- Apple Erase Disk
- Erase Disk Utility Mac
- Which Format To Erase Disk In Mac Operating System
- Which Format To Erase Disk In Mac Hard Drive
- Mac Erase Disk Failed
- Mac Can't Erase Disk
As I've said before, slowing down is not an option for me. At one point, I realized that there were plenty of files on my Mac that I didn't need any more, but too many to delete individually. In other cases, your Mac can be experiencing some major malfunctions: constant crashing, locked controls, slow boot times, missing files, etc. Open Disk Utility. Please See Answer 20985: How to access Disk Utility macOS 2. In the top menu bar, go to View, and choose Show All Devices. Select the upper level of the drive you would like to format and click the Erase button. Choose how you would like to format the drive. Enter a Name for your drive; Choose exFAT or MS-DOS (FAT. Let’s say the disk I want to erase has “/dev/disk5s2” as its identifier and I’m going to use Mac OS Extended Journaled (JHFS+) as the system format type and name it “Empty”. The syntax is going to look like this: Diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ Empty. Mac Computer: 1. If you are using a Mac computer, you will need to go to the Applications folder and open the application called Disk Utility. On the left panel you will be able to see the external hard disk drive you have connected to your computer. Select the drive you wish to format and on the right panel click on the 'Erase' button. Click on the Erase option from the four options available in the main window. Disk Utility will automatically choose the format for you. This may be APFS, or it may be Mac OS Extended.
Summary : The blog post shares a few safe methods to format your Mac hard drive in the desired file system format, without the risk of any data loss. Download the free-to-try Mac data recovery software to recover your erased hard drive data.
Table of Content
1. Back Up Your Mac Hard Drive before Formatting2. Format the Startup Disk in macOS Recovery Mode
3. Format a Mac External Hard Drive Using Terminal
4. Recover Data Lost due to Accidental Formatting
An internal or external Mac storage drive requires compatible files system format to be accessible in macOS. Different file system formats exist for different operating systems. For instance, you need:
- APFSformat for macOS Big Sur 11, Catalina 10.15, or Mojave 10.14
- Mac OS Extended format for macOS Sierra 10.12 or earlier
- MS-DOS (FAT) or exFAT format to make your external storage drive cross-compatible with both macOS and Windows
A new Mac with its built-in solid-state drive or hard drive comes pre-formatted with a file system that contains the macOS. You may even need to manually format your internal or external Mac storage drive or volume in the compatible file system.Formatting is helpful for:
- Preparing the startup disk to reinstall macOS
- Resolving corruption or unreadable error of the storage drive
- Changing the file system format for cross-compatibility
- Perfecting the storage drive in case Disk Utility fails to repair it
Quicken for mac demo. But storage drive formatting involves certain risks. When your Mac storage drive has stored data on it, and you accidentally erase the drive in a new file system format, macOS removes all references to the data. So, you end up losing your data.
Also, when you connect a corrupt or unreadable external storage drive to your Mac, macOS will prompt you to initialize the disk. DO NOT click the Initialize button unless it’s a new drive or you have recovered data from it. The next section discusses the correct way to format your Mac storage drive without data loss.
1. Back Up Your Mac Hard Drive before Formatting
Before erasing your Mac hard drive be it internal or external, you must back up the drive to ensure zero data loss. For an external or non-boot volume, copy all your valuable files and folders, and paste them to another external storage device. And, for Macintosh HD, the startup disk, you can use Time Machine to back up your macOS as well as its stored data. If you haven’t set up your Time Machine backup drive, you can set up the drive now.
Read More: How to Set Up Time Machine on Mac
2. Format the Startup Disk in macOS Recovery Mode
If you want to reinstall macOS or upgrade your macOS, you need to format your Macintosh HD startup disk. But you can’t format the startup disk while your macOS is running. So, you need to boot your Mac in macOS Recovery mode to access the startup disk and erase it using Disk Utility. Once you’ve backed up your Macintosh HD by using Time Machine, perform the following steps to format your startup disk and reinstall macOS:
1- Restart your Mac and immediately press and hold Command + R keys. Release the keys once you see the Apple logo or spinning globe.
2- In the macOS Utilities window, click Disk Utility, and then click Continue. In the Disk Utility window, choose View > Show All Devices.
