How to format a startup drive for a Mac If you want to format a drive that will be used as your Mac’s startup disk, the procedure is a little different from formatting it for use as a secondary. HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool. HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool is a Windows-based formatting utility for. Windows XP Windows Vista Windows 2000 Windows 7 Windows 8 Windows 10. Linux Dos Windows XP Windows Vista Windows 2000 Windows 7 Windows 8 Mac OS X Language. HDD Low Level Format Tool. To share a USB drive between a Mac and a Windows PC, there are two disk formats to choose from: exFAT and FAT32. The other formats -- Microsoft's NTFS and Apple's Mac OS Extended -- don't work well on the other operating system.

1. Mac Disk Format Types

Most external drives ship in formats that are universally recognised amongst nearly all operating systems (FAT, I’m looking at you), but there may be times where you might want to completely wipe a drive and/or set it up to be compatible with Apple’s Mac lineup only. Either way, you’ll want to format your drive accordingly. Formatting an external drive on your Mac is quite easy, though it isn’t as evident and obvious as it is on a PC. You can format a drive in OS X using two applications: Disk Utility and Terminal.

We’ll be detailing both of these methods below. Formatting a Disk Using Disk Utility Formatting a disk using Apple’s Disk Utility is the easiest and most straight-forward method of the two. To format a disk using Apple’s Disk Utility, simply follow the steps below. Open up Disk Utility on your Mac.

You can either do this by searching for it from Spotlight or by navigating to “Applications - Utilities” and opening Disk Utility. Select the disk you want to format from the left-side pane. You’ll see the option to “Erase” the disk at the center – top of the window. Once you click on it, you’ll have the option to rename the disk, select the format you want for the disk (more on that later), and select the disk scheme. Once you have everything selected, simply click on Erase, and you’ll have a newly formatted disk.

Formatting a Disk Using Terminal This method is aimed towards power users who are fond of using Terminal to do work on their Mac. It is a little longer but often comes in useful when Disk Utility refuses to perform your desired action for some reason. To format an external disk using Terminal, simply follow the steps below: 1. Open Terminal, either by Spotlight or by opening the app from “Applications - Utilities.” 2. Enter the following command into Terminal.

Diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ diskname diskidentifier In the command above, change “JHFS+” to “ HFS+” if you want a volume that is not journalled. Change “diskname” to the new name you want for the disk, and replace “diskidentifier” to the Disk Identifier obtained from Disk Utility. If you want to reformat, replace eraseDisk with reformat and delete the “JHFS+” and “diskname” parts of the command.

Use eraseDisk to erase the entire external disk, or eraseVolume if you just want to erase a particular partition. For example, I’d use “disk2s2” if I wanted to erase Untitled only in the example below: Once done, press Enter, and your disk should be erased and formatted completely. Disk Formats With Disk Utility, you have 3 main formats that you can erase your disk to. MS – DOS (FAT) MS-DOS (FAT) is the most popular format amongst external hard disks, as it’s both readable and writable by nearly all operating systems, Windows and OS X included. One of the major limitations of this format is that it’s not able to write files larger than 4GB, which can be quite a setback.

But apart from that, this will be the format you’ll want to use if you want a drive with cross-compatibility for quick transfers, or temporary storage. Most drives are formatted in MS – DOS (FAT) out of the box. ExFAT ExFAT is for those of you who are finding it hard to use FAT with all the limits, especially the large file transfer issue. ExFAT is basically an extension of FAT that allows for larger file sizes to be written and more. Note that ExFAT is only compatible with versions of Windows later than Vista.

OS X Extended OS X Extended is Mac’s native drive format. Your internal Macintosh drive is also formatted in this format. It’s recommended to use this format whenever you need to use an external drive with OS X only. One interesting feature of OS X Extended is that it is case-sensitive, i.e if you specifically name a file “BeachShot1,” OS X will see that file as different from a similar file named “beachshot1.” While formatting your disk to OS X Extended, you’ll have four main options:. OS X Extended (Journaled).

OS X Extended (Case Sensitive, Journaled). OS X Extended (Journaled, Encrypted). OS X Extended (Case Sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted).

Mac Disk Format Types

Mac OS X Installation Basics SATA Drive If the SATA drive will simply be a storage drive, please see the 3rd section of this article - Installing a SATA Drive as a Storage Unit. Installing a SATA Drive as a Boot drive 10.11 Note: Reformatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting. Physically install the drive into the Mac. Insert the Mac OS X install CD or USB drive. Power on the computer while holding down the option key. Select Installer.

Select Disk Utility. Highlight the drive. ​Select Erase. Enter Volume information (Name, Format, and Scheme). Select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for Format. Select GUID for Scheme. Select Erase. (Note: This will erase all data from the drive.).

Click on Disk Utility and select Quit Disk Utility. Select Install OS X from the options.

Select your drives as the destination and install Installing a SATA Drive as a Boot drive 10.6 to 10.10 Note: Reformatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting. Physically install the drive into the Mac. Insert the Mac OS X install CD or USB drive. Power on the computer while holding down the option key. Select Installer.

Select Disk Utility. Highlight the drive. Select Partition. Select 1 Partition. Name the drive. Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Partition for the volume format.

Click Options - Select GUID. Select OK. Select Apply (Note: This will erase all data from the drive.).

Select partition. Click on Disk Utility and select Quit Disk Utility. Select Install OS X from the options.

Select your drives as the destination and install Installing a SATA Drive as a Storage Unit - 10.11. Physically install the drive into the Mac.

​Turn the Mac on. Select Applications. Select Utilities. Select Disk Utility.

Select the Erase tab. Verify that the correct hard drive is selected in the left column. Enter Volume information (Name, Format, and Scheme). Select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for Format. Select GUID for Scheme.

Select Erase. (Note: This will erase all data from the drive.) Installing a SATA Drive as a Storage Unit - 10.6 to 10.10 Note: Reformatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting. Physically install the drive into the Mac.

​Turn the Mac on. Select Applications. Select Utilities. Select Disk Utility.

Highlight the drive. Select Partition. Select 1 Partition. Name the drive.

Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Partition for the volume format. Click Options - Select GUID.

Select OK. Select Apply (Note: This will erase all data from the drive.). Select partition. Click on Disk Utility and select Quit Disk Utility. Select Install OS X from the options. Select your drives as the destination and install.

Allow time for the drive to format. Verify the drive is mounted on the Desktop.