- How To Clean External Hard Drive Machine
- How To Clean External Hard Drive Macbook Air
- Clean External Hard Drive Mac
- Step 1 Install the Application and Connect Your External Hard Drive to Mac. After the program download on your computer (Windows or Mac), launch the program, you will see the main main window displaying two wiping options - 'File Wip' and 'Drive Wipe'. At the same time, you should connect your external hard drive to computer via USB cable.
- If you use a Mac, follow the steps below to wipe your external hard drive: Connect your external hard drive to your computer Open your Disk Utility App Select the drive you want to wipe clean (just to be sure you don't erase the wrong hard drive, disconnect any other external hard drives and double-check that the correct drive is selected).
To wipe your mechanical drive, open Disk Utility, which you'll find in Applications Utilities. Connect the drive you want to securely delete, then click it in the sidebar. Make sure you click the drive you want to securely delete: you do not want to erase some other hard drive by mistake! When you're ready, click the 'Erase' button.
The transition from hard drives to solid state storage on both portable and desktop Macs has meant a significant reduction in storage space for most of us. That in turn has meant that many of us now have at least one external hard drive, SSD, or USB stick on which to store files. But those drives too quickly fill up and so it's useful to know how to clean up an external hard drive.
How you go about cleaning up depends on what you use the external drive for, so here's our guide on how to format an external hard drive on Mac. Mac print key.
How to format an external hard drive on Mac
Let's figure out how to format the following types of volumes:
- USB drive or flash stick
- External hard drive
- Internal hard drive
How to format a hard drive for Mac using Disk Utility
If your Mac runs a newer operating system, like macOS Mojave or macOS Catalina, you need to launch the built-in Disk Utility tool. But before that, you'll have to decide: are you erasing just a volume on your drive or your mainstartupdrive? The latter contains your macOS and if you erase it without a prior backup, you'll be in trouble.
Okay. Suppose, you'd like to format a hard drive that is your startup drive. Then, you'll need to start your Mac in a Recovery Mode.
- Shut down your Mac and turn it back on.
- Upon the startup, press and hold Command (⌘) and R keys.
- Release the keys when Apple logo appears.
You are now in macOS Utilities. To format a hard drive for Mac, choose Disk Utility in the list and click Continue.
But if you only need to format a volume (or a partition), you can access Disk Utility without entering a Recovery Mode.
Open the Launchpad in the Dock.
Type in 'Disk Utility' in the search field.
Here it is, Disk Utility where you can easily format external hard drive for Mac or any connected drive.
Select the drive you would like to format and click 'Erase' at the top of the pane. The same works for any type of drive be it a USB stick or external storage. Please, be extra careful and pay attention to what is actually selected.
How to clear space on a Time Machine hard drive
If you use an external hard drive for Time Machine and find that it's running out of space, you may need to delete older backups. Time Machine will normally warn you when free space is low and offer to delete backups automatically.
If it doesn't, you can do it yourself from within Time Machine, using Terminal, or by again using an app like CleanMyMac X which has a module designed specifically for slimming down old Time Machine backups. Follow our guide on how to thin Time Machine snapshots.
Tip:
To slim down your Time Machine backups, click on the Maintenance tab in CleanMyMac X.
How to reformat an external hard drive safely
If you're looking to format or reformat an external hard drive on your Mac, there are a couple of safety precautions.
1. Make sure you've got a backup option
Your Mac's hard drive may contain a number of partitions, including a separate partition for the macOS itself. If you accidentally format a part that contains your operating system, you'll have problems. But if that's what you aimed to do, proceed with caution. Image size converter for mac. To prepare the backup, plug in an external drive with enough free space on it. Then, run Time Machine from your Launchpad.
2. Pick an appropriate file format
Disk Utility will make you choose between APFS and Mac OS Extended. Here are a few more considerations:
- APFS is a preferred format for newer macOS versions.
- If you like to roll back to High Sierra, then choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
- If your external drive will be used with older Mac that runs High Sierra or older system, again, choose Mac OS Extended.
If you want to securely erase the volume, select Security Options and choose them. If your Mac is a new one with an SSD drive, the Security Options may not be available.
3. What if you can't reformat an external hard drive on your Mac?
In some cases Disk Utility will not show your external drive. You can try one of the following:
- Use a different cable
- Shut down your Mac and unplug all peripherals.
- Try to format Mac external hard drive again.
Free up space on all your drives at once
Dragging files to the Trash is a very slow way to free up space on a hard drive. However, you can speed it up by identifying those files that will free up the most space the fastest — in other words, the files taking up the most space. By deleting them, perhaps after archiving them on another drive you don't use on a day-to-day basis — you'll quickly free up lots of space.
You can identify the largest files on a drive manually by setting the Finder to list view and sorting files by size (click on the top of the Size column). However, you need to do that for every folder on the drive. Old files are another good candidate for deleting, or at least moving somewhere else. If you haven't opened a file in six months or more, the chances are you won't need it very often. You can use the same method to identify old files by sorting on Date Modified. Again, you'll have to do it for every folder, so it could be time consuming. A much quicker way to identify and delete large and old files from your external hard drive or USB flash drive is to use a dedicated app like CleanMyMac X.
