Before you start to connect and use an external hard drive on your Mac computer, you might have to format it. If you have already used the hard drive on any other computer, formatting will erase all the data that is stored on it. So, before you format external hard drive on Mac, don’t forget to get a backup of your data. By following the below instructions, you can format an external hard drive on your Mac computer.
Format Hard Drive For Mac And PC
- First, make sure to connect the external hard drive to your Mac computer.
- Next, open the Finder app using the dock at the bottom of the window.
- Select the Applications category from the left menu panel on the screen.
- Click on the Utilities option from the list.
- Here, choose the Disk Utility option.
- Click the View button at the top-left corner of the window.
- Select the Show All Devices option.
- Now, you will see the external hard drive that is connected to your Mac computer.
- Choose the drive from the left menu panel on the screen.
- Next, click Erase at the top of the window.
- A small dialog box will pop up at the top of the window.
- Here, enter a name for your external hard drive in the Name field.
- Select the Format field and choose one of the following options from the drop-down list.
- Mac OS Extended (Journaled): This formatting option is the default one and is compatible with all Mac computers.
- APFS (Apple File System): This is a new file system that is available for Macs with High Sierra and is the default formatting option for that version of macOS.
- ExFAT: This formatting option has no storage limit and is compatible with both Windows and Mac. So, if you want the external hard drive to work on both Windows and Mac, choose this format.
- MS-DOS (FAT): This also works on both Windows and Mac. But, you can store the data that is less than 4GB.
- Next, click the Scheme field and select the GUID Partition Map option from the drop-down list.
- Once you’ve finished providing all the details, click on the Erase button.
- It takes some time to create the partition and set up the drive on Disk Utility.
- Once this process is completed, click the Done button.
- Now, the hard drive is ready to use on your Mac computer.
You can complete formatting the external hard drive on your Mac computer by following the above instructions.
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