Jun 19, 2020 You want to permanently erase all the content from your Mac and restore it to factory settings. This is one of the final steps before selling, giving away or trading in your Mac. You’re changing the format of a disk, such as from a PC format (FAT, ExFAT or NTFS) to a Mac format (APFS or Mac OS. Mar 15, 2018 Don’t Format the Drive! (Yet) When you connect a Mac-formatted drive to Windows, you’ll be informed that “you need to format the disk in drive X: before you can use it.” Don’t click the “Format disk” button or Windows will erase the contents of the drive–click “Cancel”! Resetting a Mac to factory settings involves erasing the Mac hard drive and then reinstalling MacOS or Mac OS X system software onto the computer. The result is that all personal data will be removed from the computer completely and a fresh reset original version of Mac OS system software will be installed on the computer, just like the. The SSD has now been formatted as a Mac OS Extended (journaled) volume named ‘MacOS’. Continue using this guide to format the disk as an AFPS volume, however if a Mac OS Extended (journaled) volume is desired you may now stop. 8) From the previous step we need to note the identifier of the new volume (red outlined box).
Earlier today in the Apple Macintosh Enthusiasts Facebook group, Charles Lott asked if an OS X Mac with a USB floppy drive could write disks that a Mac running System 7 could use. The short answer is, it depends.
400K Disks
The original Mac floppy disk format was MFS, for Macintosh File System, and it is only used for 400K single-sided floppies – the only kind of floppy drive supported by the original Macintosh, the Mac 512K Fat Mac, and the Lisa 2 (a.k.a. Macintosh XL). These drives had a variable speed motor that allowed the Mac to pack 400K into a disk that would only hold 360 KB on a fixed-speed drive. (This is also the reason non-Mac computers can’t mount 400K and 800K Mac floppy disks.)
Macs with 800K double-sided drives and Mac-compatible 1.4MB High Density (HD) drives can read and write the MFS format used by 400K disks as long as they are running System 7.5.5 or earlier. Under Mac OS 7.6 and 7.6.1, they can read 400K floppies but not write to them. There is no support at all for 400K floppy disks in Mac OS 8 and beyond.
There is also no support for floppy disks with greater than 400K capacity in those original three models. Disk access is controlled by code in the system ROMs, and that can’t be updated to support double-sided drives. (There is also a 20 MB maximum volume size for MFS hard drives.)
All Mac OS versions up to System 7.1 support formatting 400K floppy disks.
800K Disks
When Apple introduced the Mac Plus in January 1986, it adopted double-sided floppy drives with 800K capacity – and a newer disk format known as HFS, for Hierarchical File System. (HFS had been introduced in 1985 to support Apple’s first Mac hard drive, the 20 MB Hard Disk 20, which connected via the slow floppy disk port. Those with pre-1986 Macs had to boot from a floppy drive that would install the HFS drivers that allowed them to boot from the HFS formatted hard drive.) MFS disks use a flat file system. Although the Mac makes it appear that it has true folders, this is an illusion.
With HFS, the Mac gained a multi-level hierarchy of folders and the ability to access hard drive volumes at huge as 2 TB. Keep in mind, this was the age of 20-40 MB hard drives, 1 GB drives were a long ways off, and its only in recent years the 1 TB drives have become commonplace.
Except for the pre-1986 Macs that have built-in 400K floppy drives, all Macs running System 3 through Mac OS 9.2.2 and using an Apple or specifically Mac-compatible floppy drive can read 800K floppy disks. (Mac OS X does not support internal floppy drives.)
Macs running System 3 through Mac OS 9.2.2 support formatting 800K floppy disks.
1.4 MB Disks
Apple introduced high density (HD) floppy disks to the Mac with the Mac IIx in September 1988. Going forward, all new Macs with floppy drives would have what Apple sometimes called FDHD (floppy disk, high density) or SuperDrive – not to be confused with the DVD-burning optical drive of the same name.
