covered!
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