Here is a guide on how to create a bootable external mac hard drive to run macos from an external hard drive. First, make sure your usb drive is formatted for use with a mac, then download the os x lion installer from the app store and copy it to your flash drive. If your mac doesnt work, you can do this using a second mac and an external hard drive caddy. Installing windows 8 on an external ssd guide macrumors. The first is to create an external boot drive from the installation disk image that is contained within the installer, and the second is to simply run the installer and install lion to a secondary. One of the main reasons is backup of your current system.
To install os x snow leopard from the usb drive, youll need to reformat the macs hard drive. Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive. Macdrive 10 pro support read and write mac disks from. Upgraded today to ml then plugged the drive in and turned it on, a little pop up appears saying my imac doesnt recognize this drive. This will demonstrate how to format a hard disk to be completely mac os x. Another is creating a drive for testing your macs hardware. The flash drive is used as a bootable ubuntu installer that contains not only the basic installer but also a live version of ubuntu. If you desire encryption, then select mac os extended journaled, encrypted format instead. Select that disk and click the erase button, the one highlighted in red in the screenshot below. How to create a bootable installer for macos catalina imore. Im now able to boot from an apfs hdd external drive with macos high sierra.
Yes, connecting an external hard drive or usb flash key to a mac will generally read and work fine as is because the mac can easily read other filesystem formats, including windows msdos, fat, fat32, exfat, and ntfs formats, but unless you intend on using the drive between a windows and mac machine, formatting it to be entirely mac compatible filesystem is highly recommended, and necessary for time machine and to make disks bootable. Fixed disks can include internal hard drives, but can also include portable devices such as external hard drives which connect via usb, firewire, etc. How to clean install os x on your macmacbook proair. Disk utility not detecting sata drives in macos sierra. Some mac users may require the ability to erase a disk or erase a hard drive from the command line on mac os, a task which is typically performed through the disk utility application from the gui. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. The command line approach to disk erasure in macos is a bit different and it requires precise syntax to insure that you are erasing the proper disk, making this method of erasing any disk only.
Helpinstalling osx with unibeast through windows hard. If your usb thumb drive, usbbased external disk or flash storage contains a usable operating system or an os x installer, you can select it at boot time using os xs builtin feature called startup manager, which can be invoked via a simple keystroke. Instructions for installing an internal drive as a bootable or a storage drive in macos x. A new window will pop up asking which file system youd like to format the external drive to. For most reasons to erase, including when reformatting a disk or selling, giving away, or trading in your mac, you should erase your entire disk. Once youve deleted this, go back to the main menu and hit install. When you do that, you should see at least four icons. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. Youll need to start with a clean thumb drive or external hard drive in order to make it a bootable drive. Open the finder window and navigate to applications install macos sierra. Macformatted hard drive connected to an airport base station.
Sharing of mac disks mounted with macdrive is not supported. Plug the thumb drive or cable for your hard drive into the appropriate port on your mac. Install, boot, and run mac os x from an external hard drive. How to install macos mojave on external usb drive or ssd. How to create a bootable usb drive for macos sierra. You can erase the drive and reinstall os x using the recovery system. How can i reformat the internal drive and install mountain lion from.
To continue, restart your mac while pressing the option key. Plug in your bootable usb drive and restart your mac while holding the option key. How to format hard drive for mac compatibly in os x disk utility. Should you intend to make an mac os installer drive for os x mavericks. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Choose mac os extended journaled partition for the volume format. To format an external storage device, connect it to one of the ports on your mac. Well lion has a lion recovery partition on the drive you can access by holding command r and booting, there you can erase the lion os x partition completely all files and programs and reinstall lion or simply reinstall lion if there is a issue with it no programs or. And also, which do i need to use with my xbox, and the pvr function of my tv.
Make sure to select the parent hard disk in the sidebar. How to fix hard drive not detected while installing macos. External hard drive in exfat not working macrumors forums. When all is said and done your mac should have both a lion install and the hidden recovery partition back again. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods.
If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. Back in the days before mac os x lion launched in 2011 there wasnt a recovery partition, instead you needed to have a physical disc with the software on it and an optical drive to insert it into. In my case, i have five because i have windows installed using boot camp. Do use boot camp assistant to download the latest boot camp drivers to a spare usb drive or sd card etc. I have just saved necessary files and also the installer for os x 10. Mac os x installation basics sata drive seagate support us. This will work in all modern versions of apple mac osx including 10.