Make a bootable mac os x usb. 3- From the left panel, select Macintosh HD and click the Erase tab. Provide the Name, Format, and Scheme in the respective field, then click Erase.
4- Once Disk Utility formats the drive with a compatible file system, quit the app.
5- Connect your Time Machine backup drive to your Mac. From macOS Utilities, select Restore from Time Machine Backup, and click Continue. Perform onscreen instructions to reinstall macOS and stored data.
6– Alternatively, from macOS Utilities, select Reinstall macOS to install a fresh copy of macOS from recovery drive or cloud. Perform the steps and restore data from backup.
3. Format a Mac External Hard Drive Using Terminal
To format Mac external storage drive or non-boot volume, you can open Disk Utility directly from Desktop and perform the erase operation. But sometimes Disk Utility throws an error while erasing an external storage drive. In that case, you can format the external drive on Mac by using Terminal, as described below:
- Press Command + Space Bar to open Spotlight. Type ‘terminal’ and hit Return to launch the Terminal application on your macOS.
- In the Terminal window, type diskutil list. Note the name and identifier of the external storage drive. Ensure you have backed up all the data from the external drive.
- Type diskutil eraseDisk FS DN D#. Here, replace the FS with the required file system format, DN with the name of the drive, and D# with the drive’s identifier.
When the process completes, Disk Utility erases the storage drive to the correct file system format. Now, you can restore the backed up data to the storage medium.
4. Recover Data Lost due to Accidental Formatting
Apple Erase Disk
Did you accidentally format a wrong hard drive on your macOS? Or erased the Mac external storage drive without backing it up in the first place?
Data loss can happen due to accidental formatting. And, Disk Utility doesn’t provide any option to undo the format. But you can get back your formatted data from the Mac hard drive by using a Mac hard drive recovery software. Perform the following steps:
Download and install the *trial version of Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac on your Mac mini, MacBook, or iMac.
On the “Select What To Recover” screen, let the default selection of Everything remain toggled on, and click Next.
On the “Select Location” screen, select the formatted Mac hard drive, turn on Deep Scan, and click Scan.
Once the scan is over, preview all the recoverable files. Click Recover, specify the save location, and click Save. Navigate to the save location to check your recovered data.
![Which Format To Erase Disk In Mac Which Format To Erase Disk In Mac](https://cdn.osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/erase-the-destination-drive-for-clean-yosemite-install.jpg)
*The trial version ofStellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac software can scan the media and show preview of recoverable files. Mac studio fix nc35 price. To save the files, you need to activate the software. And why wait if the software has a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Read More: How to Activate Stellar Data Recovery Professional on your Mac?
Conclusion
To format your Mac startup disk or external storage drive safely, you must back up the drive before erasing it with Disk Utility in a compatible file system format. In case Disk Utility fails to format the drive, use Terminal to perform the same task. But be careful while executing the Terminal commands, as any wrong operation can result in permanent data loss.
Also, when you’ve formatted your Mac hard drive or SSD accidentally without having any back-up, use Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac, a specialized data recovery software to salvage your lost data. The tool supports a variety of hard drive brands, USB types (Thunderbolt, 3.0, 2.0), and Fusion Drives.
You might know how to format an iPhone, but do you know how to format a DVD-RW? Stands for 'Digital Versatile Disk Rewritable.' A DVD-RW is like a DVD-R but can be erased and written to again. Like CD-RWs, DVD-RWs must be erased in order for new data to be added. DVD-RWs can hold 4.7GB of data and do not come in double-layered or double-sided versions like DVD-Rs do. Because of their large capacity and ability to be used multiple times, DVD-RW discs are a great solution for frequent backups. So today we will talk about how to format DVD-RW on Mac and how to rewrite it as well.
Preparation: What you need to know to format DVD-RW on a Mac
Before formatting DVD-RW, you need to know what DVD-RW is and what you need to format DVD-RW. So let's first take a look at the DVD-RW, then we have detailed solution to show you how to format a DVD-RW on Mac.
As introduced above, a DVD-RW is a disc that can be erased in order to rewrite. To record data onto a DVD-RW disc, you'll need a DVD burner that supports the DVD-RW format. Once a DVD-RW is formatted, you can use it again just like a new disc. Keep in mind that rewritable discs have a limited life. It is probably not a good idea to use them for long term file archiving, and you should never erase and reuse them more than about 100 times.
