Launch Disk Utility. Either head to Applications Utilities, or tap Command + Space and start typing. To format an external hard drive for Mac with Time Machine, you must follow the steps below. Step 1 Open Finder, Applications, then go to Utilities and Disk Utility. Step 2 Follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with Time Machine on your Mac system. Part 3: Bonus Tip – Data Recovery from Formatted Hard Drive on Mac. The Western Digital Hard Disk Drive is a storage device where you can save large data. The WD Hard Drive Format Utility can be used to unlock and lock the drive or hide your sensitive information from an unknown person. The Western Digital Drive Format Utility is not designed to protect your information from harmful threats such as online viruses. Dec 21, 2017 Disk Utility, as its name implies, is a utility for management of hard drive, CD/DVD and compressed image files. Most of its advanced features, such as partitioning, formatting, cloning, partition table management are intended for power users of the operating system, however, the utility may be useful for an average Mac user with its basic features as well.
Partitioning a disk on a Mac is an effective way to organize your data into different categories. However, the main concern is that most external hard drives and USB keys come formatted for Windows, which is primarily for PCs. By default, a Mac runs a different file system, so it may bring issues while partitioning your disk on Disk Utility.
Hard drive partitioning is a common issue discussed in many tech forums. In a thread on Apple’s support forum, users complain that their Mac Disk Utility partition grayed-out while trying to partition their external hard drives.
Probably, you just bought your external hard drive and are eager to use it on your Mac. But somehow, you cannot access the Mac Disk Utility partition, so you can’t write data to the drive.
Free Disk Format Utility
Fear not, we have a solution to this problem. In this post, we will guide you through a step-by-step process on how to restore a grayed-out Disk Utility partition. Many Apple users who have faced Partition grayed out in Mac issues eventually partitioned their external hard drives with the help of these fixes.
Why Partition Grayed Out in Mac (Plus Solution)
Problem 1: Sometimes, you cannot access the Mac Disk Utility partition because your hard drive doesn’t have sufficient space.
Solution: If you want to go ahead with the partitioning task, you need to create more space on your hard drive. In other words, you have to erase the data on your drive to create additional space. You can then format your hard drive using GUID Partition Table. After that, go ahead with your partitioning plans.
Important Note: Before formatting your hard drive, back up your most important files. Needless to say, the process will get rid of all the data on the disk, so you risk losing your files for good.
Problem 2: As mentioned earlier, external drives are usually not compatible with macOS, which may bring issues when you want to partition. In most cases, users choose the wrong partitioning option, and as a result, the Partition option in Disk Utility remains grayed out.
Solution: The right way you should follow when selecting a partition option is to choose the drive name within the list provided under Internal or External (depending on the device you want to partition). Your hard drive will be available on the left side of the Disk Utility pane.
![Disk format utility vista Disk format utility vista](/uploads/1/1/8/2/118216729/796949953.jpg)
How to Restore Grayed Out Disk Utility Partition: Format Your Hard Drive to Work with Mac
To format your external disk to be compatible with macOS, connect your hard drive to the Mac and follow these steps:
- Open Disk Utility by going to Applications, then select Utilities > Disk Utility.
- Choose the drive name within the list provided under ‘External’. If your hard drive is connected, it will show in the left panel of the Disk Utility. Highlight the disk and click the Erase button in the top toolbar.
- Wait for a window asking you to select the file system you want to use to format your external drive to pop up. For your case, you will select ‘Mac OS Extended (Journaled)’. But if you have plans to use your disk for both PC and Mac, then a better option is ‘ExFAT’. You can also rename your hard disk here to your desired name.
- Wait for the formatting process to complete. The process usually takes less than a minute, but it depends on the size of your hard disk.
- When done, confirm if the formatting was successful by right-clicking the icon for your disk on the desktop and then choosing Get Info. The information is available under Format.
If it reads “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”, congratulations, you successfully restored the grayed-out Disk Utility and your hard disk is now compatible with macOS.
Partitioning Your Hard Drive on Mac
Now that you have prepared your hard drive to work with Mac, the next step is to partition it on your Mac by following these steps:
- Launch the Disk Utility app on your Mac and highlight the hard drive icon under ‘External’ (for external hard drives). If you choose any other drive, the partition option will become unclickable.
- Now click Partition on the top toolbar. A window that has partition information will pop up. On the left side of the window, look for the name and the volume size of your hard drive. The next step is to click add(+) button on the bottom of the window to create partitions on your disk. Allocate the desired volume size to each partition.
- Hit the Apply button and wait for a window asking you to verify your choices. Confirm the changes by clicking the Partition button.