There are quite a few reasons for why you may want to be able to have an additional startup drive for your mac. So if you create a bootable lioninstaller drive using the current version of the lion installerwhich, as of 2102012, installs os x 10. How to start up your mac from a bootable cddvd, usb thumb. If you dont want to lose data from your hard drive, export the data or back it up before continuing. Especially, if you want to get a very first view on a mac os x 10. You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. How to restore a missing recovery hd partition in lion cnet. Before using an external hard drive on a mac, you should format it. I have an external hard drive that i created in lion formatted it exfat. How to format a usb external disk for mac osx using disk. This version can run directly from the usb flash drive without modifying anything on your mac. How to create a bootable usb drive for os x leopard, or. In the volume format list, select mac os extended journaled. All youll need is a mac, the mojave installer, and an 8gb usb drive or sd card.
If, during the macos reinstallation process, the installer doesnt see your disk or says you cant install the operating system on the disk, you may need to try erasing your hard drive again. Partitioning, naming and formatting the external hard drive. It is also possible to install lion on an external storage device, including usb thumb drives, firewire, usb or thunderbolt hard drives and even sdhc or sdxc memory cards. Most importantly, it doesnt damage your pc or current windows installation if you carefully follow the instructions in this video. This will open the startup manager from where youll be able to start the clean install. After formatting the drive and starting the install i get a timer stating its going to take 2,393,938,938 and 8 minutes. The current issue is with a customers macbook pro, the 500gb mechanical hdd has died. Dont use boot camp assistant to install windows 8 at the time. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. Proceed by erasing your hard drive from disk utility. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. I have backed up all my data i dont have enough hard drive space to make a time machine backup. Macdrive is not usable in networking andor networkattached storage scenarios e.
Otherwise, you must repartition and reformat the drive in order to install os x. How to format or partition an external hard drive for mac. Finally, use your bootable flash drive to install lion on your mac. When prompted, select the mac os extended journaled format. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Proceed and follow the next steps for creating bootable usb drive. Macdrive fully supports gpt partitioning for fixed disks. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Select the file system you want to use and give the drive a name. So, whether you wish to format the internal hard drive, external drive, or a usb flash drive, the procedure is the same for all.
How can i reformat the internal drive and install mountain. Formatting is a very simple procedure which is operated in a similar way for all sorts of storage media. I also have other devices such as an xbox 360, a tv with pvr function via external hard drive, etc. How to install macos or os x on a new hard drive for your mac. How to reformat a macbook pro 2011 hard d apple community. Power on the computer while holding down the option key. No additional software is needed to access a macformatted disk that is gpt partitioned. Youll use os xs disk utility app to format the drive. There are many ways of doing this, from copying the files to an external hard drive or backing it up to the cloud, lets take a look at what we think is the best way. The first thing youre going to need to do is format the external hard drive properly. How to reinstall macos if recovery wont work macworld uk. Follow the path applicationsutilities and click 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. How to format your external drive for macos catalina. All external usb disks can be formatted to work on mac osx, but not always straight out of the box. Then, select your hard drive from the left sidebar. Before upgrading to the latest mac os x, it is often useful to install mac os x on an external hard drive for testing. In disk utility select the restore function and set the source as the external hard drive that you clonedcopied lion to in step 3 and the destination as the macs hard drive partition. How to format an external hard drive the easy way in 2020. Use the disk utility application to erase the drive. Are you preparing a time machine backup disk or bootable installer.
Its easy to reformat your hard drive using disk utility in macos or os x. In this tutorial we look at formatting disks via the gui app called disk utility and its equivalent command line tool diskutil. To do this, look towards the top of the screen and click on utilities from the top menu and then click disk utility from the dropdown menu. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility. Have fitted a 480gb ssd and tried using the internet recovery to install mountain lion. Friends while youre installing mac either on your pc or laptop you might have come accross this issue that hdd is not detected only usb or external drives are detected even if you have set sata. Reformatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting. Disk utility can be used to format external drives as well. These steps can be used for both internal and external drives. I need some help with hard drive formats specifically. Install mavericks, lionmountain lion using internet recovery. How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or. To format an external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. How to start up your mac from an external usb storage device.
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