How to Format an External Drive for Mac - 3 Tips You NEED to Know! || macOS Disk Utility Tutorial

[@edwardmacnab354]

Excellent and helpful video , short and to the point covering everything

[@andrewsaraceni]

Thanks Edward, glad you found it helpful!

[@OwlWellliving]

Thank you! This caused me so much stress and so much lost time! Thank you again New sub

[@andrewsaraceni]

No problem, and thanks for the sub!

[@luxdevine]

Hi Andrew, this is an excellent video - thank you! It saved me a ton of time and avoided a mistake I made before. You have a new sub. I'm checking out your other videos. Do you ever work in product photography?

[@andrewsaraceni]

Glad you enjoyed the video, and thanks for the sub! On a few occasions I have, but not regularly - usually lots of other gigs (e.g. weddings, concerts, corporate/commercial, real estate).

[@chrisorescan8941]

Thank you Andrew, excellent video with complete coverage of all important aspects and without a bunch of useless over-talking.

[@andrewsaraceni]

No problem, Chris! I really appreciate that.

[@badmuse]

This is the ideal tutorial, thank you. "Is it not possible to have Time Machine use only part of an external drive?" is the question I'm left with at the end.

[@andrewsaraceni]

No problem! Yes, you can partition the drive in Disk Utility to use only part of it for Time Machine, and the rest of it for other uses.

[@hemakingbigmoves]

since I'm having so much problem with the G drive, it was brought to my attention which drive is more suitable for the MacBook Pro so I don't have to run into this issue

[@andrewsaraceni]

All drives are compatible once you format them. But yes, some out of the box "Mac" ones might let you skip some steps in formatting and using them

[@abbyrifl3]

thank you! super fast and easy

[@andrewsaraceni]

No problem!

[@simonekoffman]

Hi Andrew, thank you for an excellent vid. I do have a question, on my mac's disk utility, I had the external hard drive showing, then something else and then a container. My friend's computer only shows the external drive's name which makes things nice and clean with no confusion of which drive I'm looking at. Can you explain this container stuff please. Looking forward to seeing more of your vids as I like how short and to the point you are.

[@andrewsaraceni]

Thanks Simone, and no problem! That might be the difference in using Disk Utility's "Show Only Volumes" (your setting) vs. "Show All Devices" (your friend's). It can be toggled from the View menu.

[@Guru_Swami]

Phenomenal How To! As a Pc to Mac convert and new user this was beyond helpful!

[@andrewsaraceni]

Thanks Sameer, glad to hear it helped!

[@js9134]

Hi Andrew, can I encrypt the SSD on mac in exFAT format?

[@andrewsaraceni]

The challenge with that is other OS's wont be able to decrypt it without using third-party software (e.g. TrueCrypt) that works on Mac, Windows, etc. So technically "yes", but not without some challenges and additional legwork.

[@zethphansmith-gneist5709]

I just bought the Samsung T7 disk but the option APFS won't show on my Mac Sonoma 14.3.1. also I made sure to select ''show all devices''. Any ideas? Thank you :)

[@andrewsaraceni]

Are you on the Erase step, and you've selected the right device? It should be an option, but it's possible you might not have the option if you're coming from an older Mac that's been upgraded over time (i.e. that's still using Mac OS Extended).

[@RussellWebsterMusic]

So in doing an initial Time Machine backup on a brand new drive, I just go straight to the TM steps? No need to do the format via DU? Thanks!

[@andrewsaraceni]

Yep, I would start with that, and only go to DU if it has any trouble locating or formatting the drive (but it generally shouldn't).

[@cken27]

Nice and clear explanation even for non computer-savvy people

[@andrewsaraceni]

Thanks Ken, I appreciate that!

[@n0t_spark]

Great video! Very informative when it comes to Format Options!

[@andrewsaraceni]

Thanks, I appreciate that!

[@quicksite]

Well done Andrew. I've often used ExFAT before for drives where I want to be able to store files, imgs, etc from my Android Phone. Works great. Here I am going to choose ExFAT again, but this time because of your descriptions that it's the format to use when you possibly will be mixing files that originated from an earlier version of MacOS before APFS was created.

[@andrewsaraceni]

Thanks! ExFAT is definitely a safe choice for that scenario (and many others, as you noted).

[@quicksite]

One question: when I plug in a new portable HDD drive, at which level should erase & format in ExFAT: Name of the drive model? example: WD Elements2621 Media, or at the name of the drive level? example: disk2s1 ... ??

[@andrewsaraceni]

Good question - I usually just do this at the volume/drive name level, and leave the drive model. I think Apple mostly leads folks in this direction, given Show Only Volumes is chosen by default in Disk Utility.

