- #Formatting hard drives for mac how to#
- #Formatting hard drives for mac mac os#
- #Formatting hard drives for mac install#
- #Formatting hard drives for mac windows 8#
- #Formatting hard drives for mac free#
Once you have created the partitions, you will want to name them, select the format type, and then designate the size. For this tutorial, we will create two partitions.ĥ. You can then manually type in a size in GBs or TBs to adjust the selection. Make sure to select the top level of your drive from the lefthand column, and then select the Partition tab.Ĥ. Repeat steps 1-3 from the section above.ģ. Whenever using Disk Utility, back up all important data.Ģ.
#Formatting hard drives for mac free#
Note: While it is always best to partition a recently formatted drive that has no data on it, you can still partition only the free space on a drive that has other content on it.ġ.
#Formatting hard drives for mac mac os#
You may also divide your drive into a Mac OS partition and a Windows partition so you can use it on different platforms effectively. For instance, you may want to divide 250GB of your 500GB hard drive to video editing projects, and the other 250GB to storing video and audio files. Partitioning a drive is when you divide the total storage of a drive into different pieces. In some instances you may want to partition your hard drive. It will take a minute to format the drive, but once it’s done, the icon for it will appear with the name you gave it. Once you have done this, in the lower right corner click the Erase button.Ĭongratulations! Your drive is formatted.
For this tutorial the name is Format Tutorial. You will want to enter a name, which will give your drive a name (you may want to use your last name, nickname, etc.). For Format Type, please select Mac OS Extended (Journaled). In the left hand column, find the name of your drive and select it (it will usually be named as the brand name of the drive, so LaCie, Seagate, G-Raid, etc.).Ĥ. In the Spotlight Search or in the Finder type in Disk Utility (for directions on using Spotlight Search or Finder, please see this page) and double click on it to open the application. Plug your drive into the computer’s USB/Thunderbolt port.Ģ. IMPORTANT NOTE: FORMATTING DRIVES ERASES ALL DATA ON THEMġ.
#Formatting hard drives for mac how to#
Please note that some drives come pre-formatted for Mac or Windows, but you should know how to format drives as certain formats will work best in certain situations and workflows. Type diskpart into the Command Prompt window and press Enter.The following instructions are for formatting new external hard drives or thumb drives.
#Formatting hard drives for mac windows 8#
To do this on Windows 8 or Windows 7, press the Windows key once, type cmd, and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter. Next, open a Command Prompt window as administrator. For example, in the screenshot below, the Mac-formatted drive is Disk 2. First, note the number of the disk in the disk management window. This process erases everything on the disk, including its files and all its partitions. To erase this partition, we’ll have to wipe the entire disk. This partition is marked as protected, so you can’t just right-click and delete it - the delete option will be disabled. The Mac drive may have an “EFI System Partition” on it. You can then right-click in the empty space and select New Simple Volume to create a partition and format it with the Windows NTFS or FAT32 file systems. If you’re lucky, you can just right-click each partition on the Mac drive and select Delete Volume to remove the partitions. Be sure you’ve identified the Mac drive - if you accidentally delete partitions from another drive, you could damage your Windows installation or lose your files. Locate the Mac drive in the list of disks. This tool allows you to manage the partitions on drives connected to your computer - internal ones or external ones connected via USB. Press Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog, type diskmgmt.msc into the box, and press Enter to open it. RELATED: Understanding Hard Drive Partitioning with Disk Managementįirst, open the Windows Disk Management tool.
You’ll probably want to uninstall Java when you’re done.Įrase the Mac Partitions, Including the EFI System Partition
#Formatting hard drives for mac install#
HFSExplorer unfortunately requires you install Java to use it, but it’s the only free option here. If you only have Windows systems available, you can use HFSExplorer to copy files from the drive onto your Windows system drive or another drive. If you have a Mac lying around, you can plug the drive into a Mac and back up the files. Instead, we’ll just be wiping the drive and starting over from scratch. This process won’t actually convert the file system. First, back up the data on the Mac-formatted drive if you have anything important on it.
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