The furthest end of the scale is this and is the hardcore option : So you need to start moving the slider along until you get to something you are comfortable with. On the least end of the scale is this :Īs it says, it is the fastest method of reformatting but you are not going to securely erase them. If you click on the “ Security Options” button at the bottom, you will be able to specify how tough the reformatting should be. Unless you have a very special reason for doing so, do NOT change the format it is currently on. When you click the “ Erase” button, you will be given the opportunity to change the name of the card, as well as choose its format. Now we finally come to the meat of the article – erasing and reformatting a removable media device. This means all other programs will be non-responsive.
With a hard-drive however, “First Aid” will lock the hard-drive while it is being checked. If you get strange error messages, or your computer is crashing frequently, then run First Aid to see if it can diagnose the problem. In a nutshell, “ First Aid” checks and repairs file system errors on the removable media you have highlighted.
Name your partition, choose the format (make sure it is for MacOS), and the size you want it to be. Simply choose the hard-drive from the list on the left, and click “ partition“. This is invaluable if you are an Apple beta tester, and you want to put the beta OS on a separate area of your computer. “ Partition” allows you to take a hard-drive and split it up into sections. RestoreĪs the screenshot below shows, “Restore” will erase everything on the highlighted device and you can have the contents of another connected device copied over. Press that to start up the removable device again. Once it has been unmounted, the button will rename itself to “mount”.
Format sd card for mac os x windows#
This will safely eject the removable media from the computer, identical to the “ eject” function in the Windows right-click menu. This gives you information about the media you have highlighted. TOM has had some sensitive work files on it, so I want to reformat the card and destroy any chance of the files being recovered by some dastardly dude later.īefore I do this though, it is worth quickly going through the other macOS Disk Utility features, in case you are not familiar with them. The SD card I will be reformatting today is TOM (the other one is JERRY, get it?). If you don’t see something here, eject it then re-insert it.
On the left are all of the hard drives and removable devices that Disk Utility can detect. When you start it up, it will look like this. MacOS Disk Utilityĭisk Utility is inside the Utilities sub-folder of the Applications folder. Reformatting will nuke them all for good. They take up space, but they can’t be seen unless you have the option on to view them. When you delete a file, the crap “temp files” are left behind. They were of the adult variety, so imagine his horror and embarrassment. The actual files were not readable, but the file titles were. So when I put the SD card into the computer, up popped all the hidden files which my friend thought were deleted. Not for the purposes of the SD card – I merely forgot to switch it off earlier. When I recently received a SD card from a friend with some holiday photos on it, I had the “ show hidden files” option ticked in Windows Explorer. But not the operating system files obviously! Your Removable Media May Have Potentially Embarrassing Hidden Files If those files are extremely sensitive (social security number, bank records, etc), then that is obviously not good for you.īefore reformatting your hard drive, make sure all of your files are backed up in a secure separate location. If you do not reformat your hard drive, deleted files can be recovered by the new owner, if they have the right software. You should also do this, if you are selling your computer. Reformatting your hard drive will wipe it completely, and you would then need to reinstall the operating system. If your computer has been hit by a serious virus, or is just generally under-performing, reformatting may be your only option. Your Operating System May Have Been Damaged By a Virus So you may want to format something to another operating system format. For example, I cannot delete files on a Windows-formatted USB stick if I put it into my Mac. That means once a USB stick or a SD card is formatted for say Microsoft Windows, you will have some difficulties with it on another operating system.
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