To format a drive on a Mac, you’ll need the built-in Disk Utility application. Press Command+Space to open the Spotlight search dialog, type “Disk Utility”, and press “Enter” to launch the app. The Disk Utility application is located in the Utilities sub-folder. Launch Disk Utility and then click to select the external hard drive listed on the left. Click the 'Erase' tab, choose a volume format from the drop-down menu and then type a name for the drive.

A free application included with the Mac operating system, is a multipurpose, easy-to-use tool for working with hard drives, SSDs, and disk images. Among other things, Disk Utility can erase, format, repair, and partition hard drives and, as well as create. Note: This guide is for the version of Disk Utility found in OS X 10.10 Yosemite and earlier. Disk Utility underwent some changes in the version included with OS X El Capitan and the new macOS version of the operating system. If you need to format a drive using OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) or later, check out. Screen shot courtesy of Coyote Moon, Inc. Disk Utility works with disks and volumes.

The term 'disk' refers to the drive itself. A ' is a formatted section of a disk.

Each disk has a minimum of one volume. You can use Disk Utility to create a single volume or multiple volumes on a disk. It's important to understand the relationship between a disk and its volumes. You can erase a volume without affecting the rest of the disk, but if you erase the disk, then you erase every volume that it contains.

Disk Utility has three main sections: a toolbar that spans the top of the Disk Utility workspace; a vertical pane on the left that displays disks and volumes; and a work area on the right, where you can perform tasks on a selected disk or volume. Disk Utility is located in Applications > Utilities. If you plan to use Disk Utility for system maintenance purposes as well as for working with hard drives, add it to the. Right-click the Disk Utility icon in the Dock and select Keep in Dock from the pop-up menu. Screen shot courtesy of Coyote Moon, Inc. Erasing a volume is an easy way to. Many multimedia applications, such as Adobe Photoshop, need a large amount of contiguous disk space to work.

Erasing a volume is a faster way of creating that space than using third-party. Because this process erases all the data on a volume, many multimedia-savvy individuals create small volumes to hold a project's worth of data and then erase the volume before starting the next project.

The data-erase method outlined here doesn't address any security issues that may be associated with the erased data. How to make a thumbnail for youtube 2017 mac free. In fact, most data recovery programs would be able to resurrect the data that was erased using this simple process.

If you're concerned about security, consider using the secure erase procedure addressed later in this guide. Erase a Volume To erase a volume: • Select a volume from the disks and volumes listed at the left side of the Disk Utility window. Each disk and volume is identified by the same name and icon that it displays on the Mac desktop. • Click the Erase tab. The selected volume's name and current format display in the right side of the Disk Utility workspace.

• Click Erase. Disk Utility unmounts the volume from the desktop, erases it, and then remounts it on the desktop. The erased volume retains the same name and format type as the original. If you need to change the format type, see how to format a Mac's hard drive using Disk Utility later in this guide. Screen shot courtesy of Coyote Moon, Inc.

Disk Utility provides four options for securely erasing the data on a volume. The options include a basic erase method, a slightly more secure erase method, and two erase methods that meet or exceed U.S. Department of Defense requirements for erasing confidential data from hard drives. If you're concerned about someone being able to recover the data you're about to erase, use this secure erase method. Secure Erase If you're concerned about someone being able to recover the data you're about to erase, use this secure erase method. • Select a volume from the disks and volumes listed on the left side of the Disk Utility window.

Each disk and volume is identified by the same name and icon that it displays on the Mac desktop. • Click the Erase tab. The selected volume's name and current format display at the right side of the Disk Utility workspace. • Click Security Options to display erase options that vary depending on the version of the Mac OS you are using. For OS X Snow Leopard and Earlier​ • Don’t Erase Data. This method is quick, but not secure.

It removes the volume's catalog directory but leaves the actual data intact. • Zero Out Data. This method provides a good level of security. It erases the volume's data by writing over it with zeros. The length of time this method takes depends on the size of the volume.