Format Drive For El Capitan

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Before upgrading to El Capitan it is wise to try it on external drive or install it on another partition along side your existing OS X (dual boot). But if you have an extra external drive or an empty one you can try installing Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan on it and check out its new features.

Apr 01, 2016 Chita Hunter walks through the steps of formatting an external hard drive for use as a Startup Drive, using Disk Utility Mac OS X 10.11.3 El Capitan. Creating an external backup startup drive is.

Prerequisite:

There is only one prerequisite i.e high speed external hard drive. So either you should have external hard drive with thunderbolt or atleast hard disk with USB 3.0. If you are using USB 2.0 Hard disk, the performance will be horrible since the I/O operations will be at much slower rate.

I have Macbook Pro 13 retina with 8GB RAM, i5 processor and 1TB Seagate external drive with USB 3.0 which when I tested and it I got around 150 MB/sec transfer speed. Now lets see step by step installation process.

Step 1: Format external hard drive

  1. Plugin your external hard drive
  2. From applications launch “Disk Utility”
  3. Select your hard drive in the disk utility app.
    • Select “Partition”
    • In the “Partition Layout”, you should select “1 Partition” or at max “2Partition”. I had choosen 1 partition.
    • Give name to your partition eg. “OS X El Capitan”.
    • The partition format should be “Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
    • Now click on “Options…” and select “GUID Partition Table” and then click on “OK”.
    • Finally click on “Apply” to format and partition your external hard drive.

Step 2: Download Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11

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  1. Go to https://beta.apple.com/ and Sign In if you already signed up or else sign up using your AppleId and password.
  2. Go to the section where you see “Enroll your Mac”, and click on the link “enroll your Mac” there.
  3. Now when you click on “Download the OS X El Capitan Public Beta” button, the download process will be launched in “App Store”. File size is around 6 GB.

Step 3: Install Mac OS X El Capitan / OS X 10.11

  1. From Applications, launch “Install OS X El Capitan”.
  2. As you proceed with the installation, you will be prompted to take backup of your data. Since we are installing it on external drive, you can continue with the installation.
  3. Click on “Show All Disks…” button, so that you can select the disk where you want install El Capitan.
  4. Choose the disk where you want to install the OS X El Capitan.
  5. Click on Install to start the installation process. Your Mac will restart automatically and you will go through the installation process.

Format Drive For El Capitan Free

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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.

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.

Format Drive For El Capitan

How to erase your disk

  1. 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.
  2. 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 is at the top of the list. In this example, Apple SSD is the startup disk:
  3. Select the disk that you want to erase. Don't see your disk?
  4. Click Erase, then complete these items:
    • Name: Type the name that you want the disk to have after you erase it.
    • Format: Choose APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Disk Utility shows a compatible format by default.
    • Scheme: Choose GUID Partition Map.
  5. Click Erase to begin erasing your disk and every container and volume within it. You might be asked to enter your Apple ID. Forgot your Apple ID?
  6. When done, quit Disk Utility.
  7. If you want your Mac to be able to start up from the disk you erased, reinstall macOS on the disk.

Hard Drive Format For El Capitan

How to erase a volume on your disk

  1. 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.
  2. In the sidebar of Disk Utility, select the volume that you want to erase. The volume your Mac started up from is named Macintosh HD, unless you changed its name. Don't see your volume?
  3. Click Erase, then complete these items:
    • Name: Type the name that you want the volume to have after you erase it.
    • Format: Choose APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Disk Utility shows a compatible format by default.
  4. If you see an Erase Volume Group button, the volume you 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 might be asked to enter your Apple ID. Forgot your Apple ID?
  5. When done, quit Disk Utility.
  6. If you want your Mac to be able to start up from the volume you erased, reinstall macOS on that volume.

Reasons to erase

You can erase at any time, including in circumstances such as these:

  • You want to permanently erase all 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 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.

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 (Journaled) 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 (Journaled). Earlier versions of macOS don't work with APFS-formatted volumes.

How to identify the format currently in use

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.

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If your disk or volume doesn't appear, or the erase fails

  1. Shut down your Mac, then unplug all nonessential devices from your Mac.
  2. If you're erasing an external drive, make sure that it's connected directly to your Mac using a cable that you know is good. Then turn the drive off and back on.
  3. 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 might need service. If you need help, please contact Apple Support.

Learn more

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  • 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.