Not only that, but the Mac SE was updated with the HD drive, and Apple offered upgrade kits for both the Mac II and pre-FHDH Mac SE. Because their system ROMs did not support these drives, the 1986 Mac Plus and 512Ke do not work with Apple’s HD floppy drives.
Apple SuperDrive floppy drives use a variable speed motor, making them compatible with 400K and 800K floppy disks – as long as the operating system also supports them.
Any Mac with a built-in floppy drive introduced since September 1988 has an FDHD, and the March 1987 Mac SE and Mac II may have been updated for FDHD as well. Every version of the Classic Mac OS from System 3 through 9.2.2 can read, write, and format 800K and 1.4 MB floppy disks as long as the mechanism is an Apple FDHD or a third-party Mac-compatible drive with a variable speed motor.
Macs with high-density Apple floppy drives and System 3 through Mac OS 9.2.2 support formatting 1.4 MB floppy disks.
Mac OS 8.1: HFS+ Makes More Efficient Use of Disk Space
As hard drives grew in capacity, some limitations of the HFS format became apparent. In the era of small hard drives, it didn’t matter, because whether you were using a floppy disk, a hard drive, or a removable media (SyQuest, Zip, etc.) drive, they all used the same size block of data – 512 Bytes (0.5 KB).
Or did they? Another limitation of HFS is that it cannot work with more than 65,535 files or blocks of data. That meant the operating system would have to cluster more than one 512 byte chunk of data into an allocation block. For instance, on a 1 GB partition, space was allocated in blocks of 16 KB, using 32 of those 512 byte data blocks.
Apple addressed this by introducing the HFS+ file system with Mac OS 8.1 in January 1998. HFS+ supports over 4 billion allocation blocks. That means that a 500 MB drive or partition will still use 512 Byte allocation blocks, a 1 GB drive will double that to 1024 Bytes (2 x 512), and so on.
Under HFS, that began to happen once hard drives passed the 30 MB mark, so HFS+ made for much more efficient use of data space. Below 32 MB of so, HFS and HFS+ both use 512 byte allocation blocks.
Alsoft created PlusOptimizer to convert HFS hard drives to HFS+ format.
And what does this have to do with floppy disks? Keep reading, because HFS+ floppies became a possibility in the era of USB floppy drives!
Macs Without Floppy Drives: The iMac Generation
1.4 MB Only (Sort of)
One of the chief faults of the iMac when Steve Jobs unveiled it in May 1998, according to most critics, was its lack of a built-in floppy drive. This was especially true for people who had an iMac at school or work but an older Mac or PC at home. You had to buy a USB floppy drive to read the disk from your other computer.
Problem is, none of these USB floppy drives have the variable speed motor necessary to read the Mac’s 800K disks, so you had to be sure to use 1.4 MB HD floppies (or 720K floppies in the case of PCs with 3.5″ floppy drives). Fortunately all but the oldest Macs support HD floppies, but the expense of an external USB floppy drive was discouraging to many longtime Mac users – and potential iMac adopters.
Another option was to use Apple’s software to format a double-sided, double-density floppy to 720K instead of 800K, in which case most USB floppy drives can read and write to it. On the other hand, it’s a pain to use with Macs, which don’t expect that format.
Mac OS X Changed Everything
When Apple introduced Mac OS X, one thing it didn’t do is provide drivers for the Mac’s internal floppy drives. It does support USB floppy drives, and it would normally format them as HFS disks – although there were some changes over time.
Siber-Sonic, who used to work for Apple, did extensive research of this subject, answering the question, “If I format a HD floppy disk in a USB floppy drive, what format with OS X use? Also, do all versions of OS X support HFS floppies?”
HFS Floppies: Fully Readable, No Writes with OS X 10.6 or Later
The good news is that all tested versions of Mac OS X are able to read 1.4 MB floppy disks in a USB floppy drive. The bad news – well, at least less good – is that starting with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, you can’t write to an HFS-formatted floppy disk. To do that, you need to use OS X 10.5 Leopard or earlier.
