How to Format an External Drive in OS X

Connect the drive to the Mac.
Open Disk Utility. ...
Select the drive you want to format.
Click Erase.
Give the drive a descriptive name and leave the default settings: OS X Extended format and GUID partition map. ...
Click Erase and OS X will format the drive.

How do I completely format an external hard drive?
What is the best format for a Mac external hard drive?
How do I format an extended OSX?
Do you have to format an external hard drive?
What is the best format for an external hard drive?
What format is Mac hard drive?
Which is better NTFS or exFAT?
Do I need to format an external hard drive for Mac?
How do I wipe my Mac and reinstall?
What's the difference between Apfs and Mac OS Extended?
What is the difference between FAT32 and exFAT?
How long does it take to format an external hard drive?
What happens if I format an external hard drive?
How long does it take to format a 4TB external hard drive?

How do I completely format an external hard drive?

To reformat a drive on Windows:

Plug in the drive and open Windows Explorer.
Right-click the drive and choose Format from the drop-down menu.
Select the file system you want, give your drive a name under Volume label, and make sure the Quick Format box is checked.
Click Start, and the computer will reformat your drive.

What is the best format for a Mac external hard drive?

The Best Format for External Hard Drives

If you want to format your external hard drive to work with Mac and Windows computers, you should use exFAT. With exFAT, you can store files of any size, and use it with any computer made in the last 20 years.

How do I format an extended OSX?

How to format your drive Mac OS Extended (Journaled) on macOS 11 (Big Sur) and later

Open Disk Utility. ...
Click View in the upper left and select Show All Devices.
Select the non-indented entry, you will see Media in the name.
Click the button labeled Erase in the menu which will bring up this window.

Do you have to format an external hard drive?

No and yes. It depends on your need. If you use it to move files between Mac OS, Windows, Android, and Linux you may need to use FAT32 which is compatible with all. It has limitations but most external drives come preformatted this way so this would be the no formatting required part of the answer.

What is the best format for an external hard drive?

If you want to use your external drive with Windows machines only, NTFS is a fine choice and probably the best option overall. However, if you need to use the drive beyond the confines of the modern Windows ecosystem, it's better to go with exFAT instead.

What format is Mac hard drive?

As mentioned before, Macs can only read NTFS-formatted hard drives by default. If you want to write to NTFS formatted hard drives in Mac OS X, you're going to need the help of a third-party driver.

Which is better NTFS or exFAT?

NTFS supports file permissions, shadows copies for backup, provides encryption, disk quota limits, etc. It works with all versions of Windows. ... exFAT is a modern replacement for FAT 32, and more devices and OS support it than NTFS, but i not as widespread as FAT32. NTFS is the most modern file system.

Do I need to format an external hard drive for Mac?

Yes, connecting an external hard drive or USB flash key to a Mac will generally read and work fine as is because the Mac can easily read other filesystem formats, including Windows MSDOS, FAT, FAT32, ExFat, and NTFS formats, but unless you intend on using the drive between a Windows and Mac machine, formatting it to be ...

How do I wipe my Mac and reinstall?

Select your startup disk on the left, then click Erase. Click the Format pop-up menu (APFS should be selected), enter a name, then click Erase. After the disk is erased, choose Disk Utility > Quit Disk Utility. In the Recovery app window, select “Reinstall macOS,” click Continue, then follow the onscreen instructions.

What's the difference between Apfs and Mac OS Extended?

APFS, or “Apple File System,” is one of the new features in macOS High Sierra. ... Mac OS Extended, also known as HFS Plus or HFS+, is the file system used on all Macs from 1998 until now. On macOS High Sierra, it's used on all mechanical and hybrid drives, and older versions of macOS used it by default for all drives.

What is the difference between FAT32 and exFAT?

exFAT is optimized for flash drives—designed to be a lightweight file system like FAT32, but without the extra features and over head of NTFS and without the limitations of FAT32. Like NTFS, exFAT has very large limits on file and partition sizes., allowing you to store files much larger than the 4 GB allowed by FAT32.

How long does it take to format an external hard drive?

A full format can take up to over 24 hours over a USB. This is because the PC is carefully going through each section and part of the drive to completely format.

What happens if I format an external hard drive?

If you format you will erase all the that is stored on this drive! Windows will as for a drive to be formatted when it cannot read/see the information it tries to access. So probably not all folders are damaged. This could happen due to file system corruption or because of too many bad sectors.

How long does it take to format a 4TB external hard drive?

Looks like 4TB at 20MBps should take just over two full days. Depends what interface you're using for the drive. After 2 days it's only about 36% done, I'm just using the windows 7 disk management utility, and the hard drive's connected to the motherboard with a SATA cable.