Why to Format Mac Hard Drive?
Formatting a Mac Hard Drive could be very helpful for various factors like in preparing the startup disk to reinstall macOS to sort out the mess spread on the system. Formatting is also proved helpful in correcting the corruption or unreadable errors occurring for the storage drive. As Mac offers various different formats, formatting a system can be important to change the file system format for cross-compatibility with various other formats. Formatting can also repair the storage device when the Disk Utility fails to fix it.
However, the entire process of formatting Mac systems involves a lot of risk as the data could accidentally format forever too.
In case of an external hard drive, if it is a corrupt or unreadable drive, then the system will ask to initialize the disk which should NOT be done in order to save data from getting lost. Although if it is empty or there is a backup of the data on the drive, then it is safe to initialize.
What is the correct way to format Mac drive?
- Take backup: Before formatting a Mac hard drive, take backup of all the data which can either be in an internal or an external hard drive. In case the Time Machine Backup is not set up, then this is the time to set it up so that it can save a backup of the data for recovery in future.
- Format the Startup Disk in macOS Recovery Mode: Mac could be formatted without losing any data with the help of following steps:
- Restart Mac and immediately press and hold ‘Command’ + ‘R’ keys.
- Release the keys when Apple’s logo or a spinning globe pops on the screen.
- The MacOS Utility window will pop up.
- Click ‘Disk Utility’ and then ‘Continue.’
- In the Disk Utility window, choose ‘Show All Devices’ under ‘View.’
- Select ‘Macintosh HD’ from the left panel and then click ‘Erase.’
- Provide the required information in the new tab and then again click ‘Erase.’
- Once the format is complete, close the app.
- Restore data from Time Machine Backup.
- Reinstall macOS.
- Format a Mac External Hard Drive using Terminal: In case Disk Utility doesn’t let the external storage device to be erased, these steps can help formatting it using a terminal:
Before starting the process, make sure the data is backed up.
- Open Spotlight by pressing ‘Command + Space Bar.’
- Type ‘terminal’ and press ‘Return’ which will launch the Terminal application on the macOS.
- Type ‘diskutil list’ in the Terminal window.
- Type ‘diskutil eraseDisk FS DN D#’
(Here, FS should be replaced with the required file system format; DN stands for the name of the drive, and D# for the drive’s identifier.)
- Once the process is complete, the data could be restored from the backup.
- Data Recovery after Accidental File Deletion: Even after so many backups and care, there are chances of accidentally losing data in the process of formatting the Mac hard drive. In this case, Stellar Data Recovery for Mac is the best way to go. Here are easy steps to do without hassle:
Click on the above mentioned link to Download and launch the Stellar Data Recovery Software for Mac on the system (Mac mini, MacBook, or iMac).
“The trial version of Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac software will show preview of all the deleted files from mac drive. To save the files, the customer needs purchase the software.”
- Select what to recover and click ‘Next.’
- Select location, turn on ‘Deep Scan’ and click ‘Scan.’
- Preview the files and click ‘Recover’ once satisfied.
- Select the location where the data needs to be saved and click ‘Save.’
Why Stellar Data Recovery for Mac?
The internet and the market is flooded with numerous Mac recovery softwares but then why Stellar?
Here is a list of the reasons which will answer this question:
- The software is compatible with APFS, HFS+, FAT & NTFS drives.
- The software recovers data from all Mac devices like MacBook (Pro & Air), iMac, Mac Mini.
- The software harmonizes with the latest macOS Catalina and lower versions.
- The software can recover data lost due to deletion, formatting, virus attack, drive corruption, etc.
- The software can recover data from crashed and unbootable Macs.
- The software recovers all types of files and repairs corrupt videos and photos
- 100% safe and secure data recovery
- 30 Day money back guarantee
Conclusion
Concluding the entire article, it is really important to mention that backing up data before formatting a device is the best policy to adopt. In the case of Mac, Time Machine Backup is also a great way to keep the data always there in recoverable form. Besides, always format the Startup Disk in macOS Recovery Mode in order to prevent data from getting lost. Even if you happen to accidentally lose data, the number one software of India, Stellar Data Recovery Software for Mac is the way to go.