[@xx3868]

Hi, i have a 2012 Mac Pro but when autodetect it says "no HFS+ file systems found" I used this program on a old 2004 mac and it seemed to work and bring up all the files. Can this program read all old and newish mac file systems? using HSF Explorer 2020.9.17

[@andrewsaraceni]

What format are the original files on the disk you're trying to read from? You could try the program, but modern Macs should still be able to read HFS+ drives. If it's an older format (e.g. HFS), Id try to get the files off of there and onto a more modern, formatted disk.

[@Johnlynchfilm]

Good info. ℹ️ thanks 🙏

[@andrewsaraceni]

No problem, John!

[@giandaoliveira]

Thank you very much for all information. You really helped me a lot.

[@andrewsaraceni]

No problem Gianda, glad to hear this helped you!

[@literallyinexile]

Thank you very much Andrew !

[@andrewsaraceni]

No problem!

[@MyLifeAsAMum]

Hi, my max is 2015, I was just given the hornettek enterprise 4x quad bay hardtive with 2T drives in but the format says windows NT file system (NTSF) I’ve tried to right click the drive and format but it won’t do it and I can’t drag and drop stuff the store 🤷🏼‍♀️ please help.

[@andrewsaraceni]

If you're formatting it on a Mac, you'll need to go into Disk Utility and reformat the drives - possibly each drive 1 by 1. I do also offer consultations for more direct 1-on-1 help.

[@MyLifeAsAMum]

@@andrewsaraceni I clicked erase and they unmounted and mounted, one by one in seconds... Thanks for replying.

[@Thavisup]

Thank you, very useful.

[@andrewsaraceni]

No problem!

[@Ashley_Corliss]

Thank you. I don’t know what most of these terms mean but my ssd works now :)

[@andrewsaraceni]

No problem, Ashley! As long as you're up and running, that's all that matters.🙂

[@estasmagick]

Thank you!!

[@andrewsaraceni]

No problem!

[@manishmopatel]

Brilliant tutorial, I have only just got my first Mac... Thank you so much :) Brilliant Video

[@andrewsaraceni]

No problem, glad you liked it!

[@robdtoys]

what do you recommend for a spinning HHD but using the newest OS?

[@andrewsaraceni]

The same settings/rules I mentioned in the video should still apply.

[@Wombats-1]

I have TM backups from other drives. when I try to populate them all to one single drive I get the circle and unable to move them all over to one single drive. I have always used TM to format the drives I had so I am confused why I can't all them all to one location?

[@andrewsaraceni]

Are any of the backups encrypted, or the drives/Macs they're backing up from encrypted? You may have to start from scratch and partition the one drive/location to handle all of them.

[@rgarlinyc]

Thanks a lot Andrew Saraceni - exactly what I was looking for, and perfectly explained! [Roger]

[@andrewsaraceni]

No problem Roger, glad you found it helpful!

[@krizz1430]

Very helpful in a very busy day..😅tq

[@andrewsaraceni]

No problem, glad it helped you!

[@pfmfm5516]

hi, my disk utility is not working, how can I reformat my external drive without disk utility??? is there another software for mac that can do this???

[@andrewsaraceni]

What's the issue you're having with it? What version of macOS are you running? Other utilities exist, but Disk Utility not working is likely a bigger problem...

[@derojuai]

@@andrewsaraceniI’m trying to reformat it from Master boot record to Guidd on my book. Please help

[@andrewsaraceni]

@@derojuai I go over that around the 1:00 mark.

[@hemakingbigmoves]

1:12 mine is showing as unknown how to fix it

[@andrewsaraceni]

You could still try following the same procedure in the video, if Disk Utility lets you.

[@hemakingbigmoves]

@@andrewsaraceni now its saying Uninitialized

[@andrewsaraceni]

@@hemakingbigmoves That's good! That's the same state mine was in the video, so you can just start at 1:12 and go from there.

[@hemakingbigmoves]

@@andrewsaraceni now its saying APFS Volume • APFS

[@hemakingbigmoves]

@@andrewsaraceni when I go to erase only name and format pops up the scheme is not there for mines

[@aprilbird4000]

What do I do if it says the operation failed?

[@andrewsaraceni]

Give it a second or third try, or try disconnecting/reconnecting the drive and running it again.

[@hemakingbigmoves]

I try your method it still not working

[@hemakingbigmoves]

I hit erase and it failed

[@andrewsaraceni]

@@hemakingbigmoves Again, it's difficult to troubleshoot over YT comments without seeing what you're doing. Reach out to me and we can discuss a consultation if you're interested

[@heavenlyathome]

What if it's super old lol like windows vista old

[@andrewsaraceni]

EXFAT should still be supported on Vista, believe it or not, but otherwise FAT32 would be the route to go.

[@heavenlyathome]

@@andrewsaraceni Wait... erase all the data???😢

[@andrewsaraceni]

@@heavenlyathome Back up your data first! But yes, then erase and reformat.

[@MyLifeAsAMum]

*Mac