All external USB disks can be formatted to work on Mac OSX, but not always straight out of the box. In this tutorial we look at formatting disks via the GUI app called Disk Utility and its equivalent command line tool diskutil. This will work in all modern versions of Apple Mac OSX including 10.9 Mavericks, 10.8, 10.7 and 10.6. Initially external disks may be formatted for Windows and after you connect it to your Mac it appears in the device list in the Finder, but is a read only disk meaning that you can’t write to it in its current format. The when the disk is selected in the finder bottom left symbol with the crossed out pencil means that the disk can only be read not written to. Why this is, is because they come formatted as Windows NTFS drive which OSX can only read, so we need to reformat them so we can read and write – thats where a handy utility called Disk Utility comes to the rescue. Disk Utility Disk Utility is found in /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app, open it and select your external disk in the list on the left.
There are 2 items (or more) for each disk, you have the actual disk and the volume of the disk, the example below has the Disk Named 2 TB WD Elements and the Volume is named Elements, this example uses the Volume which will in turn also format the Disk. Then below you will see the Format type which will be NTFS or possibly MS-DOS (FAT), we need to reformat the volume and make the format Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Reformatting the Disk 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. And there you have it one read and writable disk ready for OSX.
Installing software directly onto the USB storage device often results in the installation program re-formatting the USB storage device, most USB storage devices run on a FAT32 format, the installation usually re-formats to the FAT format, this formatting results in loss of storage space, and/or security errors, you must re-format the USB. How to Format a USB Thumb Drive for Your Car: A Solution to a Nagging Problem. The Fit (and possibly other cars) are picky about formatting: I needed to format my disk in “FAT32,” but on my Windows 7 lap top with a 64GB drive, that option doesn’t show up, only NTFS and exFAT. When I tried to use a drive formatted with either of those.
The Security Options option next to erase can control how the disk is erased by zeroing out all the blocks on the disk, this then make it impossible to salvage any previous data, with new disks this is not necessary. Also the other format option Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) in the dropdown would allow you have same name files or folders in the same location with a mix of case like ‘red’ and ‘RED’, this is popular in the Linux disk format and also possible on OSX but not the default on OSX shipped disks.
How to format your hard drive Seagate branded external drives come preformatted, some for PCs, some for Macs, and some of them have special utilities allowing them to work between both without formatting. Seagate internal drives must be formatted before use. Drives that will be bootable are formatted during the process of installing the operating system (ie, Windows or MacOS). Drives that will be used for storage can be formatted according to the instructions below. Or, if you have a drive that is formatted for a different type of computer or a drive that is not preformatted, you will need to format the drive before you can use it. Formatting erases all data on the drive.
So if you are formatting a drive that has already been used, be sure to copy any files you will ever want to see again onto a computer or backup drive. For instructions on how to format your hard drive on a Mac, please reference the following links: Formatting your drive in Windows. To open the Disk Management press and hold the Windows key ( ) + ( R ). Type compmgmt.msc. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. In the pane on the left, under Storage, click Disk Management.
If the drive is secondary storage and hasn't been initialized previously you may be prompted to initialize the disk first. Note: MBR for drives under 2TB and GPT for drives over 2TB.
![How To Format Usb Dik Mac For Car How To Format Usb Dik Mac For Car](/uploads/1/2/5/4/125498385/347178368.png)
The drive should say unallocated Note: If it does not you will need to right-click and delete the volume first. If the external hard drive is pre formatted for Mac, Disk Management will list 3 partitions and you will not be able to delete the 'Health (EFI System Partition)' because it's a protected partition.
To delete this partition you have to use Microsoft Diskpart Erase utility. Please see the instructions. Right-click and select new simple volume. Click next 3 times.
Type the name of the drive in “Volume Label”. Make sure quick format is selected.
Click next then finished See more information at the.