While the Mac can use a hard drive formatted for Windows, some features may be limited. So it's a good idea to format a new hard drive specifically for macOS.

A Mac computer with an available USB port. An external drive or flash drive that you want to format. It can be an external hard disk, SSD, flash drive or USB drive.

Like formatting, partitioning wipes all existing data on your disk, so is best used when setting up a new hard drive for the first time.

My Mac is now silent. After installing a solid state drive (SSD) with no moving parts, the drone of my iMac’s hard drive and fans has given way to such an absence of sound that I only hear the ...

To format a hard drive before you start using it in Windows, use the Disk Management utility; on a Mac, use Disk Utility.