HFS+ Floppies: Full Compatible with All Versions of Mac OS X
Under OS X 10.6 or earlier, the default format when formatting a floppy disk is HFS, but earlier versions (at least back to 10.4 Tiger) let you choose HFS+ as your disk format.
1.4 MB floppy disk formatted as HFS has 1.4 MB available space.
1.4 MB floppy disk formatted as HFS+ has 1.3 MB available space.
Would you have guessed that an HFS+ floppy would have less available storage space than an HFS disk? Roughly 123 KB of additional space is used by the file system. Partition hard drive mac os sierra mac. Regardless, at least you have a floppy disk you can use in current Macs as well as vintage ones running Mac OS 8.1, the first with HFS+, and later.
What About More Modern Macs and Mac OS Versions?
Siber-Sonic found that under OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, although the operating system can read and write HFS+ floppies, the only options for formatting are the FAT and ex-FAT formats used in the Windows world. That said, they can still read those HFS floppy disks from 1988!
Summary
In short, 400K MFS floppy disks can only be used in Apple branded and Mac-compatible 400K, 800K, and 1.4 MB drives. You can write to them through System 7.5.5 and read them through Mac OS 7.6.1. You cannot access them at all in Mac OS 8.0 or newer
800K floppy disks also require an Apple branded or Mac-compatible floppy drive with a variable speed motor. These can be used in any Mac with an 800K of FDHD floppy drive with System 3 through Mac OS 9.2.2. They are not compatible with any version of Mac OS X.
1.4 MB HFS floppy disks require an Apple FDHD, Mac-compatible HD floppy drive, or USB floppy drive. They are supported in all versions of the Classic Mac OS from 3.0 through 9.2.2 and can be read in any Mac. You can write to them using System 3.0 through Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Later versions of OS X can read but not write to them.
Finally, 1.4 MB HFS+ floppy disks can be fully accessed from Mac OS 8.1 forward, although OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and later will not let you format an HFS+ floppy. OS X 10.6 and 10.7 will let you erase an HFS floppy, but they will only format floppy disks as HFS+.
Further Reading
Working with Macintosh Floppy Disks in the New Millennium, Siber-Sonic
Mac OS X: Mac OS Extended (HFS Plus) Volume and File Limits, Apple
Technical Note TN1150: HFS Plus Volume Format, Apple Developer Connection
Erasing your disk: 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.
Mac os x cannot partition hard drive. Erasing a volume on your disk: In other cases, such as when your disk contains multiple volumes (or partitions) and you don't want to erase them all, you can erase specific volumes on the disk.
Erasing a disk or volume permanently deletes all of its files. Before continuing, make sure that you have a backup of any files that you want to keep.
How to erase your disk
Start up from macOS Recovery. Then select Disk Utility from the Utilities window and click Continue. If you're not erasing the disk your Mac started up from, you don't need to start up from macOS Recovery. Just open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
Choose View > Show All Devices from the menu bar in Disk Utility. The sidebar now shows your disks (devices), and any containers and volumes within them. The disk your Mac started up from will be at the top of the list. In this example, Apple SSD is the startup disk:
Select the disk that you want to erase. Can't see your disk?
Click Erase, then complete these items:
Name: Type the name you want the disk to have after you have erased it.
Format: Choose APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journalled). Disk Utility shows a compatible format by default.
Scheme: Choose GUID Partition Map.
Click Erase to start erasing your disk, and every container and volume within it. You may be asked to enter your Apple ID. Forgotten your Apple ID?
When it's finished, quit Disk Utility.
If you want your Mac to be able to start up from the disk you erased, reinstall macOS on the disk.
How to erase a volume on your disk
Start up from macOS Recovery. Then select Disk Utility from the Utilities window and click Continue. If you're not erasing the volume your Mac started up from, you don't need to start up from macOS Recovery. Just open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
In the sidebar of Disk Utility, select the volume that you want to erase. The volume your Mac started up from will be called Macintosh HD, unless you have changed its name. Can't see your volume?
