
- HOW TO FORMAT HARD DRIVE MAC AND PC HOW TO
- HOW TO FORMAT HARD DRIVE MAC AND PC PC
- HOW TO FORMAT HARD DRIVE MAC AND PC MAC
Partition: different from Windows, the partition is more like an operation to divide the entire, large, uncultivated, lonely, and original disk space.
HOW TO FORMAT HARD DRIVE MAC AND PC MAC
In Mac Disk Utility, it shows in the first line of the whole disk directory (e.g. Here are the differences.Įxternal hard drive: external hard drive is the hardware component like HDD and SSD that you used to store the data.
HOW TO FORMAT HARD DRIVE MAC AND PC PC
If you have newly switched from Windows PC to Mac, you may get confused with the external hard drive, partition, container, and volume in Disk Utility.

Part 2: Understand external hard drive, container, volume, and partition on Mac Well, if Disk Utility won't let you erase your hard drive due to the loss of some fatal meta files, you are bound to stop recovering your data and the iBoysoft Data Recovery can help you find the lost meta files. Well done! Finished erasing on disk2! Now I believe you have mastered another method to format your external hard drive. "disk 2" is the IDENTIFIER, or rather, the target disk that I want to format. "TD" is the name that I give to the new disk and it can be replaced by any word you like.Ĥ. HFS+ can be replaced by other file system formats, and here provide some references like APFS, HFS+, FAT32, and ExFAT.ģ. There's no limitation of uppercase or lower case.Ģ. To format a single volume to hfs+, like disk2s1, then the operating command is:ġ. Step 3: Input the "erase" command: diskutil erasedisk + new file system + new disk name + identifier.įor example: to format the whole disk 2 to hfs+, then the operating command is: Step 2: Input the following command, and press Enter to list out all your disks. Step 1: Launchpad → Other → Terminal, and click Terminal. Method II: Format an external hard drive through "Terminal" Compared with that, if a volume gets formatted, only the one that gets formatted will be deleted, and that's to say, only the data of the formatted volume will be deleted. The most distinguishing difference in formatting between a volume and an external hard drive is that: if an external hard drive gets formatted, then all the volumes inside the external hard drive, which means all the data, will be deleted. The steps to format a volume are 99% the same as that of an external hard drive. Step 6: Click Done, and congratulations that you have finished all the steps. At that time, there will be an icon of your new-established volume on the desktop. Note: As for our example to erase a whole external hard drive, the original physical volume "X" and "Y" will have been deleted and a new volume "Untitled" will have been established. Step 5: Click Erase to format your target disk.

Step 4: Edit the disk name, and select a format and a scheme. If you find there's something wrong to read your external hard drive, then you can turn to an external hard drive that doesn't show up in Disk Utility for help. Step 3: Choose your target external hard drive or volume, and click Erase on the top. Step 2: Launchpad → Other → Disk Utility, and click the Disk Utility. Click here when the external hard drive doesn't mount on Mac. Step 1: Connect the external hard drive with your Mac, and the computer will mount your external hard drive.

Part 1: Two methods to format external hard drive on Mac Method I: Format an external hard drive through "Disk Utility" (newbie friendly) Part 1: Two methods to format external hard drive on Mac
HOW TO FORMAT HARD DRIVE MAC AND PC HOW TO
Then how to format an external hard drive on Mac? Here are two methods for those people who urgently need to erase an external hard drive. When there are bad sectors that don't store the data of bootstrap procedure, but of some important private files, people expect to format and back up to make these files accessible again when people's hard disks can no longer write in further, they expect for erasing disk to pave way for new items to write when there are file system errors in people's hard disks resulting from frequent hot swapping, they expect for formatting to give rebirth to these dying disks and make them in use again. Of course, there are different occasions when people want to get their external hard drives erased. "Format", a word which is connected with "all data clear" and which is different from what it is called so on Windows, has another name on Mac, "erase".
