The mac os x extended volume format is optimal for macs. Enter a name for the disk or volume, such as macintosh hd. Solved erase process has failed when formatting usb. Apr 29, 2020 follow these easy steps to format a hard drive in windows 10, windows 8, windows 7, windows vista, or windows xp. Oct 28, 2011 the format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size. Make sure you select the disk icon right under external. Feb 08, 2020 your advice on formatting the external hard drive is rather insightful. You can do that by typing disk format or disk management in windows search or going to control panel. Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. I would like to format my external hard drive so that i can edit in on my macbook pro. With tuxera ntfs for mac, you can use apples disk utility or tuxera disk manager to format ntfs drives. 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.
Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Spotlight is the quickest way to open disk utility. In this video i show you how to reinstall mac os x on your apple computer. Click the scheme popup menu, then choose master boot record. Click on the usb drive in the sidebar in disk utility. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. How to format a macbook pro without losing your data.
You can still use the software to format a startup driveits similar to the steps in the previous. You can also open a finder window, select applications in the sidebar, and head to utilities disk utility. Apfs apple file system is only for newer macs running macos 10. Erase and reformat a storage device in disk utility on mac.
How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. While formatting a usb or ssd using disk utility in macbook, you may receive erase process has failed. How to format a disk to ntfs using mac os x ask different. Once the format is complete the ssd is ready for the os to be installed. Jan 15, 2020 learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. Then, select the external hard drive and click partition tab on the top. Cant erase or reformat a drive in macos disk utility. Solved new internal ssd is not showing in macbook while booting. Then you can choose one of the hard drive and format it by click on format button. This process erases everything on the disk, including its files and all its partitions. In the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with windows computers.
File system formats available in disk utility on mac. After the installer loads select your language and click on the continue button. Using it, you can erase a partition or format the entire hard drive. In the sidebar, select the drive you want to erase or reformat. You can run easytouse mac disk formatting software to easily format internal ssd or external ssd under mac os. Then i format the ssd using mac os extended journaled version and installed a fresh copy of the os from usb. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. Use disc utility to erase format a hard disc, ssd, flash drive or other storage device.
Jan 04, 2012 format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x jan 4, 2012 73 comments if you want to insure full mac compatibility of a new external hard drive or flash disk, youll want to format the drive to the mac os extended filesystem. 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. Nov 01, 2018 for an instance, when you format macbook to invert the impacts of a virus, choose a time machine backup which was maintained before the installation of the virus on your macbook system. How to format a startup drive for a mac if you want to format a drive that will be used as your macs startup disk, the procedure is a little different from formatting it for use as a secondary. While drives are sold as plugandplay, formatting prior to use will give you optimal performance and compatibility with your mac. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. Launch disk utility and then click to select the external hard drive listed on the left.
For most reasons to erase, including when reformatting a disk or selling, giving away, or trading in your mac, you should erase your entire disk. Apr 04, 2017 most of mac users found that the pendrive or hard drive is readable but not writeable in mac. But some mac users might need to erase them from the command line on mac os. Sep 26, 2018 need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows.
How to format external disk for macbook a apple community. You can do that by typing disk format or disk management in windows search or going to control panel administrative tools create and format hard disk. Here ill show you how you can erase and format a disk using the command line. May 01, 2020 how to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. The newer apfs is best for solidstate drives, and mac os extended journaled is best for older, mechanical hard drives.
Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. If you select the one below it, the partition option will be greyed out and become unclickable. 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 reformat your startup volume, then you must boot from your os x installer disc. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Click on continue to follow the instructions shown onscreen for the reinstallation of os x along with your personal documents. 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. In this video we look at the process of formatting a hard drive, flash drive, or ssd on an apple computer. To erase this partition, well have to wipe the entire disk. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. Click the erase button or tab, then complete these fields. The videos below demonstrate the complete process of. Steps 46 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not mac os extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system not os x has been installed on the drive.
