December 13, 2024
Format a Hard Drive Using Mac OS X Disk Utility

Format a Hard Drive Using Mac OS X Disk Utility

Posted May 9, 2008 at 12:08am by iClarified
These are instructions on how to format a hard drive using Mac OS X Disk Utility.

Step One
If your hard drive is an external drive, connect it to the computer. Launch Disk Utility from the Applications:Utilities folder.
Format a Hard Drive Using Mac OS X Disk Utility

Format a Hard Drive Using Mac OS X Disk Utility


Step Two
From the list on the left select the drive you would like to format
Format a Hard Drive Using Mac OS X Disk Utility

Step Three
Click to select the Erase tab.
Format a Hard Drive Using Mac OS X Disk Utility

Step Four
From the Volume Format dropdown select the format you would like the drive to be in.
Format a Hard Drive Using Mac OS X Disk Utility

Step Five
Enter the title for your volume in the Name field.
Format a Hard Drive Using Mac OS X Disk Utility

Step Six
Press the Security Options... button to specify how to erase the drive. You can choose: Don't Erase Data, Zero Out Data, 7-Pass Erase, or 35-Pass Erase. Click the OK button to continue.
Format a Hard Drive Using Mac OS X Disk Utility

Step Seven
You are now ready to begin the format. Click the Erase... button to start.
Format a Hard Drive Using Mac OS X Disk Utility

Step Eight
From the popup that appears click the Erase button to confirm you would like to format.
Format a Hard Drive Using Mac OS X Disk Utility

Step Nine
You will notice a status bar appear with the progress of your format.
Format a Hard Drive Using Mac OS X Disk Utility

Step Ten
Once the format has completed you will notice the disk remount in Disk Utility!
Format a Hard Drive Using Mac OS X Disk Utility
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Comments (34)
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The Don
The Don - March 1, 2017 at 2:09am
Hi, i have completed all these steps, however i can not find the external drive on the computer. Is it supposed to show up on the desktop...??
John Grooms
John Grooms - January 2, 2017 at 7:00pm
This was a total pain in the butt. I'm sending this POS back. Merry Christmas.
SLM
SLM - November 8, 2016 at 4:53pm
I went through this process when I first bought the drive and it worked. However the drive isn't showing despite the fact that it says it is mounted and has stopped working with files stored on it. When going through this process there is no option to leave data unerased and so I risk losing all my data if I reformat. Any thoughts?
TRH
TRH - September 11, 2016 at 2:12pm
I am so backwards with technology so when my seagate expansion didn't work with my mac I panicked thinking I wouldn't be able to format it.. however these instructions were fool proof. Thank you!!
TROPICAL2016
TROPICAL2016 - July 23, 2016 at 2:05pm
Yesterday I bought an Expansion Drive from Seagate and didn't notice that it was only for PCs. Since I have a Mac, the above explanation helped a lot and now my new HD is working perfectly on my Mac Pro. Many many thanks !
felicity
felicity - June 3, 2016 at 4:04am
Awesome, works a treat. My boss was doing his head in.
Salmon Tree
Salmon Tree - March 20, 2016 at 4:44am
Wow, actually worked. Didn't know if the comments were auto-generated so i was skeptical but it actually worked heaps well. I just did the no erase option and it literally took 40 seconds lol. Thanks heaps whoever made this!
deathtoallpoets
deathtoallpoets - February 12, 2016 at 8:40pm
Worked perfectly for me! Thanks for this!
KMC
KMC - January 21, 2016 at 1:45pm
Thank you very much. So simply put and worked seamlessly!
jamin
jamin - December 31, 2015 at 4:13am
nice and ezy to understand and worked thanks ..
Anton Zeekd
Anton Zeekd - December 15, 2015 at 4:18pm
I accidentally installed a brand new drive into my 2009 iMac without formatting it first. Now I am stuck. I have the discs but every instruction I find says to open disk utility. I can't get to it since this drive is unformnatted. Please help.
JAWSH
JAWSH - December 3, 2015 at 8:44pm
Worked perfectly. Thank you!
JIM FITZPATRICK
JIM FITZPATRICK - August 12, 2015 at 8:19pm
Thanks a mil. JF
Don Ellis
Don Ellis - July 13, 2015 at 2:34pm
I tried this with a Seagate Expansion 1T STEA1000400 and a 2011 MacBook Pro. The described process is what I expected, but the drive doesn't show up in Disk Utility. Shows up just fine on my ChromeBook (which does have a USB3 port).
Jacob116
Jacob116 - June 19, 2015 at 9:22am
oh my goodness...thank you so much.
Alana
Alana - June 8, 2015 at 11:14am
extremely helpful thank you !
walt
walt - May 3, 2015 at 6:38pm
Nice n easy, thank you!!!
Ada Unal
Ada Unal - March 14, 2015 at 12:27pm
Thank you so much!!!!!
Di
Di - November 13, 2014 at 6:38am
The BEST advice on doing this. Thank YOU!!!
Meagan
Meagan - October 28, 2014 at 6:38am
I have been trying to do this for about 2 hours until I stumbled across your post - thank you! The easiest and smoothest way by far.
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