

If I select the secondary item in that list (Lexar), I can successfully do a format operation. No matter what Scheme I choose, I get an error when trying to format the item higher in the hierarchy in the sidebar to the left (Lexar USB Flash…), as shown in the screen shot above. Mysterious error when formatting higher item For the best result, select the disk (the highest option in the external tree). You can find this on the left-hand side of the screen under External Hard Drives.
#Format external hard drive mac scheme Pc#
The third one ( Apple Partition Map) is for booting old Macs (68K and PowerPC rather than Intel chips). Format An External Drive Scheme Mac Extended Journaled If you ever want to use the drive on a PC - keep as is (probably exFAT) If you ever want to be able to read the drive on OS 10. Click the external hard drive you want to format. Hard disk drives on external buses such as SCSI or IEEE 1394 are not considered. Why is this offered as a scheme for "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)"? That really threw me, and prompted this Question. The GUID Partition Table disk partition format is well defined and fully. The second one ( Master Boot Record) is old, from the 80's DOS 2, for old PCs. If you want to use a different file system on your USB drive, you’ll need to format it.

Booting is not an issue for my use of this flash drive. I know the first one ( GUID Partition Map) is for booting modern Macs. It’s a great format when working with your external hard drives on your Mac, and will work great with every other Mac user out there. Click the Eject button next to the external hard drive volume (My Passport.
#Format external hard drive mac scheme mac os#
Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. When using Disk Utility 16.3 with macOS Sierra to format a "thumbdrive" USB 3 Lexar flash drive (64 gigs), when I choose a Format of ‘Mac OS Extended (Journaled)’, I get a list of three Scheme items: Choose a new Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one.
