Jan 10, 2020  Using your USB drive to boot Mac is not as simple as you think. You need to prepare your USB drive beforehand for this specific purpose. You have to format the USB drive and insert the proper Operating System, which is OS X. Turn on your Mac. As soon as the startup music begins you need to press and keep holding the 'Option' key.

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Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for Mac. Whether you are trying to backup Mac to an external hard drive, wipe out any personal information and sell the computer, or even use a new operating system, you need to format the hard drive on your Mac or PC.

But before you can do anything, you need to make it clear that the hard drive you want to wipe or format would be an external hard drive or an internal hard drive. We can easily format external hard drive for Mac. But when it comes to format internal hard drive for mac, things are getting a little more complicated. Maybe we will go through with the way to format a startup drive for Mac later. But now in this guide, we will cover the situation of formatting an external hard drive in steps.

Mar 31, 2020  On a PC, the process is less straightforward than what you see on a Mac, but it’s now easier than ever. Step 1: Right-click on the Start button and select Disk Management on the pop-up menu. Discover the world of external hard drives for Mac. Compare portable, USB and external hard drive models for office and home and shop online. Sep 15, 2018  A Mac will format a hard drive to HFS+ which Windows cannot see, both Mac and Windows can see a NTFS formatted drive. You will need to use a 3rd party HFS+ to NTFS conversion utility that will not result in data loss, Windows itself cannot do that. Jun 24, 2020  This wikiHow teaches you how to transfer your OS to an SSD on PC or Mac. Before you can transfer your OS (operating system) to a new hard drive, you need to connect it to your computer. If your computer has space, you can install the new SSD alongside your old hard drive. Format Hard Drive For Mac and PC Overview of the Steps. You format your external hard drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system. You format your external hard drive to ExFAT. Then you can share the drive. You can go ahead without step 1. While you can physically connect a Mac hard drive to a Windows PC, the PC cannot read the drive unless third-party software is installed. Because the two systems use different file systems for storage: Macs use the HFS, HFS+, or HFSX file systems, and PCs use either the FAT32 or NTFS.Luckily, as long as the drive type (e.g., SATA, IDE, or SCSI) is compatible with your motherboard, there are a.

Notice that you need to backup your importanct files on the hard drive you are going to format as the procedure would delete all of the data and bring it back to the factory settings.

Format an external hard drive for Mac

How to Format External Hard Drive for Mac

If you are trying to format Mac external hard drive, you can go over the process step by step:

Step 1. Connect your hard drive to your Mac.

Step 2. Open Finder and choose 'Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility' to launch the app on your Mac.

Step 3. Once you open the Disk Utility app, you can see all the drives on your Mac are listed on the left-hand sidebar. Just select the one you want to format and click on the 'Erase' tab.

Format an external hard drive for Mac

Step 4. Now in this interface, you will see a 'Format' option. In this drop-down box, you are allowed to choose different format.

OS X Extended (Journaled) should be selected if you are going to use the drive as a system or 'boot' drive on macOS.

Mac OS Extended should be selected if you will be using the drive as a media or 'scratch' drive on Mac.

Mac OS (FAT) is compatible with both PC and Mac platforms. However, there's a limit to transfer files within 4GB.

ExFAT is similar with Mac OS (FAT) but it can work with files as large as 16EB (exabytes)

So if you are going to use an external drive for both your Windows PC and your Mac, you should choose the ExFAT or FAT format.

Choose format for hard drive

Step 5. Name your drive you like but it would be better to choose something specific, so that you can make things clear every time when you look at its name.

Step 6. Click on the 'Security Options' button and you are able to choose the way (fastest or more secure) to format your external disk. The fastest way will save your time but it erases the drive only by removing the header information. That is to say, you can easily restore the hard drive using a data recovery software if the files haven't been overwritten. It is not good and the format process is meaningless in some way. So maybe you can try the more secure one. It may take quite a long time, but it will erase the drive in a deeper way.

Step 7. Click on the 'Erase' button to start erasing the external hard drive or USB. Formatting a hard drive will take a while and wait for it patiently. Once the progress bar is at 100%, the job is done!

How to Recover Formatted Hard Drive on Mac

As it is mentioned above, after formatting a hard drive, all data on the hard drive will be erased. But what if you have second thought and need to recover files from the formatted drive? Is it possible to recover files from formatted drive on Mac? Yes, it is possible. But you'll need FonePaw Data Recovery, a Mac data recovery program that can recover deleted files from hard drive, SD card, USB drive even the drive has been formatted.

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Step 1. Run FonePaw Data Recovery on your Mac. Remember that you should not install the application on the formatted drive. Otherwise, some of the files could be overwritten by the application.

