WHAT PORTABLE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE IS ALREADY FORMATTED FOR A MAC?
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.2
Any that say they are preformatted for a Mac. Look on the packaging or on the vendor's website. But it is good practice to format any new drive using Disk Utility before first use. Why not just buy any drive then format it yourself?
lilybean wrote:
WHAT PORTABLE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE IS ALREADY FORMATTED FOR A MAC?
ref: roflcopter2013 "If you're lazy, it is to be assumed ....external hard drives for sale on Apple.com should come pre-formatted for macOS usage"
This is exactly what you are trying to avoid— a dependency on third party proprietary software...
lilybean wrote:
WHAT PORTABLE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE IS ALREADY FORMATTED FOR A MAC?
A external drive is an external drive—anything that says "Mac ready" typically cost you more money.
There is no advantage here, and may well include proprietary software to make it "Mac ready"...therefore It is always advise to erase/format/initialize any new drive to verify the drive is empty—so it will not come back to haunt you in the future.
It is easy—
Erase and reformat a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac
If you're lazy, it is to be assumed external hard drives for sale on Apple.com should come pre-formatted for macOS usage as:
• macOS Extended Journaled
It takes maybe 30 seconds to format a blank drive and the process is quite simple.
https://support.apple.com/guide/disk-utility/erase-and-reformat-a-storage-device-dskutl14079/mac
WHAT EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE IS ALREADY FORMATTED FOR A MAC
