{"id":1750192,"date":"2023-04-27T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=1750192"},"modified":"2025-09-22T17:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T21:35:08","slug":"how-to-format-external-hard-drives-on-macos","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/articles\/how-to-format-external-hard-drives-on-macos\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Format External Hard Drives on a Mac"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#f2f1f0\"><strong>TIP:<\/strong> This article is based on Apple Disk Utility in macOS 13 Ventura, which was released in 2022. However, this information applies to other versions of macOS as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Musicians and content creators who work with Macs and Windows PCs need external hard drives to store data. Apple\u2019s <strong>Disk Utility<\/strong>, provided with macOS, is the app you will use to format, erase, and repair errors on drives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let us explain what you need to know to get started. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apple provides their in-depth <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/guide\/disk-utility\/welcome\/mac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Disk Utility User Guide<\/a>, which we will refer to below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol type=\"1\"><li><a href=\"#How-to-Open-Disk-Utility\"><strong>How to Open Disk Utility<\/strong><\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Which-Format-and-Partition-Scheme-Should-I-Choose?\"><strong>Which Format and Partition Scheme Should I Choose?<\/strong><\/a><ul><li><strong><a href=\"#Overview\">Overview<\/a><\/strong><\/li><li><a href=\"#File-System-Formats-in-Disk-Utility\"><strong>File System Formats in Disk Utility<\/strong><\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Partition-Schemes-in-Disk-Utility\"><strong>Partition Schemes in Disk Utility<\/strong><\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#About-Hard-Drives-Formatted-for-Windows-PCs\"><strong>About Hard Drives Formatted for Windows PCs<\/strong><\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a href=\"#Format-an-External-Hard-Drive\"><strong>Format an External Hard Drive<\/strong><\/a><ul><li><a href=\"#Back-Up-Files-Before-Erasing\"><strong>Back Up Files Before Erasing<\/strong><\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Erasing-a-Drive-in-Disk-Utility\"><strong>Erasing a Drive in Disk Utility<\/strong><\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#What-to-Do-If-You-Get-an-Error-Message\"><strong>What to Do If You Get an Error Message<\/strong><\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong><a href=\"#Check-Out-Apple\u2019s-Guide\">Check Out Apple\u2019s Guide<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"How-to-Open-Disk-Utility\">How to Open Disk Utility<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/media\/2023\/04\/Disk-Utility-Home-Screen.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"524\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/media\/2023\/04\/Disk-Utility-Home-Screen-1024x524.jpg\" alt=\"Disk Utility Home Screen\" class=\"wp-image-1777980\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/media\/2023\/04\/Disk-Utility-Home-Screen-1024x524.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/media\/2023\/04\/Disk-Utility-Home-Screen-300x154.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/media\/2023\/04\/Disk-Utility-Home-Screen-768x393.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/media\/2023\/04\/Disk-Utility-Home-Screen-1536x786.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/media\/2023\/04\/Disk-Utility-Home-Screen.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Apple Disk Utility in macOS 13 Ventura<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Disk Utility<\/strong> is located in the <strong>\/Applications\/Utilities<\/strong> folder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can also open it from the <strong>Finder\u2019s Go menu<\/strong>, choosing <strong>Go &gt; Utilities<\/strong>, or by going to the <strong>Dock<\/strong>, using <strong>LaunchPad, <\/strong>and typing <strong>Disk Utility<\/strong> in the search field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"Which-Format-and-Partition-Scheme-Should-I-Choose?\">Which Format and Partition Scheme Should I Choose?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"Overview\">Overview<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#f2f1f0\"><strong>TIP:<\/strong> The short answer is that, in most cases, you will choose the <strong>APFS<\/strong> file system and the <strong>GUID<\/strong> partition map, but there are exceptions, so read on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you format a drive in Apple Disk Utility, you choose a <strong>Partition Scheme<\/strong> and a <strong>File System Format<\/strong>. The <strong>Partition Scheme <\/strong>applies to the entire physical drive. On top of that, you format one <strong>partition<\/strong> in a particular <strong>format<\/strong>. Subsequently, you can divide the drive into multiple partitions, which are fixed in size, or <strong>volumes<\/strong>, which are flexible in size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To use flexible volumes, your drive needs to be in <strong>APFS (Apple File System) format<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Disk Utility also provides for creating partitions in a format that can be read both by a Mac and by a PC running Microsoft Windows. You can use a drive formatted this way to share data between platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"File-System-Formats-in-Disk-Utility\">File System Formats in Disk Utility<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>APFS<\/strong> is the modern Mac format. <strong>Choose this unless you have a specific reason not to<\/strong>. APFS works with Macs running macOS 10.13 High Sierra (from 2017) or newer. If you want to encrypt the volume, choose <strong>APFS (Encrypted)<\/strong> and create a password.