How To Partition Usb Drive On Mac
- How To Partition A Usb Drive On Mac
- Partition External Drive Mac
- How To Remove Partition On Usb Drive Mac
- How To Remove Partition On Usb Drive
- How To Partition A Usb Drive
By default, Mac starts from its built-in hard disk, but a startup disk can be any storage device that contains bootable contents that compatible with your Mac. For example, if you install macOS or Microsoft Windows on a USB drive, your Mac can recognize that drive as a startup disk. This guide provides 2 ways to boot a Mac from a USB flash drive.
Requirement
Click “Clone” to start the cloning process. The content of the USB drive will be overwritten and replaced with the clone of the boot drive. Booting from a USB Drive. Once you’ve installed macOS on a USB drive or cloned your hard drive to a USB drive, you will need to restart your computer and boot from the clone drive. Plug the external drive into your mac and select the Disk utility app You will see your drive listed on the side panel Select your drive and select Erase and a list of options will pop up Select Format: Mac OS journaled. Intel-based Mac. Bootable USB thumb drive formatted with a GUID partition type and containing an OS X installer or a usable operating system. Let’s see how to boot a Mac from a bootable USB drive and what to do if your Mac doesn’t start up from it. Way 1: Boot Mac from USB Drive using Startup Manager. Getting your Mac to load from a USB.
Starting up your Mac from an external disk requires the following:
- Intel-based Mac.
- Bootable USB thumb drive formatted with a GUID partition type and containing an OS X installer or a usable operating system.
Let’s see how to boot a Mac from a bootable USB drive and what to do if your Mac doesn’t start up from it.
Way 1: Boot Mac from USB Drive using Startup Manager
Getting your Mac to load from a USB drive is fairly straightforward. Use the following steps, you can easily set Mac boot from an external drive in Startup Manager, so it’ll only boot from USB that one time.
Step 1: Insert the USB boot media into a USB slot.
Step 2: Turn on your Mac (or Restart your Mac if it’s already on).
Step 3: Press and hold the Option key immediately after you see the Apple logo. Holding that key gives you access to OS X’s Startup Manager. Once the Startup Manager screen appears, release the Option key. The utility will look for any available drives that include bootable content.
Step 4: Using either the pointer or arrow keys on the keyboard, select the USB drive you wish to boot from. Once selected, either hit the Return key or double-click your selection. The machine will start to boot from the USB drive.
Way 2: Set a Mac Boot from USB Drive using Startup Disk
When you use Startup Disk preferences to set Mac boot from an external drive, so it’ll boot from that disk until you choose a different one. Here is how:
Step 1: Go to Apple menu > System Preference, then click Startup Disk.
Step 2: Click the locked icon and then enter your administrator password.
Step 3: Select External drive as the startup disk, then restart your Mac.
What to do if your Mac does not boot from the selected drive
How To Partition A Usb Drive On Mac
If you see a message prompts that your security settings do not allow this Mac to use an external startup disk, check the External Boot setting in Startup Security Utility, and then allow your Mac to use an external startup disk.
Step 1: Open Startup Security Utility.
Turn on your Mac, then press and hold Command (⌘) + R immediately after you see the Apple logo. Your Mac starts up from macOS Recovery. When you see the macOS utility window, choose Utilities > Startup Security Utility from the menu bar. When you’re asked to authenticate, click Enter macOS Password, then choose an administrator account and enter its password.
Step 2: Select “Allow booting from external media“.
If you want to select an external startup disk before restarting your Mac, quit Startup Security Utility, then choose Apple menu > Startup Disk.
Note: If you’re using Boot Camp in a dual-boot Windows/OS X environment, you may be unable to boot negatively into supported versions of Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 10 operating systems installed on external USB hard drive.
Make sure disk has been formatted with a GUID partition type
Intel-based Macs support starting from an external USB storage device’s volume that has been formatted with a GUID partition type. If you wish to boot from the drive, it’s important to format the partition as “GUID Partition Table” rather than either of the other two ahead of time when you use that drive as a bootable drive.
