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Reformatting external hard drive for my Mac.

All right so I updated my MacBook Pro Mid 2012 to the latest OS. My Mac can't handle it and it's making it run slow. Luckily for me I have a 2 TB external hard drive where I can back up my files to and perform a factory reset so my computer can operate more smoothly. I was using this hard drive as storage for my PS4. Is there any way I can restore it for my Mac?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jul 13, 2020 4:55 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 13, 2020 5:07 PM

Yes there is. The way I would recommend doing it would be to use the disk utility app on your Mac. You can find this app by either using spotlight (command + spacebar) and searching for it or by finding it in the utilities applications folder. Once you're in the app you'll find a list of storage devices connected to your Mac on the left side of the window. Select the drive you want to reformat and click the erase button at the top. Chose which format to erase to or leave it the same if you're unsure (I would recommend ExFat for using between Mac and windows or using APFS or Mac OS Extended for use only on Mac). Click erase when you're ready.

After the drive is erased you can copy all your files across to it and erase your Mac. However I would not recommend running apps off the hard drive as it could be quite slow.


I hope this helps

-Person

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 13, 2020 5:07 PM in response to marklinenfan

Yes there is. The way I would recommend doing it would be to use the disk utility app on your Mac. You can find this app by either using spotlight (command + spacebar) and searching for it or by finding it in the utilities applications folder. Once you're in the app you'll find a list of storage devices connected to your Mac on the left side of the window. Select the drive you want to reformat and click the erase button at the top. Chose which format to erase to or leave it the same if you're unsure (I would recommend ExFat for using between Mac and windows or using APFS or Mac OS Extended for use only on Mac). Click erase when you're ready.

After the drive is erased you can copy all your files across to it and erase your Mac. However I would not recommend running apps off the hard drive as it could be quite slow.


I hope this helps

-Person

Reformatting external hard drive for my Mac.

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