<\/li><li><strong>MacOS Extended<\/strong> is an older format. Choose it:<ul><li> if you need your drive to be backward-compatible with a Mac running macOS 10.12 Sierra (from 2016) or earlier.<\/li><li>in the special case where you are formatting a USB thumb drive for use as a <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/en-us\/HT201372\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">bootable installer for macOS<\/a>.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Microsoft Windows<\/strong> cannot read drives formatted in Apple formats (without the use of third-party commercial utilities). However, both Macs and Windows PCs can read data from drives using the Microsoft formats <strong>MS-DOS (FAT)<\/strong> and <strong>ExFat<\/strong>. If you need one drive which can work with either Mac or Windows, choose one of these:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>MS-DOS (FAT)<\/strong> for a Windows-compatible volume 32GB or less in size, such as a USB drive or an SD card.<\/li><li><strong>ExFat<\/strong> for a Windows-compatible volume that is over 32GB.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Learn more from Apple at <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/guide\/disk-utility\/file-system-formats-dsku19ed921c\/22.0\/mac\/13.0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">File system formats available in Disk Utility<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"About-Hard-Drives-Formatted-for-Windows-PCs\">About Hard Drives Formatted for Windows PCs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Hard drives formatted on Microsoft Windows will be in Microsoft\u2019s <strong>NTFS<\/strong> format by default. Apple Disk Utility cannot work with the NTFS format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you connect a Windows drive formatted in NTFS to your Mac, your Mac can <em>read<\/em> data from the drive, but it cannot <em>write<\/em> to the drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#f2f1f0\"><strong>TIP:<\/strong> If you routinely work with both Macs and Windows PCs, it\u2019s handy to have a USB thumb drive formatted in MS-DOS (FAT) or ExFat format so you can quickly copy data from one computer to another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"Partition-Schemes-in-Disk-Utility\">Partition Schemes in Disk Utility<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When you erase and format an entire drive (not just a partition or volume), Disk Utility prompts you to choose a <strong>Partition Scheme:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>GUID Partition Map<\/strong>. <strong>Choose this unless you have a specific reason not to<\/strong>. This is the correct partition scheme for all Macs since 2005. A drive thus set up can also be used with PCs that run 64-bit Windows 10 or newer if the drive also has a partition in MS-DOS (Fat) or ExFat. (In the Windows world, GUID is sometimes called GPT.)<\/li><li><strong>Master Boot Record (MBR) <\/strong>is a legacy Windows format. Choose this for compatibility with all versions of Microsoft Windows, no matter how old.<\/li><li><strong>Apple Partition Map<\/strong> is an obsolete format only for use with PowerPC-based Mac computers from before 2005.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"Format-an-External-Hard-Drive\">Format an External Hard Drive<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"Back-Up-Files-Before-Erasing\">Back Up Files Before Erasing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ffcfd3\"><strong>IMPORTANT:<\/strong> Formatting a new drive out of the box is one thing, but if you are erasing or changing the format of an existing hard drive, check to see if it has any data on it already. <strong>Copy your files to another drive<\/strong> before you erase or format the drive so you don\u2019t regret losing something important. Select the files in the Finder and drag them to another drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having backed up your data, you can use the <strong>Restore<\/strong> feature to restore one volume from another. Learn more from Apple at <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/guide\/disk-utility\/restore-a-disk-dskutl14062\/mac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Restore a disk<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/c774--External_Hard_Drives\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"button flat m blue\">Shop All External Hard Drives \ud83d\udcbe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"Erasing-a-Drive-in-Disk-Utility\">Erasing a Drive in Disk Utility<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Disk Utility displays all the drives connected to your Mac, including the startup drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the pane on the left, select the drive you want to format. If you have multiple drives attached and you are unsure which is which, <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/guide\/mac-help\/connect-storage-devices-mac-mchl027f1d66\/13.0\/mac\/13.0#:~:text=files%20you%20need.