- #How to format my hard drive for mac and windows how to
- #How to format my hard drive for mac and windows mac os
- #How to format my hard drive for mac and windows upgrade
Type ‘ terminal’ and hit Return to launch the Terminal application on your macOS.
In that case, you can format the external drive on Mac by using Terminal, as described below: But sometimes Disk Utility throws an error while erasing an external storage drive. To format Mac external storage drive or non-boot volume, you can open Disk Utility directly from Desktop and perform the erase operation. Format a Mac External Hard Drive Using Terminal Release the keys once you see the Apple logo or spinning globe.ģ. Step 1: Restart your Mac and immediately press and hold Command + R keys. Once you’ve backed up your Macintosh HD by using Time Machine, perform the following steps to format your startup disk and reinstall macOS: So, you need to boot your Mac in macOS Recovery mode to access the startup disk and erase it using Disk Utility. But you can’t format the startup disk while your macOS is running.
#How to format my hard drive for mac and windows upgrade
If you want to reinstall macOS or upgrade your macOS, you need to format your Macintosh HD startup disk. Format the Startup Disk in macOS Recovery Mode
#How to format my hard drive for mac and windows how to
Read More: How to Set Up Time Machine on Mac 2. If you haven’t set up your Time Machine backup drive, you can set up the drive now. And, for Macintosh HD, the startup disk, you can use Time Machine to back up your macOS as well as its stored data. For an external or non-boot volume, copy all your valuable files and folders, and paste them to another external storage device. Back Up Your Mac Hard Drive before Formattingīefore erasing your Mac hard drive be it internal or external, you must back up the drive to ensure zero data loss. Methods to Format Mac Storage Drive Without Data Loss 1. The next section discusses the correct way to format your Mac storage drive without data loss. DO NOT click the Initialize button unless it’s a new drive or you have recovered data from it. So, you end up losing your data.Īlso, when you connect a corrupt or unreadable external storage drive to your Mac, macOS will prompt you to initialize the disk. When your Mac storage drive has stored data on it, and you accidentally erase the drive in a new file system format, macOS removes all references to the data.
#How to format my hard drive for mac and windows mac os