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 a Hard Drive for Mac
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.
In the Volume Format drop-down menu, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) if you plan to place the Mac Tiger operating system on this drive to make it a bootable drive. Select Mac OS Extended if you plan to use the drive as a media (capture scratch) drive. Install Mac OS 9 Disk Driver. The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full Mac OS X compatibility, this uses the new Disk Utility in modern versions of Mac OS X: Similarly, you can perform the same type of process in Mac OS X for making a USB flash drive compatible with Mac OS using the Disk Utility in Mac OS X, as you can. BIOS settings for AHCI, suspend mode to S3, and DVD is first boot device, hard drive second. Initially, the drive had a windows 7 install on it, which I was going to format away. After bringing up Disk Utility, and clicking Partition, the installer locked up for 20 minutes before I gave up. Instructions for how to format your external drive so that it will be fully usable in MacOS. These steps can be used for both internal and external drives. Reformatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting. The following is based on Mac OS X version 10.10.5.
Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X.To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X, here are some alternatives: For Mac OS X 10.4 or later (32 or 64-bit), install Paragon (approx $20) (Best Choice for Lion and later) For 32-bit Mac OS X, install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free) (does not work in 64-bit mode).
How To Format Hdd For Os X Hackintosh High Sierra
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.
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.
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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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by Shirly Chen, updated on 2016-10-09 to Mac Data Wipe
When your external hard drive is full of junk files, or you will resell your device, you may need to format it to regain the full storage or wipe sensitive data to avoid data leakage. Unlike Windows 10 or Windows 8, there is no direct option to format the device when you right-click the device under Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite. However, there are still some easy solutions to format external hard drive under Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite. Just follow the guide bellow, you can easily format the external hard drive under Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite and wipe data.
Solution 1: Format External Hard Drive with Disk Utility under 10.10 Yosemite
Mac disk utility is a built-in application in all Mac OS versions including OS X 10.10 Yosemite. It can help users to format external hard drive under Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite and erase all data. This solution is very simple. Here, you can follow these steps.
1. Connect your external hard drive with your Mac computer.
2. Open disk utility (click Launchpad – find disk utility).
3. Select the external hard drive and click 'Erase'.
Then disk utility will format the external hard drive.
This is a fast way to clean up all data on your external hard drive and format it. However, the formatted data can be recovered by data recovery software or other data recovery method because the data is not permanently lost. If you only want to format your external hard drive under Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite or clean up all existing files, this solution is a good option. However, if you are going to sell/donate or throw away your external hard drive, this solution is not safe because it can’t permanently erase the data. Other people can easily recover your data from the formatted external hard drive. Kubota gh170 parts manuals. In order to permanently destroy all the data, the following solution will help you.
Solution 2: Format External Hard Drive with Super Eraser and Permanently Wipe Data
In some cases, people format an external hard drive before selling, donating or throwing away to avoid data leakage. In such cases, the data should be permanently destroyed. DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac is a powerful Mac data erasure application. It will help you format external hard drive under Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite and permanently wipe data.
Just download and install DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac on your Mac computer. Then connect your external hard drive with your Mac. Now you can launch DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac to format external hard drive under Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite.
Here are the steps: select Wipe Hard Drive mode.
Sselect the external hard drive and click on 'Wipe Now' button.
Once the process gets started, all the existing/deleted/lost data on the external hard drive will be permanently destroyed and wiped. Nobody can recover it even with the best data recovery software. If you are planning to sell your external hard drive or just throw it to trash, you’d better use this solution to format your external hard drive under Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite and permanently erase your data.
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