Format a disk for mac

Or create a bootable installer disk, then use that disk to install macos on your mac or another mac. Formatting is a very simple procedure which is operated in a similar way for all sorts of storage media. Just dont format the drive until you get the important files off the drive. If you are having a hard time using the command line, try the disk utility app, which is simpler and uses the gui. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. You can use it to manage your storage, merge partitions, and even do a disk format for mac and pc. If an annoying message keeps notifying you that your disk cant be read by your mac, its time to format it.

These steps can be used for both internal and external drives. Of course, if the drive doesnt have any important files on it, you can go ahead and format it. In the top menu bar, go to view, and choose show all devices. Although disk utility should always be tried first, a mac s terminal can be used to format the drive in these cases. Are you about to install macos high sierra or later on the disk. Open disk management, the hard drive manager included with all versions of windows. How to format hard drive and fix disk format errors on mac. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Use the security options to format a previously used hard drive. To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. How to format an external drive for mac launch disk utility.

Here is the step by step guide you need to follow to format the hard disk on mac. Opening disk management can be done a number of ways depending on your version of windows, but the easiest method is to type diskmgmt. Open finder and choose applications utilities disk utility to launch the app on your mac. Usb drives can be formatted on your mac using the disk utility application. In this post, we will cover dedicated solutions on how to format your hard drive in mac and pc. Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. How to format a hard drive on mac to work on mac and pc. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. And there you have it one read and writable disk ready for osx.

How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. 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. If you have any files you want to save, copy them to another storage device. Erase and reformat a storage device in disk utility on mac. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. Enter a name for the disk or volume, such as macintosh hd. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Select the upper level of the drive you would like to format and click the erase button. In the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with windows computers. You can do that by typing disk format or disk management in windows search or going to control panel administrative tools create.

From all above, you can have a general idea of fat32 and exfat file system. If you are using a mac, you can run the builtin disk utility to quickly format a hard drive or external hard drive under mac os. You can also open a finder window, select applications in the sidebar, and head to utilities disk utility. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. How to format a new internal ssd in macos high sierra tuesday, november 28th, 2017 author. Optional if available, click security options, use the slider to choose how many times to write over the erased data, then click ok. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. You can select the exfat format when using the disk. How to format a drive with the apfs file system on macos. However, the formatted data can be recovered by data recovery software.

Format your macbook pro using any of the methods in this article if a flashing question mark displays onscreen after starting up your mac. Still with the external disk selected in disk utility go to the erase tab, select mac os extended journaled from the format dropdown, choose to name the disk and then click erase. Next, open a command prompt window as administrator. In this video we look at the process of formatting a hard drive, flash drive, or ssd on an apple computer. From what im read, mac also supports reading ntfs volumes natively but not writing to them. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x. You can format an external hard drive or thumb drive to work seamlessly with both mac and windows by using the exfat file system. When the driver is installed, you format your ntfs disks with disk utility where you select windows nt filesystem as the format. So if you need that data, make sure you copy it onto another disk before you start.

How to format a drive with the apfs file system on macos sierra. For example, in the screenshot below, the mac formatted drive is disk 2. So, whether you wish to format the internal hard drive, external drive, or a usb flash drive, the procedure is the same for all. Its very easy to format a usb drive on a mac using disk utility. Most external hard drives and usb drives are compatible for use on mac computers as long as you format the devices for use with mac os x. If you need to erase your disk before installing high sierra or later for the first time on that disk, choose mac os extended journaled. If you intend to change the format of the disk, perhaps from exfat to apfs, then erasing your disk is necessary. 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. Go to the applications folder on your mac s hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system part 3. Formatting a drive will erase all data and partitions on the disk. How to format a startup drive for a mac if you want to format a drive that will be used as your mac s startup disk, the procedure is a little different from formatting it for use as a secondary. Again, formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep.

Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. While it might sound complicated, both mac and windows give us dedicated features to manage our disk space. There are a couple of things you should keep in mind, however. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Give the drive a descriptive name and leave the default settings. Open the disk utility app on your mac using one of the following methods, depending on the type of disk or volume you want to erase. This means your macbook is unable to locate its system software, and cannot start up without your attempting to recover or perform a clean install of os x. Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. Owc ben m recently, some owc customers have reported experiencing a situation where their new ssd will not show up in disk utility in high sierra. It is time to learn how to format your external hard drive or other external drives to a common file system for mac and windows.

Click the format popup menu, then choose one of the following. To format hard drive for mac and windows without data loss, we suggest using minitool partition wizard and its convert ntfs to fats32 function. The first is that when you format and disk, you will erase all the data currently on it. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. Format a disk for use with a mac and pc if you need to format a disk as a way to copy data between a mac and a pc, observe the tutorial above, however, select exfat from the listing of format choices. You can select to use a fat, fat32, exfat, ntfs, or refs file system when formatting. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. To format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp.

Instructions for how to format your external drive so that it will be fully usable in macos. The 4 disk formatting software for mac above can help you easily format hard drive, usb flash drive, memory card, and other storage media under mac os. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. How to format a new internal ssd in macos high sierra. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. Format is the process of preparing a data storage device such as a hard disk drive, solidstate drive, or usb flash drive for initial use to accept windows files. If you are a personal user, you can try its professional edition.

In the disk utility app on your mac, choose view show all devices. To do this, open a terminal window and run the following command. How to format a usb external disk for mac osx using disk. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility. Click the format popup menu, then choose a choose a file system format. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or. Click on the erase option from the four options available in the main window. How to format a hard drive in mac os x connecting external hard drives.

Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. Restoring your mac to factory settings entails formatting the disk too. Follow these easy steps to format a hard drive in windows 10, windows 8, windows 7, windows vista, or windows xp. Select the disk from the menu, select your language, then choose disk utility from the utility dropdown menu and proceed to reformat it to the right settings. However, when you format your hard drive with super eraser for mac, all your data will be permanently lost. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. If the builtin disk came apfsformatted, dont change it to mac os extended. Once disk utility is open youll see the list of available drives on the left. The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support.

Click the scheme popup menu, then choose master boot record. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. If you want to use a different file system on your usb drive, youll need to format it. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through all connections, be they usb, firewire, or thunderbolt. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods.