How to Format a Mac Hard Drive With Disk Utility

For systems using OS X El Capitan and later macOS versions

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Updated on November 1, 2021

Macs
iPad

What to Know

Press and hold Command+R to start the Mac in Recovery mode. Select Disk Utility > Continue. Choose your hard drive in the sidebar.
Select Edit > Delete APFS Volume from the menu bar and Delete.
Select your hard drive. Select Erase and name the drive. Under Format, choose a format. Select Erase. Choose Reinstall macOS.

This article explains how to format a Mac hard drive using Disk Utility on systems with macOS Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, and Sierra, as well as OS X El Capitan. Catalina requires one extra step.

How to Format a Hard Drive for Mac

Disk Utility is a free application that comes with Mac computers. You can use Disk Utility to format your Mac's main hard drive, which is referred to as your startup disk, or any other drive, including a USB flash drive, SSD, or another storage device. The formatting process erases and formats the selected drive.

The process of formatting a disk erases all the data currently stored on the device. Make sure you have a current backup if you intend to keep any data present on the drive.

Format Your Hard Drive With Disk Utility and macOS Catalina

The process of formatting Catalina includes an extra step related to a second data volume, as indicated.

Start your Mac from macOS Recovery.

To do this, restart your Mac and immediately press and hold Command + R. When you see a startup screen, such as an Apple logo or spinning globe, release the keys. Enter a password if prompted. When you see the Utilities window, startup is complete.
Select Disk Utility in the Utilities window in macOS Recovery and then select Continue.
For Catalina, in the sidebar, locate a data volume with the same name as your hard drive, for example, Macintosh HD - Data. If you have this volume, select it.
Select Edit > Delete APFS Volume from the menu bar or select the delete button ( – ) in the Disk Utility toolbar.
When prompted to confirm, select Delete. (Don't select Delete Volume Group.)
After deleting the volume, select Macintosh HD (or whatever you named your drive) in the sidebar.
Select the Erase button or tab.
Enter a name that you want the volume to have after you erase it, such as Macintosh HD.
Under Format, choose either APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) to format as a Mac volume. Disk Utility shows the recommended Mac format by default.
Select Erase to begin erasing the disk. You may be prompted to enter your Apple ID.
When done, quit Disk Utility to return to the Utilities window.
If you want your Mac to be able to start up from this volume again, choose Reinstall macOS from the Utilities window and then follow the on-screen instructions to reinstall macOS on the volume.

Format Your Hard Drive With Other macOS Versions

If you're using Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, or OS X El Capitan, there's no additional data volume to delete.

Start your Mac from macOS Recovery.

To do this, restart your Mac and immediately press and hold Command + R. When you see a startup screen, such as an Apple logo or spinning globe, release the keys. Enter a password if prompted. When you see the Utilities window, startup is complete.
Select Disk Utility from the Utilities window in macOS Recovery.
Select Continue.
Select your main hard drive in the sidebar on the left. It's typically called Macintosh HD unless you changed the name.
Select the Erase button.
Next to Format, choose either APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) to format as a Mac volume. Disk Utility shows the recommended Mac format by default.
Press Erase to begin erasing the disk. You may be prompted to enter your Apple ID.
When done, quit Disk Utility to return to the Utilities window.
If you want your Mac to be able to start up from this volume again, choose Reinstall macOS from the Utilities window and ollow the on-screen instructions to reinstall macOS on the volume.

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