Jan 15, 2019 to format a usb drive in fat32 or exfat. Here are the steps to guide you through formatting a macbook pro. For example, if you need to reinstall mac os x on a macbook in your office. Disk utility is a utility application proprietary to macos that is used to both format and manage internal and external disks. This is because of the pendrive or hard drive has been. In this post, youll learn how to format an external drive to a mac. This is because of the pendrive or hard drive has been formatted in windows as ntfs. Next, open a command prompt window as administrator.
How to install os x after formatting your hard drive. This method should work on all apple computers and with all recent versions of mac os. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Reformatting an external hard drive for use with mac osx is not as difficult as. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. Once you have activated the mac recovery tool you can recover as many. Select the new untitled partition so we can format it as exfat for use with both mac and windows. Before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it using disk utility.
Click the erase tab, choose a volume format from the dropdown menu and then type a name for the drive. Go to applicationsutilities and launch disk utility. Apfs apple file system this is the new file system that apple bought to macs with high sierra and it will be the default if you are using that. Disk utility is a useful application inside your mac system.
This insures that you will have a compatible hard drive with your. If you have any files you want to save, copy them to another storage device. Then it is time for you to consider formatting your macbook pro. Apart from that, it can also help you manage the partitions or repair a broken disk. Heres how to format a drive if you are planning to use it with a mac. Click on the format menu and choose either msdos fat32 or. When the driver is installed, you format your ntfs disks with disk utility where you select windows nt filesystem as the format. Erasing a disk or volume permanently deletes all of its files.
When the menu bar appears select disk utility from the installer menu utilities menu for tiger or leopard. When i boot from the usb, my macbook detected the new ssd inside the disk utility. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac in the disk utility app on your mac, choose view show all devices. For example, in the screenshot below, the macformatted drive is disk 2. Today, we will talk about how to format or reformat ssd on mac. I never created one on this macbook pro can i create a utility disk from a newer imac. First, note the number of the disk in the disk management window.
Set the format type to mac os extended journaled, and then enter a name. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Once the files are installed, you can remove your usb and restart the macbook. Jan 29, 2020 open disk utility from the utilities folder in your applications. Most users use disk utility to erase a disk or hard drive. Opening disk management can be done a number of ways depending on your version of windows, but the easiest method is to type diskmgmt. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. 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.
Most of mac users found that the pendrive or hard drive is readable but not writeable in mac. 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. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. In disk utility on mac, you can erase and reformat storage devices to use with your mac. How to format a new internal ssd in macos high sierra. Mar 29, 2019 formatting your macbook pro involves reinstalling os x, and can be useful when your computer runs slow or malfunctions due to the installation of adware or faulty software, you accidentally installed an outdated version of os x incompatible with your macbook, or you erased your startup disk. To reset a macbook, turn it on and immediately hold down one of these. May 05, 2020 stellar data recovery professional supports the recovery of files from an external hard drive on macos catalina, mojave, high sierra and other macosos x variants. Please go to utilities disk utility to get the window below. Dec 08, 2016 in this video i show you how to reinstall mac os x on your apple computer. Disk utility presents several tools at the top of the window. But, if for any reason corrupted backups, edits not backed up, etc. Apr 22, 2020 you may know better of how to format a macbook pro and formatting any storage drive will erase the data in that drive. B if the ssd is not showing up terminal sould be used to format the drive, which is outlined in the remaining steps.
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. Turn on your macbook pro firstly, you need to turn on your macbook pro and wait until you hear the startup sound. Erasing macbook drive and installing a clean version of os x 1. Give the partition a name and select exfat for the format. The disk manager tool is able to list all hard drives and external devices on your mac. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi.
Usb drives can be formatted on your mac using the disk utility application. How to erase your old macbook before selling it cnet. I havent tried this one, but it should also do the job. Open disk management, the hard drive manager included with all versions of windows. Jul 05, 2017 to format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. To do that, the only thing you need is a bit of precise syntax to make sure that you are erasing the proper disk.