If you need to get rid of a Mac or external drive, how do you ensure that no one can access the data on it? Adam Engst runs through the various methods you can employ, one or more of which should ...

While the Mac can use a hard drive formatted for Windows, some features may be limited. So it's a good idea to format a new hard drive specifically for macOS.

If you’re booting from a pre-cloned SSD, your Mac will come back as it was before. And if the SSD’s in the optical drive bay, your iMac will now have two internal drives to choose from.

If you just built a PC, or added a brand new hard drive or SSD to an existing computer, you have to format it before you can actually store data on it. This is called 'initializing' the drive.

How-To How to format a hard drive This article will show how to format a hard drive using Disk Utility, a helpful application that comes with every Mac. It’s easy, and takes a few minutes.

But if you’re going to have both the SSD and original hard drive in your Mac, you could pick a smaller SSD for OS X and your apps, keeping your music, photos, and videos on the old hard drive.

You might need to format an external hard drive before you can use it with your computer. We have some tips to help the process go smoothly.

If you need to upgrade your drive—whether you're replacing a broken drive, installing a bigger drive, or switching to an SSD, you're in for a bit of work.