Make sure your disk is bootable
Volumes that aren’t bootable and don’t contain a copy of a valid operating system aren’t listed in Startup Disk or Startup Manager. Make sure the external drive you’re trying to start from contains a usable operating system.
Disk Utility User Guide
Partitioning a disk divides it into individual sections known as containers.
However, with APFS, you shouldn’t partition your disk in most cases. Instead, create multiple APFS volumes within a single partition. With the flexible space management provided by APFS, you can even install another version of macOS on an APFS volume.
Important: If you’re partitioning your internal physical disk because you want to install Windows, use Boot Camp Assistant instead. Do not use Disk Utility to remove a partition that was created using Boot Camp Assistant. Instead, use Boot Camp Assistant to remove the partition from your Mac.
Add a partition
Important: As a precaution, it’s best to back up your data before creating new partitions on your device.
In the Disk Utility app on your Mac, select a volume in the sidebar, then click the Partition button in the toolbar.
If Disk Utility isn’t open, click the Launchpad icon in the Dock, type Disk Utility in the Search field, then click the Disk Utility icon .
If you have multiple storage devices connected to your Mac, make sure you select a volume that’s on the device you want to partition.
When you select a volume that already has data on it, the pie chart shows a shaded area representing the amount of data on the volume and an unshaded area representing the amount of free space available for another volume. Disk Utility also shows whether the volume can be removed or resized.
Note: If you see a small volume with an asterisk, the partition is smaller than can be represented at the correct scale in the chart.
Read the information in the Apple File System Space Sharing dialog, then click Partition.
Click the Add button below the pie chart.
Type a name for the volume in the Name field.
For MS-DOS (FAT) and ExFAT volumes, the maximum length for the volume name is 11 characters.
Click the Format pop-up menu, then choose a file system format.
Enter the size or drag the resize control to increase or decrease the size of the volume.
Click Apply.
Read the information in the Partition Device dialog, then click Partition.
After the operation finishes, click Done.
Partition External Drive Mac
After you partition a storage device, an icon for each volume appears in both the Disk Utility sidebar and the Finder sidebar.
Delete a partition
WARNING: When you delete a partition, all the data on it is erased. Be sure to back up your data before you begin.
In the Disk Utility app on your Mac, select a volume in the sidebar, then click the Partition button in the toolbar.
If Disk Utility isn’t open, click the Launchpad icon in the Dock, type Disk Utility in the Search field, then click the Disk Utility icon .
In the Apple File System Space Sharing dialog, click Partition.
In the pie chart, click the partition you want to delete, then click the Delete button .
If the Delete button is dimmed, you can’t delete the selected partition.
Click Apply.
Read the information in the Partition Device dialog, then click Partition.
After the operation finishes, click Done.
Erase a partition
In the Disk Utility app on your Mac, choose View > Show All Devices, then select the container you want to erase in the sidebar.
If Disk Utility isn’t open, click the Launchpad icon in the Dock, type Disk Utility in the Search field, then click the Disk Utility icon .
Click the Erase button in the toolbar.
If the Erase button is dimmed, you can’t erase the selected container.
Type a name for the volume in the Name field.
Click the Format pop-up menu, then choose a file system format.
After the operation finishes, click Done.
How To Remove Partition On Usb Drive Mac
Enlarge a partition on a storage device
If you have multiple partitions on a device and one of them is running out of space, you may be able to enlarge it without losing any of the files on it.
How To Remove Partition On Usb Drive
To enlarge a volume, you must delete the volume that comes after it on the device, then move the end point of the volume you want to enlarge into the freed space. You can’t enlarge the last volume on a device.
WARNING: When you delete a volume or partition, all the data on it is erased. Be sure to back up your data before you begin.
In the Disk Utility app on your Mac, select a volume in the sidebar, then click the Partition button .
If Disk Utility isn’t open, click the Launchpad icon in the Dock, type Disk Utility in the Search field, then click the Disk Utility icon .
In the Apple File System Space Sharing dialog, click Partition.
In the pie chart, select the partition you want to delete, then click the Delete button .
If the Delete button is dimmed, you can’t delete the selected partition.
Click Apply.
Read the information in the Partition Device dialog, then click Partition.
After the operation finishes, click Done.