So, you just bought an external hard drive and wanted to use it on your Mac. But somehow, macOS doesn't allow you to write data to the drive. That's all because it's been initialized with Windows NT File System (NTFS), which is primarily for PCs. Apple Mac machines support a different file system.
Formatting an external hard drive or USB flash key is straightforward. Note: before you start formatting, bear in mind that all data from the drive will be erased, so ensure you have made a copy of your data. Once you have the copy, follow the guide below. First, connect the drive to the Mac.
In this post, I'm going to show you how to format your external drive for a Mac compatible file system i.e. Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
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. The operation will erase all data and your files will be gone for good. You could use a recovery program like to retrieve them, but the odds of recovery vary. Pro tip: If your external drive has a large volume, like mine -- a 2TB Seagate Expansion -- I highly recommend you also create multiple partitions. I'll also show you how to do that below. Most External Hard Drives Are Initiated with NTFS During the last several years, I've used several removable drives, including a 500GB WD My Passport, 32GB Lexar flash drive, and a few others.
Three weeks ago, I bought a brand new to backup my MacBook Pro before I updated to the latest macOS, 10.13 High Sierra (also see I encountered). When I connected the Seagate to my Mac, the drive icon showed up like this. What is NTFS? I'm not going to explain here; you can read more on. The problem is that on macOS, you can't work with files saved on an NTFS drive unless you use a paid app. How to Format an External Drive to Work with Mac (from NTFS to Mac OS Extended)? Note: The tutorial and screenshots below are based on macOS Sierra 10.12.5.
They might be different if your Mac has a different version. Step 1: Open Disk Utility. 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. After clicking 'Partition', you'll see this window. Located on the left is a big blue circle with the name of your external drive together with its volume size. What you need to do next is click the add '+' button to increase the number of partitions on your external disk.
Then allocate the desired volume to each partition. You can do that by clicking the small white circle and dragging it around. After that, you can rename each partition and define a file system for it. Step 3: Confirm your operation.
Maybe you just want to completely delete data on your Mac hard drive. Maybe you need to format a hard drive so that it can be used on your MacBook Air and extend your Mac's storage. Adobe illustrator for mac free. To achieve this, you're lucky to find this article which focus on how to format hard drive on Mac. Steps to format hard drive on Mac You can follow the steps below to format hard drive on Mac.
Before you start formatting hard drive on Mac, make sure you have backed up the Mac hard drive, especially when you get valuable files on the hard drive. If you've no idea how to back up Mac, check. • 1) To format external hard drive for Mac, connect it to one of the ports on your Mac. Turn the drive on, and make sure it appears in the Finder. If it's the Mac's internal hard drive, of course there's no need to connect.
• If the drive is internal, it should already show up in the Finder. If not (for example, if you installed a new drive that hasn't yet been formatted), look for it in Disk Utility in the next couple steps. • If you have already written data to the drive, back it up before proceeding to the next step. • 2) In your Mac's Finder, choose Go > Utilities. The /Applications/Utilities folder will open. Then launch Disk Utility. • 3) Click the Erase tab if it's not already selected.
At the bottom of the window, you'll see some information about the drive you have selected. Look at the Partition Map Scheme entry. • If it says GUID Partition Table, you can format the drive by selecting Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) in the Format pop-up menu, giving the drive a name, and then clicking Erase and you've successfully formatted Mac hard drive. • If the Partition Map Scheme says Master Boot Record or Apple Partition Map, you need to continue to the next step.
• 4) Click the Partition tab if it's not already selected. In the Partition screen, click the Partition Layout pop-up menu and select the number of partitions you want. (As most people use hard drive as one partition, we'll regard this partition as your hard drive.) Under Partition Information, enter a name for the partition—with a single partition, this is simply the name of the drive.