Below are two ways of removing files from your drives: the easy way and the manual one. Choose the one you like!
Remove files with CleanMyMac X
CleanMyMac has a utility designed specifically to identify files that are occupying lots of space and those that haven't been opened for a while.
- Download CleanMyMac X and launch the app.
- Choose Large & Old files tab.
- Choose the disk and press Scan.
- You can go through files one at a time or click on the categories to the left of the list to filter them.
- When you find a file you want to delete, check the circle next to it.
- Click Remove.
There are lots of options for freeing up space on an external hard drive, depending on what you use it for. If it's a Time Machine backup or iTunes Library, you should do it from within those applications. Otherwise, one of the quickest ways to do it is to use CleanMyMac X to remove large and old files. That way you can reclaim the maximum amount of space for the minimum effort.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned!
These might also interest you:
How To Transfer Files from Mac to External Hard Drive Without Formatting.
Mac OS X one of the best operating system for Apple computers there are lots of series of computer available in Apple Stores. But sometimes performing several tasks on mac are very difficult in this article we went show you how to migrate folders and files of mac to external hard drive.
So, first of all, you've to select the best external hard drives for mac backup from which you can easily restore important documents in case of the reboot of mac. Generate a backup on mac of videos, photos, and files on an external drive.
How To Migrate Files From Mac To Hard Drive
It was easy to move files from mac to mac but moving files from Mac to external hard drive is kinda hard which also relate to recovering files from the external hard drive. https://stagedrage1970.mystrikingly.com/blog/is-bluestacks-safe-to-use.
However, sometimes due to the virus and some other error the data stored in external hard drive corporate and to recover the files from external hard drive recovery software for mac.
Now focus on, given below steps by steps guides let you know how to transfer files from mac to external hard drive.
Move Files To External Hard Drive (Drag and Drop)
Step 1
Connect the external hard drive to your mac using a USB cable and wait until the hard drive successfully connected to your computer. (Name of the drive should appear on your Mac screen).
Step 2 :
Buy windows download for mac. Open 'Finder', then locate the files to move to external hard drive.
Step 3 :
Create a New Folder in hard drive, then drag each file you want to backup from Mac system to external hard drive. Directv player 12 1 download.
Step 4 :
Close the external hard drive once all files moved to from mac to external hard drive.
Using Disk Utility To Transfer Files Mac To External Hard Drive
Sometimes your external hard drive doesn't allow you to transfer files from Mac. Because it's your hard drive may be formatted with NTFS which is normal in a windows environment.
While OS X is able to READ from a drive that is formatted at NTFS, it cannot WRITE to one. You will get a warning saying that the drive cannot be modified. To fix this error you've to use Disk Utility. Remember to save everything to Mac before formatting the apple external hard drives.
How To Formatted External Hard Drive In Mac OS X
Step 1 :
Plug-In external hard drive to Mac using the USB cable. Wait until the hard drive name appears on Mac Desktop screen.
Step 2 :
In Mac OS X disc into your mac and restart your computer. Continue pressing the 'C' key when the system is started. Mac os mojave 10 14 b3 (18a326g) direct download link.
Step 3 :
Choose the language and then select Disk Utility from Utilities menu. Now select the disk which you want to connect to your mac and click on 'Verify Disk'.
Step 4 :
Click on 'Repair Disk' button to repair the external hard drive. Click on 'New Image' and named your hard drive then select '128-bit' or '256-bit AES' from the encryption menu to add security to the backup.
Step 5 :
Click on the 'Save' button and type the administration password, Conform it. (Wait till process to begin ).
Step 6 :
How To Clean External Hard Drive Machine
Now choose the new backup from the device. After completing the imaging process, select 'Image' and then Click on 'Scan Image for Restore'.
Step 7 :
Press 'Command Q' when the scan completes and then again press the same key to quit Mac OS X Installer window.
Reformat The External Hard Drive In Mac OS X
In my research. I've found that lots of Mac users how to purchase a new hard drive for mac. When they connected that hard drive to the Mac OS X system. The external Mac hard drive successfully connected to mac but files can't transfer.
To resolve this issue, you've to reformat your external hard drive using Mac OS Extended option.
Step 1 :
Connect hard drive to Mac via USB slots.
Step 2 :
Now go to Utilities Folder > Disk Utility. Select the external hard drive.
Step 3 :
How To Clean External Hard Drive Macbook Air
As long as you don't have any important files in the external hard drive, choose 'Ease' Tab and then select 'Mac OS Extended(Journaled)'.
Step 4 :
Enter the new named of drive and Click Erase.
I hope any of these methods will work for you to transfer files from mac to external hard drives with or without formatting the drive. Give your feedback via comment box.
Clean External Hard Drive Mac
