On the left hand side of Disk Utility youll see a list of drives. Open Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. To format an external hard drive on your Mac (paraphrased from here ): Connect the drive to your Mac.Step 2: Right-click on the external hard disk and select Format option from context menu. Note: if you have stored data to the drive, please back it up before formatting the disk. Apple Mac machines support a different file system.Step 1: Connect your external hard drive with your computer and open Windows Explorer to check if it can be recognized.
Format Wd External Hard Drive How To Format YourThe operation will erase all data and your files will be gone for good.Pro tip: If your external drive has a large volume, like mine – a 2TB Seagate Expansion. Just follow this easy step-by-step guide and you’re all set.Important note: If you have useful files stored on the external drive, be sure to copy or transfer them to another safe place prior to formatting. Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Overwriting metadata may also overwrite some content, so dont do it If you do accidentally reformat a volume, there are tools that c.In this post, I’m going to show you how to format your external drive for a Mac-compatible file system i.e. Answer (1 of 4): Reformatting does not delete data it only overwrites the organization (metadata) of the volume, so that the contents are no longer accessible. If I wanted to use it with Mac OS or Time Machine backup (which is my intent), I’ll need to format the drive for my Mac.I then right-clicked the external drive icon on Mac desktop > Get Info. Since I wanted to use it on Mac, I clicked the blue logo with the text “Start_Here-Mac”.It brought me to a webpage on Seagate’s site, where it clearly indicated the drive was initially set up to work with a Windows PC. When I connected the Seagate to my Mac, the drive icon showed up like this.When I opened it, the default content was all there. Most External Hard Drives Are Initiated with NTFSDuring the last several years, I’ve used a few external drives, including a 500GB WD My Passport, 32GB Lexar flash drive, and a few others.Three weeks ago, I bought a brand new 2TB Seagate Expansion to backup my MacBook Pro before I updated it to the latest macOS. I’ll also show you how to do that below. It should show up on the left panel under “External”. They might be different if your Mac has a different version.The quickest way to do this is a simple Spotlight search (click the search icon on the upper right corner), or go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.Step 2: Highlight your external drive and click “Erase”.Make sure your drive is connected. How to Format an External Drive for Mac (from NTFS to Mac OS Extended)Note: The tutorial and screenshots below are based on macOS Sierra 10.12.5. The problem is that on macOS, you can’t work with files saved on an NTFS drive unless you use a paid app like Paragon NTFS for Mac. Right-click on the icon for your external drive on Mac desktop, then select “Get Info”. You may also want to rename your external drive here.Step 4: Wait until the erasing process is complete.For me, it took less than a minute to format my 2TB Seagate Expansion.You can also check to see if the format was successful. Select the one shown below.Pro tip: If you want to use the external drive for both Mac and PC, you can also select “ExFAT”. By default, it’s the Windows NT File System (NTFS). Click on this icon on the top left corner and select “Show All Devices”.Step 3: Select “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” in Format.A new window will pop up asking which file system you’d like to format the external drive to. If you select the one below it, the Partition option will be greyed out and become unclickable.Update Feb. Make sure you select the disk icon right under “External”. How to Partition an External Hard Drive on MacIf you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive (in fact, you should for better file organization), here’s a step-by-step guide:Step 1: Highlight your drive and click “Partition” in Disk Utility.Open the Disk Utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Mac movements for windowsAlso, under Format, make sure you have selected Mac OS Extended (Journaled).Step 1.3: Hit Erase, wait until the process is complete.Now you should be able to click the “Partition” button. I’m using my new flash drive as an example.Step 1.2: Under Scheme, select Apple Partition Map. Here’s how to make the “Partition” button clickable. That’s because your external drive hasn’t been formatted/erased to a Mac-compatible file system yet. You can do that by clicking the small white circle and dragging it around. Then allocate the desired volume to each partition. What you need to do next is click the add “+” button to increase the number of partitions on your external disk. Located on the left is a big blue circle with the name of your external drive together with its volume size. As always, let me know if you have any issues during the formatting or partitioning process. I hope you find it helpful. You can find more info in this post: How to Backup Mac to an External Hard Drive.That wraps up this tutorial article. I chose to create two partitions on my Seagate Expansion — one for backup, the other for personal use. You should see multiple disk icons show up. Take a few seconds to read the text description to make sure it reflects what you intend to do, then click the “Partition” button to continue.Step 4: Wait until it says “Operation successful.”To check whether the operation is really successful, go to your Mac desktop.
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