How to reformat a hard drive in Mac Pro

Hello,
I know how to do the whole disk utility thing to reformat it but can I just plug the hard drive right into the bay in the computer and run disk utility?
Thanks!

Well, I would recommend shutting down the Mac Pro first…
Then install your new Hard-Drive / Start Up and reformat the drive.

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How do i reformat my hard drive on mac mini late 2011 with yosemite before selling my mac

how do i reformat my hard drive on mac mini late 2011 with yosemite before selling my mac

You can't legally sell or give away that computer with Yosemite installed.
Before you sell or give away your computer, in addition to the steps listed in this support article, take these steps:
1. Run Apple Diagnostics or the Apple Hardware Test. The buyer will do this (or he should), and you don't want to be surprised by the results.
2. Reset the PRAM and the SMC, which might contain personal information.
3. If you set a firmware password, remove it by running Firmware Password Utility in Recovery mode.
4. If you activated FileVault in OS X 10.7 or later, turn it off.
5. If you use Boot Camp, the partition must be deleted.
6. If you created any other data partitions on the internal drive, remove them in Disk Utility.
7. If the machine has an internal hard drive, erase the one remaining data partition with the option to zero out data. An SSD doesn't need to be zeroed.
You can't legally or practically transfer any software downloaded from the Mac App Store to the new owner of the machine, even if it was free. That includes OS X, so if you upgraded to OS X 10.7 or later, you must reinstall an older OS, either from the installation media, if applicable, or by starting up in Internet Recovery mode (option-command-R at the startup chime.) If you installed from physical media, deliver those to the new owner.
If you're selling the machine, or donating it in working order, and it originally shipped with OS X 10.4 or 10.5, then you have the option of installing either from the discs that came with it or from a retail Snow Leopard disc (which you must then transfer to the buyer.) The buyer should understand that if he doesn't get the original discs from you, he won't get the bundled iLife applications or the Apple Hardware Test. Replacements for the original discs can be ordered from Apple.
The new owner will have to redownload any software that came from the App Store, including OS X upgrades, under his or her Apple ID. If you ever updated the bundled iLife applications (Garage Band, iMovie, and iPhoto) through the App Store, you can't transfer those either. The buyer will have to purchase them.
Remove the machine from your list of registered products. If it's still covered by an AppleCare Protection Plan, transfer the coverage to the new owner by following the instructions in the AppleCare Terms and Conditions (under the heading "Transfer of Plan.")

Need help reformatting my hard drive for mac only

Help please
Need help reformatting my hard drive for mac only with my toshishba hard drive

What Mac is this please, with what version of OS X?

How to Mount a hard drive to MAC BOOK PRO?

How to Mount a hard drive to MAC BOOK PRO?

What kind of hard drive? If it's an external USB hard drive, just plug it in to a USB port. It will mount automatically.

How to reformat my hard drive

I have a macbook pro laptop. Right now it has mountain lion on it. I need to reformat the hard drive. I'm told that I need to install the start up disc in order to do that. So I use the original start up disc that came with the computer and then upgrade back up to Mountain Lion?
Also, how do i reformat the hard drive? I believe you do that with disk utility, is that correct? Do you go to applications, utilities, disk utility and then select Erase and go from there.

Install or Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
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.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
      left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
        the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
      the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.

How to Format Toshiba Hard-Drive for Mac with Parallels?

Hello,
I recently bought a Toshiba Hard-Drive with the following features:
500GB
It is a Canivo Basics 3.0
It is USB 3.0 and 2.0 portable hard drive
It has already been formatted NTFS for Windows XP, Vista, 7, and 8
The box says that it can be reformatted for Mac
I have a Macbook Pro with Retina Display that I bought this year in late March/early April.
It runs OS X Mavericks, and Parallels Desktop 9 for Mac.
I would like to reformat it so that I can use it on my laptop both with Windows and Mac OS at the same time. I do not wish to use a partition as I want to access the hard drive through Mac and Windows at the same time on my laptop and I also want to be able to access the Mac things on a Windows computer and vice versa.
I have never formatted a hard drive before, and I would like to use a completely safe software, or no software at all, if it is possible.
I am sorry but I don't have a very high knowledge of this.
Thanks,
Sandy-Wood

It would be easier, using Parallels, just to format the drive for "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". You can see it both in the Windows/Parallels and the Mac side. Leaving it formatted as NTFS is not going to allow you to access (write to) the drive unless you use third-party software. Formatting it for Mac lets you use it, as I said, on both the Parallels VM and the Mac side.
If you were using Boot Camp, I would advise leaving it formatted as NTFS and purchasing NTFS for Mac to access the drive on both OS's. You can mitigate that by formatting the drive for Mac:
Good luck,
Clinton

How to Reformat the hard drive I use to edit with..."scratch disc"

Today when I turned on my computer I got a strange message on the screen that basically said I need to back up one of my drives and format it asap. It also said the computer couldn't repair it.
This is the HD I use to edit with as my scratch disc with Final Cut Pro.
I am in the process of backing my files up now. One thing I noticed was that some of my files I don't need anymore and wanted to trash them but it won't allow me to trash files! I get an error message when I drag the file to the trash. So I am going to have to back everything up and I guess will have to erase the disc.
I never reformatted a disc before so if anyone knows what I need to do that would be great since this is the drive I used to edit with.
Thanks.
Message was edited by: DVX100Shooter

To reformat a hard drive, launch Disk Utilities (in the Applications->Utilities folder) and click on the Erase tab. Select the drive you want to reformat then choose "Mac OS Extended" ... give the volume a name and click on the Erase button.
Once the drive is reformatted, open FCP and assign it as the scratch disk.
However, the drive may be suffering from other problems that reformatting won't fix.
-DH

How to install hard drive into mac pro

how to install hard drive into mac pro

I recently bought a new 2TB internal sata drive for my Macpro.
The installation was easy, but I'm not sure what to do next.
For one, should I partition the drive?
My purpose for buying the drive was to use it as my go to drive for Parallels. I used to run my music studio on Windows based machines, and my older project files require a windows OS to recover. I installed Parallels so I can have my studio running Mac and Windows programs which will enable me to access my old project files and take them into my newer Protools system.
So now, I've installed my new hard drive, but I'm not sure if I should partition it....And!? I'm not sure how to designate that drive for my virtual pc on Parallels. I was able to allocate enough disk space to parallels in order to load my music software, but at this point, I'm not sure if I've just promised it disk space from my original partitioned drive (which only has about 350 GB left on it).
I would love to be able to make one internal drive available for Parallels, and the other available for the rest of my OSX. When I use Parallels, I still would like to save some extra information on the 2TB drive as well from my dekstop running OSX.
I hope this makes sense! Your help is much appreciated!

Can I format an IDE Hard Drive from Mac Pro?

I use a mid - 2012 Mac Pro; run Mavericks OS X 10.9.2.
1. Can an IDE hard drive (using an external drive) be formatted to 10.9.2, from my Mac Pro using Mavericks? (the IDE hard drive is new/unformatted).
2. Once formatted to 10.9.2, can I reformat the IDE hard drive to Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8, from my Mac Pro using Mavericks?
3. If so, would should I do to accomplish Question # 2 above?

The version of the OS that is running is not relevant to formatting the drive. When you format a drive in any OS, you should select "Mac OS extended journaled." (That is, unless you plan to share the drive with a Windows computer.) Formatted this way, the drive can be used with any version of Mac OS.
You do not have to reformat the drive each time you connect it with a different OS.

How to Install New Internal Hard Drive on Mac Pro Laptop

My wifes 15 in Mid 2010 lap top running 10.8.4 has run out of drive space so we bought a new 1tb drive to install. We aren't sure where to go from here. The current contents are back up on Time Machine, but we also bought a small hard drive enclosure to take out the current hard drive and put it in the small enclosure.
So...do we install the new 1tb drive into the laptop and then try and start from the original hard drive that is now in an enclousure...then "Copy" or "Migrate" the material from the original hard drive to the new on? If so...how is that done?
Or do we try and "Copy" or "Migrate" the hard drive materials backed up on Time Machine? If so...how do we do that?
Thank you!

After formatting the new hdd, while still outside the mac, make a clone of your internal disk with CarbonCopyCloner on the new (still external) disk: CCC will ask you to install the Recovery Partition also, do that, and then the clone.
Then you eject the new drive, shutdown, and then you open the mac take the original disk out, and put the new one in.
On the OWC and other sites you will find instructions how to do the switch. Be very careful with the connectors inside .

How to access hard drive on mac pro desktop from laptop?

I sold my Mac monitor and wireless keyboard. Now I want to sell my Mac Pro Desktop, but I need to wipe the hard drive first. How can I turn it on and access the drive from my Mac laptop?

It will show up as a drive, you can just access the drives on the desktop provided you turned on disk sharing. You can't access the "desktop".. If you had previously turned on screen sharing then you could use that via network connection.
If you can find the file that has preferences and then edit it then you can change to startup in Target disk mode. I do not know the file or how to edit it.
GSC818 wrote:
If I can start it from the button, then can't I connect to my laptop via firewire or Ethernet and would it show up as an external drive? Then I could change the startup disk in the preferences panel on my laptop. Would that work?

How can I upgardge hard drive with mac osx 10.8

Looking to upgrade the hard drive on our 2009 iMac. What do I need to in Time Machine and or Mountain Lion to swap out drives?

