- How to format the mac os how to#
- How to format the mac os for mac os x#
- How to format the mac os full#
- How to format the mac os free#
How to format the mac os for mac os x#
The "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" option will have the highest degree of support for Mac OS X features, and there's no limit to the size of files you can put on the drive.ĭisadvantages: Windows-running PCs can read files from drives formatted this way, but they can't write to them (at least not without the same amount of work it takes to get OS X to write to NTFS-formatted drives). You can even set up an OS X startup drive if you have the right files, the know-how, and a big enough flash drive, which will allow you to boot your Mac off an external disk if something goes wrong with your built-in drive. It also includes support for features from OS X Lion, such as Versions.
How to format the mac os full#
Mac OS Extended (Journaled) - This is the default file system format for Mac OS X drives.Īdvantages: Formatting your USB flash drive this way will give you full interoperability with Macs. I'll discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the other three formats below.
How to format the mac os free#
Unless you have extraordinary needs, you can safely ignore two of them: Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) and Free Space. There are several possible file system formats you can use for a USB flash drive, and changing them in Disk Utility is as easy as selecting the number of partitions you want on the drive (usually just one), picking the format you want for the drive, and clicking "Apply." Note that this will erase all information on the drive, so make absolutely sure you've got copies of everything before moving forward.ĭisk Utility gives you five different choices for drive formats in OS X Lion. If the drive is listed as NTFS-formatted, you're going to need to format it to something else if you want full compatibility with Mac OS X.
If the drive's format comes up as MS-DOS (FAT) or, less likely, ExFAT, you may be able to simply leave the drive as-is and not bother reformatting it. Your new drive should appear in the left-hand column, and clicking the "Partition" tab will bring up info on the drive which includes its current format. How do you tell which format your brand-new USB drive has? Hook it up to your Mac and launch the Disk Utility app, located in your Utilities folder (which is in Applications). If the drive comes formatted in NTFS, which is the default file system for Windows, you're going to want to re-format the drive because Mac OS X can't write files to NTFS-formatted volumes (at least not without a bunch of extra work that's beyond the scope of this article). The first format, FAT32, is fully compatible with Mac OS X, though with some drawbacks that we'll discuss later. Select "Disk Utility" and click "Continue.The overwhelming majority of USB flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats: FAT32 or NTFS. After a few moments, the macOS Utilities window should appear - this is known as Recovery Mode.Ĥ. Keep holding it until you see either the Apple logo, or an animation of a spinning globe.ģ.
Press the power button to turn it on, then immediately press and hold Command (⌘) + R. Once you're ready to wipe your Mac, do the following:Ģ.
If you're giving your computer away, also make sure that you've signed out of iTunes, iCloud, and iMessage - there's a chance your Apple ID data will remain on the drive after you reset it, and you don't want anyone gaining access to your account. You can also backup onto iCloud, or manually move the files you want to save onto an external drive. You can do this through Time Machine, Apple's official backup application, which will copy all your files onto an external drive.
How to format the mac os how to#
Check out the products mentioned in this article: MacBook Pro (From $1,299.99 at Best Buy) How to wipe a Mac computer with a factory resetīefore anything, if you don't want to lose the files you have saved on your computer, you should back them up.