- Wait for the process to complete. You can confirm if the process was successful on your desktop. You will see additional disk icons show
Pro Tip: If the main reason for partitioning your hard drive is to install Windows, Apple recommends that you use Boot Camp Assistant instead of Disk Utility. You should, however, note that you cannot use Disk Utility to erase a partition generated using Boot Camp Assistant.
What Else Can You Do to Resolve Common Mac Issues
If you are like many users, partitioning a hard drive on Mac may not be the only challenge you have had with your computer. Mac users have also reported slow performance, random freezes, and space issues. The best way to guarantee the best performance for your Mac is to scan and clean the computer. Outbyte MacRepair helps you to optimize your Mac for peak performance by checking for and cleaning up junk files, unnecessary apps, and other space hogs that may affect your Mac’s memory.
We hope the above solutions helped you to restore the grayed-out Disk Utility partition. As always, we would love to hear your success story. Share it in the comment section. Also, let us know if you experienced challenges during the partitioning process.
If you’re running into errors and your system is suspiciously slow, your computer needs some maintenance work. Download Outbyte PC Repair for Windows, Outbyte Antivirus for Windows, or Outbyte MacRepair for macOS to resolve common computer performance issues. Fix computer troubles by downloading the compatible tool for your device.
See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy Policy.
See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy Policy.
by Shirly Chen, updated on 2017-02-07 to Mac Data Wipe
Formatting is a prior method to delete all data from local/external hard drive or fix disk error. For Windows users, it is very easy to format a hard drive using built-in quick format feature. However, when a Mac user right-clicks a hard drive on Mac, he can’t see the quick format option. Especially for the new Mac users, it seems difficult to find a solution to format local hard drive or external hard drive under Mac OS. In this article, we will introduce some Mac disk formatting software tools to help Mac users easily and securely format hard drive, USB flash drive, memory card or other device under Mac OS.
Three Useful Disk Formatting Software for Mac
1. Super Eraser for Mac - best Mac Disk Format Software
Super Eraser for Mac is a very powerful tool to permanently erase data from Mac hard drive or storage media. It can easily format hard drives, storage devices and permanently erase all the data on the targeted media. It also can format SSD hard drive and erase data under Mac OS. Free download the best Mac disk formatting software - Super Eraser for Mac.
This mode ‘Wipe Hard Drive’ will help you format a selected hard drive/device and erase all data from it. You just need to select the hard drive you want to format, and then click on 'Wipe Now' button. Then Super Eraser for Mac will help you format and erase the selected hard drive/device. Please note that all the existing data and history data on the selected hard drive will be permanently removed, can’t be recovered by any data recovery software or manual data recovery service.
This Mac hard drive formatting tool also can erase free disk space to permanently erase deleted/lost data on the hard drive. This option is used for erasing deleted files and formatted files on your Mac, without affecting the existing data.
Format Hard Drive Mac Os
If you are going to sell, donate your Mac/device or just want to completely remove unwanted files and fix disk errors, Super Eraser for Mac is the best Mac disk formatting tool for you. It can help you regain a brand new disk.
Note: formatted data will be permanently lost, can’t be recovered by any software or method.
2. Mac Disk Utility
Note: formatted data can be recovered by data recovery software.
Disk Utility is a built-in app in macOS. When you open this app, it will show all the hard drives and devices on your Mac. You can use the erase function to format a hard drive or device. However, when the hard drive has been erased by Disk Utility, most of the formatted data can be recovered by data recovery software.
3. Start Menu for Mac
Note: formatted data can be recovered by data recovery software.
Start Menu for Mac is an all-in-one Mac manager. It offers a feature – format. You can run it on your Mac, and use it to format external hard drive or device on your Mac. It is the fastest way to format an external hard drive/device under Mac OS.
4. MacClean360
MacClean360 is one of the best disk cleaning and management software for Mac OS. It offers more than 9 tools to help you optimize and manage your Mac computer. The Disk Manager tool is able to list all hard drives and external devices on your Mac. Then you can choose one of the hard drive and format it by click on 'Format' button.
The 4 disk formatting software for Mac above can help you easily format hard drive, USB flash drive, memory card, and other storage media under Mac OS. However, when you format your hard drive with Super Eraser for Mac, all your data will be permanently lost. So please back up your important files before you run Super Eraser for Mac to format your hard drive or other device under Mac OS.
FREE download DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac to help you format hard drive, external hard drive or storage media on Mac.
Related Articles
Permanently and securely erase data from hard drive or external storage device under Mac OS with certified data erasure methods.
Disk Format Utility For Mac Osx
Hot Articles