How Should You Format An External Drive For a Mac?

THANKS A MILLION GARY!!! I've tried 3 different SSDs in my Mac docking station and you're the first person who's told me that they're not being read because they haven't been formatted. In the absence of any other instruction, I assumed they would be Plug and play. My new disc is now working fine.

I've spent HOURS trying to fix something you explained in less than 7 mins, plus you taught me a lot. Thank you so much!

This is one of the best YouTube tutorials I have ever seen. Clear communication, each step explained as to why and how, and anticipates alternative steps depending on your situation.

Once again, I learned something I didn't know. I've always pre-formatted Time Machine drives. I had no idea TM would do that on its own, automatically. Amazing. Thanks, Gary.

Excellent video! Just purchased a 4 TB NVme for my external enclosure - the reminders at the end helped me format safely. Thanks for the peace of mind!

Love the way you get right into a topic, state it in simple terms, and then end the video promptly (rather than vloggers who want to tell their life stories along with a plethora of if's and's or but's)

Your clarity is a gift, thank you.

As always, very useful information, well explained and with all the information you need. Thank You Gary!

For maximum compatibility with Windows and Linux systems (especially legacy versions like Windows 7), if I format a drive with exFAT, I always use the MBR partition scheme. Windows tends to be picky when using GUID, and sometimes throws strange errors or doesn't even show the drive in File Explorer.

Yes! Great to be shown some "technical" flows to round out how we interact with the Mac. Thanks!

Hi Gary, thank you so much for this easy to follow video. I'd like to add my experience of not seeing APFS in the first instance of trying to reformat an external drive in case others experience it too. When I plugged in my LaCie etxernal drive (came formatted as exFAT), Disk Utility showed Master Boot Record under Scheme, and only Mac OS Extended and FAT were offered under Format. I had to change the Scheme to GUID before APFS (and its variations) was offered under Format. Once both APFS and GUID are selected, I could reformat the drive correctly.

thanks for a great video. Your delivery is perfect. Straight to the point without a bunch of run on fluff. Thanks for the help!!!

Thank you so much for a concise and well-put-together video. Really helped me get set up with my hard drive. Feel well-informed and ready to go!

Very useful. One tip I can add is that if you do wish to encrypt do it at the start because if you later on decide to encrypt a disk it can take days to reformat "on the fly"

This was masterfully done. Concise. Told us what we need to hear, nothing more. Rare on YouTube.

Just what I needed. Had that problem with my external drive and wasn't able to find anything helpful on their website. Was getting real frustrated when I finally found your video. Thanks a lot!

Very, very helpful. My new ADATA HDD was formatted for Windows and Mac Time Machine would not recognize it, though the MacBook Pro did. You made it easy to find how to reformat it. Thank you so much. I am a new subscriber, but have listened to several of your videos. You do a real good job. Kudos!

A very useful and informative video tutorial today! I always learn something new to me! Thank you, Gary! 👏❤️

Thank you Gary, I appreciate your excellent MacMost channel! I was just searching for this information, magically this post popped up. Timely for me! Thank you!

I could not for the life of me figure out how to transfer files from meh old Mac mini to my brand new Mac mini. Using the Time Machine was the answer, since I didn't have a spare monitor and keyboard. The only thing different about your tutorial from my own experience is that my external disc would not show up in Time Machine as an option until I manually formatted it to APFS in Disc Utility. It did not automatically do it nor gave me the option to do it. But it worked after all! Thanks for your great videos. I've learned lots from you since becoming a Mac person a couple of years ago.-