I've used both IcyDock and G-Drive enclosures.
The prices vary quite a bit and you get what you pay for.
I don't know what type of ports you have on that iMac, but if you have Firewire 800, you might consider paying the extra bit for an enclosure that supports that. Much faster transfer rate.
The other thing to look for, and it might be a little difficult to dig out, is you need an enclosure that can support the 3 TB drive. The newer ones will likely support that big a drive, but the older ones (likely being sold at a discount) may not.
From what I have read (http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/imac-aluminum-faq/imac-intel-21.5-inc h-27-inch-aluminum-how-to-upgrade-hard-drive.html), the drive is a 3.5" drive, so the link Clinton posted won't work.
And, according to that article, the drive is somewhat special in that you can't just buy any hard drive. Make sure you find a Hard drive specifically designed for that iMac.
Also, based on that article I posted, you may need to do some more research on what exactly Apple does to the drive for the iMac, as it may not work in any enclosure.

How to partition the hard drive in Mac OS 9?

I have a 366 MHz iBook Clamshell, and to install Yellow Dog Linux without wiping OS 9, I must partition the hard drive. It does not have any CD tray, and the hard drive is 10 GB.

If you are trying to partition the disk you are booting from, then no, it cannot alter it's partition map while booted. You will have to use some alternative boot device (ordinarily this would be a bootable CD, but you'll need to find some workaround like an external device).
Also, the utilities in OS 9 will only repartition that drive by erasing the whole thing. You will need to boot into a Linux OS with one of the Linux partition tools if you want to non-destructively alter that discs partition table (use something like GParted on a bootable UBuntu disc or something like that).

New hard drive in Mac Pro showing 0 bytes after partitioning

I bought a Western Digital Caviar 2TB internal hard drive for my Mac Pro (2 x 2.66 GHz Dual Core Intel Xeon (late 2006), 12GB RAM, Mac OS 10.6.8). It already has two 500GB internal drives in two of the four slots.
I slotted the new WD hard drive in and started up the Mac, getting an alert saying there was an unrecognisable disk and did I want to initialise it? Yes, so it opened up Disk Utility.
This showed my two 500GB drives plus the new WD drive at 2TB. To initialise it I erased the disk which failed with an error ("POSIX reports: The operation
couldn't be completed. Input/output error").
I next decided to use Partition instead, choosing just one partition of 2TB, Mac OS Extended (Journaled). After 7 minutes it said the process had been completed and the volume was mounted, though it didn't appear on my desktop, just in Disk Utility. I thought a restart would refresh and show it on the desktop.
Once the Mac was up and running again there was nothing there at all - and now it wasn't even listed in Disk Utility. I shut down, took the hard drive out,
looked at it, scratched my head, replaced it, and turned the Mac back on.
Once again I got an alert telling me the disk was uninitialised and would I like to format it, so clicked OK and Disk Utility opened. This time the disk was
there (WDC WD20EZRX-00DC0B0) but no volume. The info said the drive had a size of 0 Bytes and I could not erase or partition as all buttons were greyed out,
with the Partition tab saying 'this disk is too small to contain partitions'.
So what can I do now? According to macupgrades.co.uk this drive should work in my model of Mac (they recommend and sell it, though I purchased it from NORDPC via Amazon as it was a little cheaper).
http://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/product_info.php?products_id=532
I tried, with the help of my more computer-literate brother, to erase the disk from the command line via the Terminal, getting a result of "Error: 6: POSIX
reports: Device not configured". (Actually we first tried to reformat it, with an error of "does not appear to have a valid file system format").
Does anyone with more knowledge of such things have any ideas or advice? It would be much appreciated.

Unless the drive and sled are not inserted properly - unlikely - or that other drives don't work in that slot - watch out if true, unlikely but loose SATA cable - it IS a bad drive.
If you don't have a PC, setup Windows VM and use WD Lifeguard which is excellent and tests for things like bad SATA cable communicating.
You could also - I always use Partition tab btw - go in there and set it to exFAT and Windows Master Boot Record. All you want is a good drive. This one is not.
GUID tests first and last 10,000 sectors or more to insure that the partition tables and hidden areas work (they are not it is failing). Use to be that a "backup volume information block" was treated as optional if any sectors failed, now it is not.

Installing SATA (parallel?) hard drive in mac pro

is there a way to install my old ATA (is this called parallel) hard drive into my mac pro? i know i can't put it in one of the SATA slots, but how about the second drive bay or something?

While the screws fit into hard drive screw threads they're largely useless as the mounting holes for a 5.25" optical drive do not match that of a 3.5" hard drive. If you want to do any screwing in on the drive you will at a minimum require a 3.5" to 5.25" conversion bracket. Even then the mounting can be tricky do to the short cable and likely misalignment and the connector to that of the optical drive above it.
While the installation of a drive is not difficult the mounting of it, especially if you want it nicely done, can very well be.

How to reformat a hard drive in Mac Pro

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