Step 2. When the application is open, select the files you want to retrieve from the formatted drive. Tick the formatted hard drive. And click Scan.

Step 3. The application will first quickly scan some easy-to-get files on the formatted hard drive. If you need more files. Click Deep Scan to find files that are buried deeper.

Step 4. View the results by file types or path. Tick the files you need and click Recover. If you have deleted files that haven't been found, do not save the recovered files on the formatted drive. Instead, save them on other drive, such as your USB drive.

If you have any problem when following the steps to format hard drive for Mac, please leave us a message on the comment box below!

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by Jenefey AaronUpdated on 2020-01-10 / Update for OS X

You may need to boot up your Mac using an external drive or boot volume once in a while, rather than using a start up disk. Booting with an external disk has a lot of significance. Maybe you want to troubleshoot some problems, repair the disk, do partitions, format the entire disk, update, and install OS X etc. All these are executed perfectly when you use an external boot volume to boot up your Mac. In this article, we are here with the detailed step by step guide on how to boot Mac from external hard drive easily. So, let's get started…

Part 1: How to Boot Mac from USB Drive/CD/DVD

Actually, it is possible to boot Mac from external drive or a hard drive, but there are a few specific requirements needed for your Mac to become eligible for that process.

• First, you have to have an Intel-Based Mac.
• Second, the CD or DVD you are using to boot must contain Apple’s Super Drive or if you are using a USB drive then it should be formatted with GUID Partition, and you are also required to install OS X installer. Apple is against booting Mac from an external storage device, because you may install an older version of OS X than the one you were using.

Boot from CD or DVD:

If you want to boot your MacBook/Air/Pro/iMac from an optical media like CD or DVD you need to follow the steps below:

1. Open your Mac or restart the device if you were already using it.

2. When the startup music is playing press and hold the “C” key from the keyboard.

3. This will start the OS X installer from the CD/DVD on your Mac.

So, it is not too complicated to Mac boot from CD/DVD. You can easily burn a bootable image of OS X on a DVD by using Disk Utility.

Boot from External USB:

Using your USB drive to boot Mac is not as simple as you think. You need to prepare your USB drive beforehand for this specific purpose. You have to format the USB drive and insert the proper Operating System, which is OS X.

1. Turn on your Mac.

2. As soon as the startup music begins you need to press and keep holding the 'Option' key.

3. After that release that key, the Startup manager will be launched.

4. Startup Manager will begin scanning your device and you will be provided with a list of devices that are connected to your Mac.

5. Now, select the drive you want to use with your mouse.

6. Finally, press 'Return' key on the selected option to boot Mac.

This way you can boot your Mac with an external USB drive, but the most critical part is to prepare the USB drive. If you have multiple USB drives connected, then the Startup Manager shall list the drives with the bootable OS. So, this is how to boot Mac from USB drive.

Part 2: Common Problems and Fixes When Boot Mac from External Drive

You may face several issues during MacBook Pro Boot from USB or any external drive. So, a few FAQs are mentioned below which may help you when you are facing any difficulties.

Clone Hard Drive Mac Os

• 1. Have you tried connecting to a different USB port?

If you are unable to startup the installer after connecting the USB drive to your Mac, then first you should try connecting it to a different USB port. It may fix the problem.

• 2. Have you formatted the USB drive with GUID partition?

If you are having problems with your USB storage device then you need to make sure that if you have properly formatted the drive with GUID partition. You have to do it properly otherwise the Intel-Based Mac won't start.

• 3. Is your Mac shutting down after connecting the disk?

Actually, the MacBook contains a preventive measure and because of that computer shuts down automatically when a damaged USB drive is connected or if the USB port itself is damaged.

• 4. Is your Disk needs repair?

If your Mac fails to boot from an external drive even though you have properly installed the OS X installer, then maybe your disk is damaged. You should open Disk Utility and ask permission to repair disk.

• 5. Have you connected the USB drive properly?

There are two types of Apple keyboards, Wired and Wireless. There are also some keyboards with inbuilt USB ports but they may not have enough power to run the drive.

So, this is how to startup Mac from external drive. Follow the frequently asked questions to clear any doubts that you have while booting from external hard drive Mac.

In case, you want to recover any lost or deleted Mac files after a boot, we highly recommend you to go for Tenorshare Any Data Recovery for Mac. It is a utility data recovery tool capable of recovering any type of data from Mac with ease. Go for it!

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• Recover data deleted, formatted or lost on Mac;
• Restore files from hard drive and external storage devices;
• Recover data from failed/crashed/dead MacBook;
• Fully supported latest macOS 10.15 Catalina;