Format external hard drive on Mac

Do you have an external hard drive and want to format it on a Mac or MacBook? It is not difficult. However, there are a few things to consider. We'll show you how it works.

Format hard disk on Mac - but correctly

You can partition and format your external hard drive on Mac using the Disk Utility. You can find this under "Programs - Utilities". Formatting the external hard drive on Mac is helpful or even necessary for several reasons. But be careful: Partitioning and formatting destroy the data stored on the respective hard disk. Therefore, you have to be extremely careful not to accidentally destroy important files.

1. Most external disks come pre-formatted as FAT32. As a result, they run on most computers, but functions are lost.
2. You can only create multiple partitions by rebuilding the disk. This is important if you want to separate backups and other data, for example.
3. If you want to use the hard drive as a TimeMachine drive, you should use the Mac's own file system.

Different file systems for different purposes

Various file systems are available under Mac OS X - all with special advantages and disadvantages:

1. In Disk Utility, a new disk is formatted by default with HFS + (Mac OS Extended). Windows systems can only read or write HFS + with additional software.
2. FAT32 can be used universally, is supported by most systems and is therefore well suited if you want to use the hard disk on different operating systems. Unfortunately, it does not support files larger than 4 GB. It is therefore unsuitable for ISOs from DVDs or the recordings of your HD camcorder.
3. NTFS does not have many of the problems of FAT32, but can only be read by Mac OS without additional software. You can retrofit write access using NTFS-3G.

Delete external hard drive on Mac and set up again

To set up the hard drive, proceed as follows:

1. Connect your external hard drive to the Mac. Then start the disk utility.
2. In the left column you can see the connected drives. The first entry should be your internal hard drive. You must not reformat them. One of the entries shows the external disk. Depending on the type of connection, this can be recognized by the corresponding symbol (yellow with USB sign in the screenshot).
3. When you are sure that you have selected the correct hard drive, click "Delete". The entire disk is selected in the picture, but you can also mark individual partitions for deletion. Then select the file system.
4. After formatting, the volume is available.

Partition external hard drive under Mac OS X.

If you don't like the partitioning scheme of your hard drive, you can also change the partitioning. This is necessary, for example, if you need several partitions in certain sizes or if you want to get rid of an already set up partition.

1. Find the external disk in Disk Utility as described above and click "Partition".
2. Select a volume scheme to determine the number of partitions.
3. Click on one of the created partitions to adjust the name, format and size.
4. When you're done, click Apply.

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Tip: The best external hard drives for Mac

So that you can work well with your formatted hard disk, it should have enough storage space and be particularly fast.

• You can find great models with 2.5 inches in our always current best list. These hard drives are perfect for transportation as they fit in almost any pocket.
• You get more storage with larger dimensions with a 3.5-inch hard drive. The fastest models in this class can be found in our detailed test ranking.

If you need individual help with formatting your external hard drive, please contact the experts in the CHIP forum.