Menu
Mac drives usually come formatted in FAT32, which will work on both Macs and PCs. Mac can't write files to volumes with NTFS format. The easiest way is to format the SSD using Mac Disk utility. Before you start formatting the SSD on a Mac device, back up important files. The steps are a follows: Connect the disk to your Mac via the appropriate port (USB, Thunderbolt, or Firewire) Go to Application Utilities Disk Utility Locate the drive by looking for its name on the left-hand panel of the Disk Utility and click on it. Here’s what you’ll need to add an external SSD to your Mac, copy the internal drive over to the external and then tell the computer to boot from the external drive instead of the internal drive. An SSD (internal or external) A 2.5-inch hard drive enclosure, unless you choose an external solid state drive (more on that below). Name- Enter a name for the disk such as Macintosh HD/SSD/USB Drive or anything else you want. Format- You have to choose a Mac supported format from the list. The most recommended format is APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled). There are numerous other formats too which will be displayed in the drop-down menu.
PAGE CONTENT:
- Part 1. How to Format SSD in Windows 10/8/7 (3 Ways)
- Part 2. How to Format SSD on a Mac Device
Why Do You Need to Format an SSD
SSD (Solid-State Drive) delivers faster load times for games, applications, and movies. Because of the technology they use, SSDs are lighter and better able to withstand movement and drop page. In addition, SSDs use less energy, allowing computers to run cooler. As a result, most people buy a new SSD to replace the old HDD. Some people also migrate OS to SSD to get better performance. As SSD becomes more and more common, formatting or reformatting becomes important as well.
1.You have bought a new SSD
When you get a new SSD, you need to format it in most cases. The reason for SSD format that the SSD drive can be used on a variety of platforms. These platforms may employ different file systems (NTFS, HFS+, Ext3, or Ext4). You will need to partition and format the drive so that it can be mounted as a usable storage volume on your system.
2.You want to install Windows 10/8/7 on the SSD
If you want to clean install OS on an SSD, you need to format the SSD. If you want to keep your original OS, programs, and data on your system drive, you can use third-party software to migrate OS to SSD without losing data.
3.You want to sell your SSD
If you want to sell or donate the SSD, you need to erase your personal data. Then, formatting the SSD is a nice choice. Also, you can permanently erase the data on the SSD if you are sure that you don't want to keep the data on the SSD.
What to Do Before You Format SSD for Windows 10/8/7
To format a drive (HDD, HDD, USB flash drive, etc.) means preparing the chosen partition on the drive to be used by an operating system by deleting all of the data and setting up a file system. Before you start formatting an SSD, you should do the following things first:
1.Back up wanted data
Formatting only clears data on the address tables, and data finally disappears once you write new data to the marked space. That is to say, you can recover data with data recovery software if the SSD data is not overwritten. Compared with the recovery method, a regular hard drive backup is easier. Make sure you have backed up wanted files from the drive you are going to format at the very beginning.
2. Enable TRIM to maintain SSD performance
TRIM is an Advanced Technology Attachment command that enables the computer operating system to tell the SSD to erase data blocks when they are no longer in use. If your computer’s operating system offers TRIM support, when enabled, your computer will automatically ensure that data saved to your SSD is managed correctly.
Also read:How to Enable/Disable TRIM on SSD in Windows 10
Part 1. How to Format SSD in Windows 10/8/7 (3 Ways)
It is easy to format an SSD. If your SSD is a new one you need to initialize the SSD and create a new partition on it before you can format it. Here are three effective methods to help you format an SSD.
Method 1. Format SSD in Windows 10/8/7 with EaseUS Partition software (Easiest)
Users have to partition SSD drive in Windows 10 in different situations. And this job can be difficult or easy, depending on whether you have a reliable partition software. So what program you can trust? Here we recommend you EaseUS Partition Master.
The program is a professional SSD format tool that is designed to format, resize, copy, convert disk partition. It allows you to format SSD into various formats including NTFS quickly and safely. And then you can successfully install Windows 10 on the NTFS formatted SSD drive. You can watch the video to format your SSD easily and quickly.
You can also learn the detailed guide for how to format SSD with Windows on it:
Step 1: Run EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the hard drive partition you intend to format and choose 'Format'.
Step 2: In the new window, set the Partition label, File system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and Cluster size for the partition to be formatted, then click 'OK'.
Step 3: Then you will see a warning window, click 'OK' in it to continue.
Step 4: Click the 'Execute Operation' button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click 'Apply' to start formatting the partition on your hard drive.
Method 2. Format SSD with Disk Management
In Windows, formatting a partition is usually done from the Disk Management tool. It can perform some simple disk and partition operations like creating a partition, deleting a partition, formatting, extending or shrinking a partition. You can format SSD with this built-in tool with simple steps:
Step 1. At the start, search for 'Disk Management' and press 'Enter'.