-,Eject%20a%20storage%20device,-On%20your%20Mac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">eject each drive<\/a>, unplug each cable, then reconnect the cable to the drive you want to format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ffcfd3\"><strong>IMPORTANT: <\/strong>Never simply unplug an external hard drive. If your Mac is in the middle of reading or writing data to the drive, data may be corrupted. Instead, <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/guide\/mac-help\/connect-storage-devices-mac-mchl027f1d66\/13.0\/mac\/13.0#:~:text=files%20you%20need.-,Eject%20a%20storage%20device,-On%20your%20Mac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">use the Eject command<\/a> and wait for the result. Only then is it safe to unplug the drive\u2019s cable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Disk Utility, if a drive\u2019s icon has an arrow to the left, then the drive has multiple partitions or volumes. You can click on the icon to erase the entire drive, or you can click the arrow to drill down and select a partition or volume within the drive to erase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here is how to erase a drive:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Select the external drive or partition you want. Click the <strong>Erase<\/strong> button.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/media\/2023\/04\/01-Disk-Utility-Erase-Drive.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"456\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/media\/2023\/04\/01-Disk-Utility-Erase-Drive-1024x456.jpg\" alt=\"01 Disk Utility Erase Drive\" class=\"wp-image-1777981\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/media\/2023\/04\/01-Disk-Utility-Erase-Drive-1024x456.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/media\/2023\/04\/01-Disk-Utility-Erase-Drive-300x134.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/media\/2023\/04\/01-Disk-Utility-Erase-Drive-768x342.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/media\/2023\/04\/01-Disk-Utility-Erase-Drive-1536x684.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/media\/2023\/04\/01-Disk-Utility-Erase-Drive.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Erasing a drive in Apple Disk Utility<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Accept the defaults, <strong>APFS<\/strong> and <strong>GUID<\/strong>, or choose different formats according to the information in the section above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Click <strong>Erase<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/media\/2023\/04\/02-Operation-Successful.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"455\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/media\/2023\/04\/02-Operation-Successful-1024x455.jpg\" alt=\"02 Operation Successful\" class=\"wp-image-1777982\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/media\/2023\/04\/02-Operation-Successful-1024x455.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/media\/2023\/04\/02-Operation-Successful-300x133.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/media\/2023\/04\/02-Operation-Successful-768x341.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/media\/2023\/04\/02-Operation-Successful-1536x683.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/media\/2023\/04\/02-Operation-Successful.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Waiting for the Erase procedure to complete<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ffcfd3\"><strong>IMPORTANT:<\/strong> Depending on the size of the drive, it may take several minutes for the Erase procedure. Do not unplug the disk. Wait until Disk Utility displays <strong>Erase process is complete<\/strong>. <strong>Click Done to continue<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you see <strong>Operation successful<\/strong>, you can click <strong>Done<\/strong> and quit Disk Utility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"What-to-Do-If-You-Get-an-Error-Message\">What to Do If You Get an Error Message<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Under some circumstances, your drive may be formatted in such a way that Disk Utility cannot erase it on the first go. If you get an error message, Apple provides troubleshooting steps at <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/en-us\/HT210898\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How to repair a Mac disk with Disk Utility<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Learn more at Apple\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/guide\/disk-utility\/erase-and-reformat-a-storage-device-dskutl14079\/mac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Disk Utility User Guide: Erase and reformat a storage device<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"Check-Out-Apple\u2019s-Guide\">Check Out Apple\u2019s Guide<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Learn more about the advanced functions of Disk Utility, including how to <strong>Partition<\/strong>, <strong>Restore<\/strong>, and perform <strong>First Aid<\/strong> on a drive, at Apple\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/guide\/disk-utility\/welcome\/mac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Disk Utility User Guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1777984,"template":"","categories":[2,350442],"tags":[234730,75214,34850,34222,34717],"storecat":[],"itemids":[],"manufacturers":[33184],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this guide, we will show you how to back up and format an external hard drive on macOS. 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