Once the progress bar is at 100%, the job is done! # How to Recover Formatted Hard Drive on MacĪs it is mentioned above, after formatting a hard drive, all data on the hard drive will be erased. Formatting a hard drive will take a while and wait for it patiently. Click on the 'Erase' button to start erasing the external hard drive or USB. It may take quite a long time, but it will erase the drive in a deeper way. So maybe you can try the more secure one. It is not good and the format process is meaningless in some way. That is to say, you can easily restore the hard drive using a data recovery software if the files haven't been overwritten.

The fastest way will save your time but it erases the drive only by removing the header information. Click on the 'Security Options' button and you are able to choose the way (fastest or more secure) to format your external disk. Name your drive you like but it would be better to choose something specific, so that you can make things clear every time when you look at its name. So if you are going to use an external drive for both your Windows PC and your Mac, you should choose the ExFAT or FAT format. However, there's a limit to transfer files within 4GB.ĮxFAT is similar with Mac OS (FAT) but it can work with files as large as 16EB (exabytes) Mac OS (FAT) is compatible with both PC and Mac platforms. Mac OS Extended should be selected if you will be using the drive as a media or 'scratch' drive on Mac. OS X Extended (Journaled) should be selected if you are going to use the drive as a system or 'boot' drive on macOS. In this drop-down box, you are allowed to choose different format. Now in this interface, you will see a 'Format' option. Just select the one you want to format and click on the 'Erase' tab. Once you open the Disk Utility app, you can see all the drives on your Mac are listed on the left-hand sidebar.

Open Finder and choose 'Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility' to launch the app on your Mac. If you are trying to format Mac external hard drive, you can go over the process step by step: # How to Format External Hard Drive for Mac How to Recovery Hard Drive Data on Windows.

How to format a drive for mac os