Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for Windows compatibility. Go to the Applications folder on your Mac’s hard drive, then go to the Utilities folder, and launch Disk Utility. Select the drive you want to format. Warning: the following steps will delete any info you currently have on the drive. Click the Erase button.
Tuesday, November 28th, 2017 Author: Recently, some customers have reported experiencing a situation where their new will not show up in Disk Utility in High Sierra. Although Disk Utility should always be tried first, a Mac’s Terminal can be used to format the drive in these cases. If the original drive was not upgraded to High Sierra, that should be done first so the internet recovery feature on the computer is updated to High Sierra. Again, these instructions are intended for new internal SSDs only, with computers that have already had their original drive upgraded to. 1) After the new SSD has been installed into the computer, boot to internet recovery by pressing Command-Option-R until a globe is seen. If the computer is not connected to the internet via an ethernet connection it will prompt for a wifi network to be chosen.
It may take up to 10-15 minutes to complete the boot sequence, depending on internet speed. 2) Once at the macOS Utilities menu, select Disk Utility. 3) In the menu bar at the top of the screen click on the View menu and select Show All Devices.
This should allow the SSD to show up in the left column, if it does not show up quit Disk Utility and reopen it. A) If the SSD does show up you may want to select the drive and click on the Erase tab. You can then name the drive and chose the desired format (APFS is the best choice) and partition scheme (GUID is the best choice). Once the format is complete the SSD is ready for the OS to be installed. B) If the SSD is not showing up Terminal sould be used to format the drive, which is outlined in the remaining steps. 4) Quit Disk Utility, then from the menu bar open the Utilities menu and select Terminal. Please read the notes below before proceeding: Note: We strongly recommend that you disconnect any externally mounted drives at this point, to prevent accidentally destroying the data on those drives.
For drives that cannot be disconnected, please make sure you have current backups of those drives. When using terminal it is important to type all commands exactly as they appear in this guide. Making a typo could result in lost data and time.
5) In Terminal type the following command, then press the Return key: diskutil list 6) A long list of disks will appear; we need to find our target disk from this list. An internal drive should be the very first or second drive in the list (see image below). The majority of the list is going to be ignorable disk images. To find the internal SSD, look for the following: ‘(internal, physical)’ which is shown in the blue box below. You can further confirm you have the proper drive by looking at the size (red box). You will need to note the identifier of that drive (green box) for the next step.
7) In Terminal type the following command using the identifier found in the previous step and hit the Return key. Diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ MacOS /dev/ identifier The process normally takes a minute or two to complete.
When the process is complete, you will see the following message: “Finished erase on identifier” where identifier was the number you previously identified. The SSD has now been formatted as a Mac OS Extended (journaled) volume named ‘MacOS’.
Continue using this guide to format the disk as an AFPS volume, however if a Mac OS Extended (journaled) volume is desired you may now stop. 8) From the previous step we need to note the identifier of the new volume (red outlined box). It’ll be mentioned in the “Formatting identifier as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with name MacOS.” In Terminal type the following command and hit the Return key: diskutil apfs createContainer /dev/ identifier The process normally takes a minute or two to complete. You’ll see the following message when done: “Finished APFS operation on identifier MacOS” 9) From the previous step, note the identifier from the newly created APFS Container (shown in the red box below) and use it in place of ‘ identifier’ in the final Terminal command, shown below the screenshot.
In Terminal type the following command and hit the Return key: diskutil apfs addVolume identifier APFS MacOS The process normally takes a minute or two to complete. When the process is complete, you’ll see the following message: “Finished APFS operation on identifier.” The SSD is now formatted as and is ready to use. Find more tips for macOS and at the Rocket Yard!. Recent Posts.
Macs last a long time. Don't plunk down your hard earned money on a new Mac when an upgraded Mac can run faster than a new Mac. We have the best upgrades and support for Macs: The easiest and most cost effective way to get the most from your Mac. Open and create more at one time with less slowdowns. SSDs are up the 91 times faster than a hard drive. Unleash the true potential of you Mac by upgrading to an OWC SSD.
OWC Install Videos guide you step-by-step so you can experience the blazing performance difference an OWC SSD offers. Easily expand your storage with durable external drives from OWC. From bus-powered portables to massive capacity desktop models, our external drives are time-tested and industry trusted to provide you great reliable storage whatever your needs may be. Who says the optical drive is dead? Optical storage offers a great way to archive data long term, and Blu-ray media offers a tremendous amount of storage in a single disc. Watch Blu-ray movies to experience near studio master image quality.
Our award-winning U.S. Based customer service is at the ready to help you with any upgrade questions you may have. We're available online and on the phone 24/7. Say hello today and find out what your Mac can do.
How to Format External Hard Drive and USB Drive under macOS 10.12 Sierra? How to Format External Hard Drive and USB Drive under macOS 10.12 Sierra? By Shirly Chen, 2016-12-01 Do you know how to format or reformat an external hard drive / USB flash drive under macOS 10.12 Sierra? Actually, it is pretty simple. In this article, you will see two solutions to format external hard drive and USB drive under macOS 10.12 Sierra.
But, please back up your important data before you format your external hard drive/USB flash drive under macOS 10.12 Sierra. The easiest way to back up your data is copy-pasting it to your Mac or a secondary hard disk drive.
Two Solutions to Format External Hard Drive and USB Drive under macOS 10.12 Sierra There are two easy solutions to format your external hard drive or USB flash drive under macOS 10.12 Sierra. Both of the two solutions can easily format your external hard drive or USB drive under macOS 10.12 Sierra.
However, they are not the same format solution and will bring different effects. So please read the following guide carefully before you choose one of them to help you format your external hard drive or USB drive under macOS 10.12 Sierra. Solution 1: format external hard drive or USB drive with Disk Utility under macOS 10.12 Sierra.
Disk Utility is a built-in application in your macOS to help you manage your Mac disks and external hard disks on your Mac. When you connect your external hard drive or USB flash drive, it allows you to erase the external hard drive or USB flash drive and it will format your device when it is erasing your device. This solution is very easy. You just need to launch the Disk Utility and let it to erase your external hard drive or USB flash drive. It will clean up your device and format it. But the formatted data can still be or USB flash drive.
If you only want to format your external hard drive/USB drive to regain full storage or remove virus-infected files, this is a good choice. Solution 2: format external hard drive or USB drive with Mac data erasure software under macOS 10.12 Sierra. Someday when we are going to resell, donate or throw away our external hard drive, USB drive, memory card, we should not only format the external hard drive/USB but also destroy and wipe all personal data on our device. Is there a solution to easily format and wipe external hard drive or USB flash drive under macOS 10.12 Sierra? Mac data erasure software can help you achieve this goal.
Is one of the most powerful data erasure software for Mac. It will help you easily format external hard drive and USB flash drive under macOS 10.12 Sierra meanwhile permanently destroy and wipe all data on your device. With certified technology, it can securely wipe all existing data and history data on your external hard drive, USB flash drive or other media.
And DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac is very easy to use. When you need to format external hard drive or USB drive under macOS 10.12 Sierra, you just need to install it on your Mac and connect your device with your Mac. Select mode “Wipe Volume/Device” - select the external hard drive or USB drive you want to format - click on “Wipe Now” button. Both of the solutions above can help you easily format external hard drive or USB flash drive under macOS 10.12 Sierra.