Instructions for installing an internal drive as a bootable or a storage drive in macos x. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. For instance, is the hard drive internal or external. And you show you the partitions under the external hdd. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. You should get a drop down that gives you a place to enter a name macintosh hd, a format that says mac os extended journaled, and a scheme called guid partition map. These are instructions on how to format a hard drive using mac os x disk utility. How to access mac osx extended formatted hard drive in. Read only ntfs from native mac os x to readwriteformat ntfs from mac os x, here are some alternatives. Jan 15, 2020 learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. Click on it to select, make sure the partition map scheme is guid partition table. How you format a mac hard drive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. Make sure that the sidebar in disk utility shows the name of your startup disk.
If your mac is from 2012 or earlier, there was an installation disc in the original box. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. Unlike windows os, mac os doesnt provide quick format tool. Select erase and ensure that the format is mac os extended journaled. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. Actually, most external hard disks could be compatible with mac and pc as long as you format them correctly.
Once the formatting process gets started, your data on the hard drive will be removed. Format a drive for mac os x and windows sign in to comment. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. How to format a usb external disk for mac osx using disk utility. Windows uses nt file system ntfs and mac os x uses os x. How to install macos or os x on a new hard drive for your mac. If theres an older mac you need a drive to work with, apfs is a bad choice for that drive. The mac os x extended volume format is optimal for macs. Feb 07, 2016 erase mac hard drive and reinstall os x. How to install and run mac os x from an external hard drive.
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. Create a bootable install usb drive of mac os x 10. If this is really your hard drive, then this step should recreate your macintosh hd volume. Here are two outstanding mac hard drive format software tools you can rely on. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. Locate the drive name from the left hand side of disk utility and click on it. In this video we look at the process of formatting a hard drive, flash drive, or ssd on an apple computer. Instructions for how to format your external drive so that it will be fully usable in macos. Similarly each operating system works on different file system and it is unique. How to format a hdd from ntfs to apple os x file system. 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. The volume representing your startup disk is macintosh hd, unless. Whether you are planning to make a clean installation mac os x or you need much larger file to store more files, in both cases you will need to format your hard drive.
Tutorial how to format hard drive on your mac os x the. The usb drivers come with the fat format by default. Disk utility shows the recommended mac format by default. In disk utility, of os x utilities, select the partition in the lefthand column that you created in the previous step preparing to erase. Click the erase tab, choose a volume format from the dropdown menu and then type a. Sep 20, 2019 if theres an older mac you need a drive to work with, apfs is a bad choice for that drive. Help, restored macintosh hd to os x base apple community. When the application is open, select the files you want to retrieve from the formatted drive.
You can format an external drive in os x using disk utility and terminal. This will format hdd on mac and you will be able to use it as new. The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at the same time and type in disk utility to. Connect the usb fash drive to the mac os x computer. When you have the need to format a hard drive under macos 10. How to recover data from formatted external hard drive on mac. Here are the three solutions to format a hard drive under macos 10. Feb 11, 2017 if so, what happens if you try to erase it. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Format a hard drive using mac os x disk utility iclarified. How to format a usb external disk for mac osx using disk.
When the driver is installed, you format your ntfs disks with disk utility where you select windows nt filesystem as the format. Once disk utility is open youll see the list of available drives on the left. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. A solid state drive is primarily used on mac machine. But before you can do anything, you need to make it clear that the hard. Currently, if you only have a mac computer with macos high sierra or above and couldnt find a windows computer to use our windows version, you can still try to install and run mac os x 10. Jul 15, 2009 format a drive for mac os x and windows. Set the format to mac os extended journaled and the scheme to guid partition map. If you need to format external hard drive mac or windows, you. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. For apple mac users, the easier way to format usb flash drive to fat32 is using the disk utility. How to wipe your mac memory and reset to default settings.
Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Both mac os x and windows also support the fat32 file system, but we dont recommend it for hard drives. Installing mac os x on blank hard drive using internet. Jul 28, 20 also the other format option mac os extended casesensitive, journaled in the dropdown would allow you have same name files or folders in the same location with a mix of case like red and red, this is popular in the linux disk format and also possible on osx but not the default on osx shipped disks. In this tutorial i will go through all steps you need to follow in order to format your entire hard drive or just a. Switch over to disk utility iirc, should be in one of the menus, see if the hdd device is there. How to format a hdd from ntfs to apple os x file system quora. Whether you are trying to backup mac to an external hard drive, wipe out any personal information and sell the computer, or even use a new operating system, you need to format the hard drive on your mac or pc. With my external hd still empty, i went to utility disk, selected erase, changed the format to mac os ext journaled and selected guid partition map under the scheme option then i erased. In this article, we will introduce you a few tools you can use for formatting hard drive under macos 10. Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software.
