How to format Hard Disk in Mac OS X

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How to format Hard Disk in Mac OS X

Whenever you buy a new computer you will find that the hard disk needs to be formatted for the first time. If you buy your computer with a preinstalled version of Mac or Windows you might need not to follow the coming steps but if you buy a computer without a preinstalled operating system you will need to follow these simple but challenging steps to format your hard drive in a Mac OS X.

Open the system drive which usually you will find titled “Macintosh HD.” Open Applications, > Then Utilities, > and double click “Disk Utility” to open it. In the window that will appear to you, you will see a list of all the drives or partitions on your system.

You can only format disks that are not involved with the operating system. If you want to format the system partition you will need external booting agent like a CD or a USB Flash drive. Select from the left the desk that needs to be formatted and remember to backup your important data before you start such a process. After you selected the desired partition, press on Erase Button tab which you will find on the right of the list of drives.

A new window will open showing you options for Erasing and formatting it with compatible settings to work with Apple Macintosh. Select the volume Format from the Pop-Up list and choose the most common format which is “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”. This is the default setting so most probably you will not need to change it. Other format options you can look it up on Apple’s website or you can check the computer Manual. After you chose the desired format type name your drive with the desired name and this name will appear whenever the disk is mounted into the computer. Press the Erase button and wait for the process to complete. During Erasing you have two options that you choose from which basic format and the “Zero Out Data” are. Basic format leaves old data recoverable while ‘Zero Out Data” Wipes out all data and makes it unrecoverable.