format external hard drive mac apple time machine apfs

#Format external hard drive mac apple time machine apfs for free#
#Format external hard drive mac apple time machine apfs how to#
#Format external hard drive mac apple time machine apfs mac os#

Boot your Mac in Recovery mode by holding down Command and R until you see the Apple logo or other image.The steps for reformatting an Intel Mac and one that runs on Apple silicon are slightly different, so we’ll describe them separately. It doesn’t matter how you do it just make sure you back up all your data. You can use Time Machine or another backup tool. You will wipe all the data from the disk when you reformat it, so you must back up the drive before you begin. This is the most critical step in the process. However, if you need to do it, here’s what you should do.

#Format external hard drive mac apple time machine apfs for free#

You can download it for free here.Īs we said in the introduction, this is very much a last resort. Its Maintenance module can repair disk permissions, free up RAM and run maintenance scripts to fix performance issues on your Mac. CleanMyMac X’s System Junk tool can get rid of old junk files that might be affecting your Mac performance. If you have problems with your Mac that are causing it to crash, you may not need to reformat. If the problem is preventing the Mac from booting or causing it to crash or perform erratically, reformatting and reinstalling macOS might be the only answer. The main reason why you may need to reformat your Mac is if the startup drive has developed a problem that Disk Utility or a third-party disk management tool can’t fix. Why you may need to reformat the hard drive on your Mac If you’re reformatting a USB stick or portable hard drive, you may want to use APFS encrypted to protect your data if the drive is lost or stolen.

#Format external hard drive mac apple time machine apfs mac os#

If you’re using it as your Mac’s main drive, APFS is the best choice as it has replaced Mac OS Extended as Apple’s preferred file system for macOS. When you reformat a drive, you can choose which file system to use. For Macs, that file system can be HFS+ (Mac OS Extended Journaled) or APFS (Apple File System). creating a new file system that can be read from and written to by the operating system of the computer you’re using.checking for bad sectors and other errors.wiping the disk (or, in reality, destroying the file structure so that no references to the files remain - the files themselves still exist until they are overwritten).There are several steps to the process involving: In the simplest terms, reformatting a disk means wiping it clean of data and preparing it for use again, whereas formatting a disk just describes the first time it is prepared for use.

#Format external hard drive mac apple time machine apfs how to#

Whatever your reason for reformatting your Mac, we’ll show you how to do it here. A more likely scenario is that you want to reformat an external drive or USB stick, perhaps one you bought or were given and that was formatted for PC. But, occasionally, if your boot drive has become irreparably corrupt, it may be the only option. It’s a pretty drastic step that should only be contemplated in desperate circumstances. Most of us will never need to reformat our Macintosh. But to help you do it all by yourself, we’ve gathered our best ideas and solutions below.įeatures described in this article refer to the MacPaw site version of CleanMyMac X. So here's a tip for you: Download CleanMyMac to quickly solve some of the issues mentioned in this article.