You'll see the MacOS Utilities window choose 'Disk Utility.' Now you can choose to erase your startup drive, and choose 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)' as the operating system. Follow the steps below to format the hard drive in Mac: Step 1: To begin formatting, go to Finder > Applications > Utilities Step 2: View all the available tools and features. To get around that problem, hold down the Command + R keys when you turn on your Mac and let go when the logo appears. If you want to format your Mac's system drive, you can't do that when the Mac is running normally because the drive is in use by the operating system. APFS (Case-sensitive): Uses the APFS format and is case-sensitive to file and folder names. While first ensuring you have a copy of any data on a drive you want to format as ExFAT, as formatting will erase the drive’s contents, follow these steps: Attach the drive to your Mac. APFS (Encrypted): Uses the APFS format and encrypts the volume. Choose this option if you don’t need an encrypted or case-sensitive format. Usually, you'll want ExFAT, which is the default for the MacOS. FAT32: The File Allocation Table format is used to store data on units that have a capacity of more than 32 GB. If you see an Initialize Disk pop-up window, it provides two formats: Master Boot Record (MBR) and GUID Partition Table (GPT). Choose one of the following APFS formats for Mac computers using macOS 10.13 or later. WD Easystore 1TB USB 3.0 Portable Solid-State Drive 59.99 (List Price 119.99) WD Black P40 Game Drive 2TB Portable Solid-State Drive 179.99 (List Price 329.99) Deals are selected by. Select the format Mac OS Extended (HFS+), MS-DOS (FAT32), or exFAT then name the drive. Select the drive you want to format and then choose “Erase.”Ĥ. At the top of the window, click 'Erase.'ĥ. In the pop-up window, choose the file system you want to use. Select your external hard drive or USB flash drive from the list on the left.

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