Step 2. Choose the SSD partition you want to format. Right-click it and select 'Format'.
Step 3. Select the file system and set the cluster size. Place a checkmark next to 'Perform a quick format'. Click 'OK' to format the drive.
- Notice:
- Quick Format VS Full Format: If you choose to select a Full Format on the partition, the SSD format will delete all files on the volume and scan the bad sectors. When you choose the Quick Format option, the format removes the files on a volume, but does not scan the bad sectors of disk.
Formatting an SSD is slightly different from formatting an HDD. SSDs use different technology, so the formatting function is different. That’s why it is important to make sure that Quick Format is checked before formatting an SSD. If unchecked, your computer will carry out a Full Format, which would cause your computer to perform a full read/write cycle, which can shorten the life of an SSD.
Method 3. Format SSD Using CMD in Windows 10
If you would rather use a command line to format the drive, Command Prompt would be the first choice. It is an amazing tool that can manage disks by typing relative command lines. You can solve all kinds of Windows issues through this tool like creating, deleting or formatting a partition. you can Perform CHKDSK to check and repair hard drive issues. And here, you can see how to format SSD using CMD step by step.
Step 1. Type cmd in the search box. Right-click on Command Prompt and choose 'Run as administrator'.
Step 2. On the Command Prompt black window, type diskpart and press 'Enter'. Then, type the following command lines in order. Press 'enter' every time you enter the command:
- X is the partition number of your SSD drive
- Typing assign to assign a drive letter to the newly created partition.
Further reading: How to format SSD from BIOS
Many users may ask how to format SSD from BIOS, the clear answer is you can't format SSD from BIOS. If you can't perform formatting SSD in Windows, you can use EaseUS Partition Master to create a bootable USB flash drive, CD or DVD, change the BIOS setting, then run a third-party SSD format tool.
Here is a depth guide to create winpe bootable disk.
Part 2. How to Format SSD on a Mac Device
What if you are using a Mac and you want to format your SSD? How to make it? It's also a piece of cake to format SSD on Mac. The only difference is the file system. Mac drives usually come formatted in FAT32, which will work on both Macs and PCs. Mac can't write files to volumes with NTFS format. The easiest way is to format the SSD using Mac Disk utility. Before you start formatting the SSD on a Mac device, back up important files. Save any important files on your computer to a USB flash drive or external storage drive. Then, you can read on and format your SSD:
Step 1. Verify the SSD or connect your SSD to the Mac with a USB cable.
Step 2. Open 'Go > Utilities > Applications > Utilities'. Locate and click on your SSD in Disk Utility and then click on 'Erase'. Change the 'Volume Format' drop menu to the 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)' option.
Step 3. Reset the drive name and click 'Erase', confirm the operation on the next pop-up window.
Wait for the process to complete and then you'll get a compatible file system.
Conclusion
According to the solutions above, you can format your SSD easily. If you are a Windows user, you can directly go to Part 1 to format your SSD with easy steps. If you are a Mac user, you can also format your SSD with detailed steps in Part 2. If you have other problems about how to format SSD, you can always ask us for help.
Admittedly, the Mac OS X platform is fundamentally different from the Windows platform. Coming from Windows to macOS can be somewhat confusing, even on the little things like formatting a hard drive, USB flash drive, or SSD.
If you are experiencing such ‘confusion,’ we are going to walk you through how to format a hard drive for a Mac OS X computer. But before we get down to that, here is some interesting fact you ought to know.
Most generic computer drives come preformatted for use on Windows PCs and are not compatible with Mac OS X out of the box. Though should you plug one into a Mac, it will generally read and work. That is because Mac can easily read other filesystem formats including those of Windows like MSDOS, FAT, FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS formats.
However, you should know a drive formatted to be entirely compatible with the Mac filesystem is more recommended and necessary for use with Time Machine and making bootable Mac OS X disks.
On the other hand, if you plan on using the disk between your Mac and Windows PC, you can format it to a filesystem compatible to both.
How to Format Disk on Mac Computer
Whether you want to format a hard drive, solid state drive (SSD), USB Flash drive, microSD card or any other type of disk. The procedure is the same. It also doesn’t matter if the disk is connected via USB, Thunderbolt, or Firewire. The steps are a follows:
Connect the disk to your Mac via the appropriate port (USB, Thunderbolt, or Firewire)
Go to Application > Utilities > Disk Utility
Locate the drive by looking for its name on the left-hand panel of the Disk Utility and click on it
How To Format A Ssd Drive
Now click on Erase tab located at the top
On the Format contextual menu, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
At this point, you can name the disk if you want; though you can always do that at any time
Next, click on Erase and a second confirmation window will pop-up, and confirm Erase
How To Format Hard Drive For Mac
Voila, you are done with formatting the disk. You should know that SSDs and USB flash drives will typically format much faster than an external hard disk. Speaking of the external hard disk, the bigger the capacity, the longer it will take to format.