But before writing data onto a new, blank disc, you must first format it. Mac allows you to do this without the need to install a third-party utility. Every Mac made today can burn DVD-RW discs, and if your Mac has a SuperDrive, you can burn DVD-RW discs, too. The problem with reusing a rewritable DVD is that Apple didn't exactly make it easy to figure out.
Part 1: How to format DVD-RW on a Mac
If you want to know exactly how to format a DVD-RW on Mac so that you can reuse it for other data, here is what to do:
Step 1. Place the DVD-RW you want to format into your Mac. If there are any files you want to keep that are on the disc, be sure to copy them to your hard drive.
Step 2. Launch Disk Utility. It is in Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
Step 3. Select the DVD you want to format in the column on the left.
Step 4. Click the Erase tab. The Quick Erase box is checked by default. Using Quick Erase to prepare the disc for reuse takes less time.
Step 5. Click the Erase button to format the DVD-RW. Once this process finalizes you will have a clean DVD-RW ready to write on.
Part 3: How to rewrite DVD-RW on a Mac (Leawo DVD Creator for Mac)
After formatting the DVD-RW, then you will have the need to burn the new files into the DVD disc again. Concerning the DVD burning process, you have to use a third-party burning program. Leawo DVD Creator for Mac is highly recommended as your firm choice due to its powerful features in burning DVD and customized disc menu.
DVD Creator
☉ Convert videos like MP4, AVI, MKV to DVD format fast.
☉ Create DVD-5, DVD-9 disc, folder or ISO image without quality loss.
☉ 1-click operation to create photo slideshows and burn to DVD.
☉ Easily editable effects, 2D to 3D conversion support.
☉ Built-in menu templates and edit disc menu with personal preferences.
Step 1. Load video files
You can either add single video file or a video folder to this Mac DVD Creator. You can also drag the video file you need to add video files. After loading videos, at the bottom, select to burn video to DVD-5 or DVD-9 and choose a suitable aspect ratio 4:3 or 16:9. Also, you can choose the burning speed (fit to disc/2/3/5/7/9 Mbps). Space needed for DVD burning can be accessed here.
Erase Disk Utility Mac
Step 2. DVD Creator Mac program settings
In the menu bar, navigate to the 'Preferences' option to do program settings upon burning:
'General': Select a program language from preset UI languages.
'Conversion': Enable Priority native codec or not.
'Burn': Choose default DVD video mode from NTSC and PAL, according to the place you locate.
'Others': Add external subtitle, choose encoding, choose thumbnail (screenshot) location and format.
'General': Select a program language from preset UI languages.
'Conversion': Enable Priority native codec or not.
'Burn': Choose default DVD video mode from NTSC and PAL, according to the place you locate.
'Others': Add external subtitle, choose encoding, choose thumbnail (screenshot) location and format.
Step 3 Video to DVD burning settings
Which Format To Erase Disk In Mac Operating System
Click the big green 'Burn' button to call out the burning setting sidebar, where you could set Burn to, Disc Label and Save to options. The 'Burn to' option allows multiple choices. To burn video to DVD disc on Mac, you need to insert a blank writable DVD disc into the disc recorder drive, and then select it as target under the 'Burn to' option.
Step. 4 Burn video to DVD
After you inserted a blank DVD disc to your DVD drive, chose path to save to, and typed the disc labeled, start to burn video to DVD on Mac by clicking on the 'Burn' button. Then it will start video to DVD creation.
Which Format To Erase Disk In Mac Hard Drive
Leawo DVD Creator can burn DVD from more than 180+ formats of videos and photos with 6X faster speed. Additionally, it can allow you to experience all kinds of DVD menu templates for free and you can edit your video according to your own preference. Besides, you can freely choose subtitles and audio tracks as well as preview changes in the video instantly and screenshot taking.
Mac Erase Disk Failed
Conclusion
Mac Can't Erase Disk
All the solution above are good ways to help you figure out the problem that how to format a DVD-RW on Mac. Remember that you have to make sure your DVD disc is the type that can be rewritten and read. You can erase the DVD disc freely and you can also rewrite the new files into the DVD disc again with the help of powerful Leawo DVD Creator.