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You are here: Home / Latest / The Main Purposes to Reformat Your Hard Drive on Mac

The Main Purposes to Reformat Your Hard Drive on Mac

February 8, 2022 By Raghuram Leave a Comment

  • reformat your hard drive on mac

Mac users reformat hard drives for various reasons starting from making more space in the drive to erasing all the personal information.

The purpose of reformatting is endless, but the result is a much cleaner drive with enough space to save ample information.

Here are a few key purposes Mac users reformat their hard drive and some tips on do’s and don’ts. 

Getting rid of the malware 

Sometimes Mac systems get infected by viruses, malware, or Trojan software and the antivirus doesn’t help much. Users reformat hard drive in such cases to get rid of the malicious programs completely and make the disk as good as new.

In several cases, external hard drives which are used among multiple systems get corrupted and do not allow the user to share the necessary files.

Reformatting the hard drive helps in avoiding such issues and storing files into them without any issues. 

Selling the system 

Mac users who want to erase all the personal and private information from the system when they sell it to others reformat the drive.

Launch the Disk utility facility in Mac, choose the drive you want to format, and click on erase from the main window.

It will format the drive and get rid of all the information stored in the system, making it as good as new.

The new purchaser of the system will not get any access to your vital information no matter how hard they try. 

Fixing small repairs

Sometimes Mac systems do not function as intended due to overload or other issues. Users reformat to get rid of the minor repairs and make the system run smoothly and faster.

It is not advisable to format or erase the data often without knowing the root cause of the issue. Always check online for the right solutions or contact a service person to get the issue fixed.

Format the drive only if none of the fixes work and you are absolutely sure formatting will help. Remember formatting cannot be reversed and all the data stored in the drive will be lost permanently. 

Preparing the drive for backup 

Mac users might erase the drive with the hope of using the external drive for taking backup. Once you click on the disk utility option in Mac, it will give you various formats to choose from.

The most common ones are APFS, Mac OS Extended, ExFat, NTFS, etc. Select the format based on your requirement carefully, as choosing the wrong format might cause various issues.

It is often advised not to format in APFS format as it requires the use of High Sierra OS. Once the hard drive is formatted using APFS, it is usually not compatible with Windows and requires the usage of third-party apps.

Sharing the hard drive  

Mac users reformat hard drives when they want to share the data present in one external drive with another PC or Windows system.

They unplug the drive and connect it to some other systems after formatting to make it compatible with multiple systems easily.

Formatting in FAT32 often helps in such cases as it will make the hard drive compatible with both Windows and Linux systems.

The only drawback is it is not very useful to transfer files bigger than 4 GB and is used mainly for sharing small-sized files. 

Making a new purchase 

Users reformat the hard drive if it is a new one, if it is pre-formatted to be compatible only with the Windows system or does not support your file formats.

Reformatting helps in erasing the former programming in such cases. The hard drive is made compatible with the Mac system and capable of detecting all unique file formats.

It is also wise to format the new hard drive to get rid of any other unknown programming before plugging it into the system. 

Not enough space 

Sometimes hard drives get full with several movies, photos, and numerous other files in different formats. Erasing all the unwanted details in them paves the way to store new and useful data and speeds up the performance of the system.

Mac users create various partitions in the hard drive using the same disk utility facility.

Clicking on the Partition option near erase helps them to compartmentalize the drive to store different file formats easily.

Take the necessary steps to back up the important data before opting for formatting. 

Conclusion

Mac users reformat hard drives for various purposes, from getting rid of viruses to deleting the old unwanted information.

It is wise to understand the different file formats and how to format using the disk utility format before proceeding.

There are numerous resources available online on the topic, which will aid Mac users in doing the partition and formatting easily.

Be clear on your purpose of reformatting and select the right options to get the best results.  

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