The msdos fat32 or exfat volume formats are compatible with windows computers. Dec 29, 2015 how to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it using. How to format a new internal ssd in macos high sierra. There is no disk for me to select when it apple community. This howto shows you the steps using disk utility in os x 10. Remember that you should not install the application on the formatted drive. Apfs also isnt compatible with time machine at this time, so youll have to format backup drives as mac os extended.
Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. The format apple support for mac owners for time machine is mac os extended journaled. Make sure to select the parent hard disk in the sidebar. While os x can read and write to fatbased filesystems, ntfs is read only on. Ntfs, fat, and all derivatives of fat are only for msbased operating systems. The disk utility application is located in the utilities subfolder. Os x can default read ntfs disks, but not write to them. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac.
Step 1 connect the external hard drive you want to format to your mac, then start the disk utility app that you can find under applications utilities. Fat32 is the crossplatform format for windows and mac os x. However, os x and windows both can read and write to a format called fat32, which used to be. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. The format is good for handling the files between both os under 4gb size. Step one if your hard drive is an external drive, connect it to the computer. Mac os x installation basics sata drive seagate support canada. Fortunately, there are some mac hard drive format software or smart disk formatting applications can help you securely and easily format, reformat, or erase hard drive under mac os. Because fat32 supports only up to 4 gb large files, it should be used only with flash drives. Launch disk utility, located in applications utilities. Jan 02, 2016 formatting a drive on your mac is quite easy.
How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. Formatting hard drive in any operating system is not a complicated procedure, and its the same with mac os x. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps. May 09, 2008 these are instructions on how to format a hard drive using mac os x disk utility. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup.
Click on disk utility and select quit disk utility. 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. After you connect an external drive to your mac, open the applications folder from the finder window. Aug 30, 2016 this is an article for mac, it is erasing a hard drive from a mac command line, it is not a windows tutorial. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through.
When done, quit disk utility to return to the utilities window. Make your mac feel like new again with a fresh install of os x. If you need to format external hard drive mac or windows, you may also consider the exfat files system. Select disk utility from the utilities window in macos recovery. These steps can be used for both internal and external drives.
Feb 08, 2020 how to partition an external hard drive on mac. Heres how to format a drive using a mac including how to format a drive for. If you selected the drive name instead of its description you wont see the scheme. Jan 24, 2016 each operating system has their own file system. Launch disk utility and then click to select the external hard drive listed on the left. Ive ordered a usb to sata cable to format the drive from another mac, but can i format the drive, as os x extended journaled, in windows. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. Just a car has its own system and a bus has its own system. Fortunately disk utility, built right into macos, can help. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x admfactory. Although the erasure process is a bit difficult, the tool to format the hard drives is builtinto the macos. This is the new file system that apple bought to macs with high sierra and it will be the. Both windows and mac os x have full readwrite support for exfat drives without any additional thirdparty software. Reformatting an external hard drive for use with mac osx is not as.
Click the erase tab, choose a volume format from the dropdown menu and then type a name for the drive. If youre unable to use internet recovery mode or create a bootable usb installer, you can still use a mac os x installation disc. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Mac os x installation basics sata drive seagate support us. Mar 16, 2020 it is very wellknown that reinstalling the operating system deletes every data and setting on the system. Its easy to use only if you know the right way to do it. These discs are available for os x snow leopard, os x lion, and os x mountain lion. If you move a hard drive between the two operating systems, heres what you need to know. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. Choose mac os extended journaled partition for the volume format. Luckily, you can install the mac os from the apple server or the recovery partition in your drive whenever you want. Run mac os x on an appletv with an external hard drive how to. Latest mac format for macos high sierra or later 10. How to format external ssd for mac time machine mashtips.
Installing mac os x on blank hard drive using internet recovery. If you are wondering how to wipe a hard drive or format disk terminal mac you are just at the right place. 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 describe. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x. Make sure you choose mac os journaled extended when setting up.