Okay, so you may have a lot of files that you want to get rid of. This will work in all modern versions of apple mac osx including 10. If your mac came with lion, the install os x option will download and install the latest minor version of lion. How to format in ntfs with disk utility on os x 10. Its possible to do a clean install of os x mavericks on your mac or on a new hard drive, if youre upgrading or repairing your mac but it takes a bit of work. In disk utility on mac, you can erase and reformat storage devices to use with your mac. How to format a usb external disk for mac osx using disk.
Connect the external disk drive or flash drive and open disk utility. Find the name of the drive in the left side of the utilities window and select it. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. Instructions for how to format your external drive so that it will be fully usable in macos. Select the volume in the finder, then choose file get info from the menu bar. Step one if your hard drive is an external drive, connect it to the computer. Still with the external disk selected in disk utility go to the erase tab, select mac os extended journaled from the format dropdown, choose to name the disk and then click erase. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility.
How to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac. Format an external disk or a flash drive for mac using disk utility in os x mavericks and below versions. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. Erase and reformat a storage device in disk utility on mac. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or. This howto shows you the steps using disk utility in os x 10. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through all connections, be they usb, firewire, or thunderbolt. These steps can be used for both internal and external drives. This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page.
Open the disk utility app on your mac using one of the following methods, depending on the type of disk or volume you want to erase. Connect the external drive or the usb drive to the mac. When the menu bar appears select disk utility from the utilities menu. How to check a macs free hard drive space macworld. How you format a mac hard drive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. Once youve double, triple, and quadruplechecked your backups. Have you ever tried to format a disk in mac os x and disk utility wont unmount the hard drive for formatting.
If you suspect that somethings not quite right with your mac, the first aid portion of disk utility should be among your first stops. To use it, click the first aid button on the left side of the disk utility window. And there you have it one read and writable disk ready for osx. Use first aid to verify and if necessary repair an ailing drive. These are instructions on how to format a hard drive using mac os x disk utility. To start up from macos recovery, turn on your mac and immediately press and hold one of the following. Start the disk utility, located under applications utilities. It can happen for external usb and firewire as well as internal disks. Open system information and select storage in the sidebar. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x.
Reformatting an external hard drive for mac step 1. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive step 1 back up your files. How to force a hard drive to unmount for formatting in mac. How to format a usb external disk for mac osx using disk utility. Format a usb stick for mac and windows osx mavericks duration. Apfs or mac os extended select the volume in the disk utility sidebar, then check the information on the right. If you have any files you want to save, copy them to another storage device. How do i format my macbook pro mavericks apple community. You can also view your free disk space from your mac s disk utility app. How can i reformat the internal drive and install mountain lion from. Formatting a drive will erase all data and partitions on the disk.
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