Formatting external hard drive for mac os x el capitan

Mac pro introduced in early 2008 or later xserve models introduced in early 2009. How to install os x yosemite on any external drive thumb. Connect the hard drive to your computer, power it on and launch finder. You can format a drive in os x using two applications. How to format external hard drives on a mac sweetwater. However, hard drive partitioning can often become a problematic task marred by errors and unexpected hurdles. The simplest way to install macos or os x on a new hard drive is by using internet recovery mode. Mac disk utility can help you format hard drive or external hard drive in os x 10. Disk utility is a free application that comes with mac computers. Install, boot, and run mac os x from an external hard drive. So much so, that along with partitioning internal mac hard drives, users are partitioning external drives and flash drives too in order to make them boot multiple operating systems on the run when required. I am using a my passport ultra with a macbook running mac os x 10. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac.

Just bought a new elements 4tb and when i try to eraseformat the drive using disk utility the erase fails with mediakit reports not enough space on device for requested operation i have an older wd 4tb drive which works fine on my imac. Its a multipurpose tool that handles formatting, erasing, repairing, and partitioning hard drives, among other things. This formatting guide focuses specifically on the new disk utility application found in os x 10. If as you say your external hard drive worked on both mac and windows, it may have been using one of these 2 programs. New versions such as mac os sierra dont include the x. I eventually managed to eraseformat the new drive using disk utility on an old ibook g4 running os x 10. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. This is useful if a drive is being used under both operating system osto move files between the two environments. In the window that appears, doubleclick the disk utility app select the external hard drive left. Mac free external hard drive recovery is the leading mac data recovery software specially designed for external hard drive to recover files lost due to. For instructions on how to format a drive in mac os 10.

I got around the issue by using the erase command instead of partition. Then select the hard drive and click on erase button. To find your mac model, memory, storage space, and macos version, choose about this mac from the apple menu. Another workaround is to move that drive to an external enclosure and erase it there provided your enclosure is modern enough to deal with drives over 2. The computer with the ssd upgrade is 20% faster and takes less than half the time to copy a file. According to testing, the ssd upgrade makes mac faster, in the 20 seconds versus 38 seconds boot up times. Some of them find difficult to perform regular disk management activities on apple hard disk drives including partitioning the.

Here, run it from launchpad, it will list all hard. Unlike prior versions of disk utility, if your physical disk has not already been formatted for os x, you cannot add a new partition until you use the erase function to format the drive for the first time. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. If youre accustomed to using the disk utility in earlier versions of os x, it will be worth reading through this guide to get familiar with. Especially, if you want to get a very first view on a mac os x 10.

How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. Formatting an external drive on your mac is quite easy, though it isnt as evident and obvious as it is on a pc. Not enough space to partition when formatting in mac osx. If youre preparing a mac for resale or troubleshooting a misbehaving machine, you might opt to format your macs hard drive. Since we are installing it on external drive, you can continue with the installation. Select the partition tab on the right hand side of the disk utility window. Highlight your drive and click partition in disk utility. The answer is yes, you can install yosemite onto an. You need an empty external hard drive thats going to be used for your macbook only. If youre preparing a mac for resale or troubleshooting a misbehaving machine, you might opt to format your mac s hard drive. Then proceed to highlight your computers hard drive. How to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac. In this video i cover how to format internal and external hard drives, solid state drives, thumb drives, and sd cards with disk utility in mac os x.

How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. Two such programs are paragon ntfs for mac and tuxera ntfs for mac. Before upgrading to the latest mac os x, it is often useful to install mac os x on an external hard drive for testing. The file format has to be mac os x journaled and you have to use the guid. If your mac is from before 2009 or never had os x lion, click here to jump to the next section. Aweeraser for mac will quickly format the hard drive and permanently erase all data information on the hard drive, beyond the scope of.

But this makeover didnt go well for a handful of mac users. Open the disk utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Weve covered how to install os x yosemite onto a separate partition of an internal hard disk and dual boot with os x mavericks, but many mac users have wondered if its possible to install os x 10. If you have a catastrophic harddrive crash that requires you to initialize format or replace your boot drive. If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive in fact, you should for better file organization, heres a stepbystep guide. If you buy an external hard drive and want it to be capable of being your macs startup disk that is. I named my external hard drive os x and that shows up in the middle. What disk utility looks like in lion through yosemite. When trying to save large files in final cut pro, the hard drive would save numerous files with none over 2gb in size. It is the 12th release of mac os x os x and only version to be named after os x. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x.

Reformatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting. Any new external hard drive needs to be formatted for mac. Looking for a way to install and run os x on an external hard drive. Formatting toshiba external hard drive fa apple community. These steps can be used for both internal and external drives. The previous defunct hd was also fat32, which i did not realize upon receiving and using. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. I have decided to go with a fresh and clean install of os x 10. Here are the following most common reasons why would you like to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac under mac os extended journaled.

This mode is only available on apple computers made after 2009 that were running os x lion or later. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx. Disk utility and terminal well be detailing both of these methods below. Mac os x can only be installed on a hard drive formatted in mac os extended journaled, filesystem. To format an external storage device, connect it to one of the ports on. This allowed me to do exactly what the partition command does, erasing anything on the drive there was previously nothing on the drive and was brand new, formatting in msdosfat, and. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. When backing up on mac, it uses whole capacity of your external hard drive. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac. How to install macos or os x on a new hard drive for your mac.

Apfs also doesnt work with time machine, so you should format any drive you want to use for backing up your mac using mac os extended. Its my understanding that i have to have os x before i can install windows 7. I received a replacement 750gb external hard drive from western digital. As you proceed with the installation, you will be prompted to take backup of your data. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac.