MacOS: Format external hard drive

An external hard drive is very useful if you want to keep data safe. However, after some time you may find that you no longer need existing data. To get a free medium again, you should format the external hard drive to remove all the data junk.

This is how you format the external hard drive

Before you go this step, you should be sure that you no longer need any data that is on the storage medium.

1. Connect your hard drive to the Mac and then start Disk Utility.
2. You will now get an overview of all the media that you can access.
3. The first entry should then be your internal hard drive. You must not format this, otherwise essential data will be destroyed and your Mac will be seriously damaged.
4. Select the external hard drive and click on the "Erase" option. You will now see a screen that lists all partitions that are present on the hard drive.
5. Either delete only individual partitions or specify that you want to format the entire hard drive.
6. Your macOS now performs this step independently. Lassen Sie sich nun alle Inhalte anzeigen, die auf der externen Festplatte vorhanden sind. Nach einer vollständigen Formatierung sollte Ihnen das komplette Volumen zur Verfügung stehen.