Click Erase, then complete these items:
Name: Type the name you want the volume to have after you have erased it.
Format: Choose APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journalled). Disk Utility shows a compatible format by default.
If you see an Erase Volume Group button, the volume you have selected is part of a volume group. In that case, you should erase the volume group. Otherwise, click Erase to erase just the selected volume. You may be asked to enter your Apple ID. Forgotten your Apple ID?
When it's finished, quit Disk Utility.
If you want your Mac to be able to start up from the volume you erased, reinstall macOS on that volume.
Reasons to erase
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You can erase at any time, including in circumstances such as these:
You want to permanently erase all the content from your Mac and restore it to factory settings. This is one of the final steps before selling, giving away or trading in your Mac.
You’re changing the format of a disk, such as from a PC format (FAT, ExFAT or NTFS) to a Mac format (APFS or Mac OS Extended).
You’ve received a message that your disk isn’t readable by this computer.
You're trying to resolve a disk issue that Disk Utility can't repair.
The macOS installer doesn’t see your disk or can’t install on it. For example, the installer might say that your disk isn’t formatted correctly, isn’t using a GUID partition scheme, contains a newer version of the operating system or can’t be used to start up your computer.
The macOS installer says that you may not install to this volume because it is part of an Apple RAID.
About APFS and Mac OS Extended
Disk Utility in macOS High Sierra or later can erase using either the newer APFS (Apple File System) format or the older Mac OS Extended format, and it automatically chooses a compatible format for you.
Format Hard Drive Mac Os X Tiger 10 4 Download
How to choose between APFS and Mac OS Extended
Disk Utility tries to detect the type of storage and show the appropriate format in the Format menu. If it can’t, it chooses Mac OS Extended, which works with all versions of macOS. If you want to change the format, answer these questions:
Are you formatting the disk that came built into your Mac? If the built-in disk came APFS-formatted, Disk Utility suggests APFS. Don't change it to Mac OS Extended.
Are you about to install macOS High Sierra or later for the first time on the disk? If you need to erase your disk before installing High Sierra or later for the first time on that disk, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled). During installation, the macOS installer decides whether to automatically convert to APFS — without erasing your files.
Are you preparing a Time Machine backup disk or bootable installer? Choose Mac OS Extended (Journalled) for any disk that you plan to use as a Time Machine backup disk or as a bootable installer.
Will you be using the disk with another Mac? If the other Mac isn't using macOS High Sierra or later, choose Mac OS Extended (Journalled). Earlier versions of macOS won't work with APFS-formatted volumes.
How to identify the format currently being used
If you want to know which format is currently in use, use any of these methods:
Select the volume in the Disk Utility sidebar, then check the information shown on the right. For more detail, choose File > Get Info from the Disk Utility menu bar.
Open System Information and select Storage in the sidebar. The File System column on the right shows the format of each volume.
Select the volume in the Finder, then choose File > Get Info from the menu bar. The Get Info window shows the Format of that volume.
If your disk or volume doesn't appear or the erase process fails
Shut down your Mac, then unplug all non-essential devices from your Mac.
If you're erasing an external drive, make sure it's connected directly to your Mac using a cable that you know is in good working order. Then turn the drive off and back on.
If your disk or volume still doesn't appear in Disk Utility or Disk Utility reports that the erase process failed, your disk or Mac may need a service. If you need help, please contact Apple Support.
Learn more
Mac Os X Tiger Dvd
If you can't start up from macOS Recovery, you can use a different startup disk instead.
If Disk Utility shows a Security Options button in the Erase window, you can click that button to choose between a faster (but less secure) erase and a slower (but more secure) erase. Some older versions of Disk Utility offer the option to zero all data instead. These secure-erase options aren't offered or needed for solid-state drives (SSDs) and flash storage.