Formatting or reformatting a computer’s operating system is one of the perfect maintenance procedures that you can do in order to get rid of viruses and to fully clean up your computer. This is one of the main methods used by software experts and computer hobbyists whenever they want to speed up and clean up their computer. Reformatting removes all sorts of errors in the operating system that might be causing slowness to a PC or Mac device.

Some non-savvy computer users are afraid to do this, but there is nothing really to be afraid of if you have backed your files and programs up either to a cloud server or external hard drive. First Things First! Before you reformat your computer’s hard drive you should always backup your files and programs to a cloud storage, external hard drive, or with a 3rd party backup software. Backing up files and programs should be a regular procedure to ensure you always have a copy of your data just in case it is deleted or your system becomes corrupt from malicious attacks.

This is where reformatting acts as a maintenance precaution. When you reformat any device the device removes everything, all data stored will be deleted as the device is restored to a default clean slate. This has a variety of benefits from removing malicious code, to removing unnecessary programs and freeing up storage space. You can format all different types of drives: computer hard drives, phones, external hard drives, flash USB drives, photographers format SD cards regularly to extend the card’s lifespan.

The procedure is relatively simple for each device, but did you know most drives (external & USB) will not work between Mac and PC computers. This is because the devices are formatted specific to those operating systems. If you have ever switched from Windows to Mac or Mac to Windows you most likely ran into this formatting issue.

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But, you can actually format a drive to work with both operating systems by re-formatting the device driver. We will go through this process in addition to regular device restoring/reformatting. Restoring a Mac Here are the steps to start reformatting your OS X computer.

This will restore the device to the default setup. • First, you will want to back up your files and programs either using a third-party software, external hard drive, or cloud system.

• Once you are backed up, restart the computer and once the chime sounds, begin to hold command and R until the logo appears. • This triggers the utility menu, once the utility menu appears, select Disk Utility and click continue. • Next Select the drive from the Device List and click the erase icon. A drop-down menu will appear, set the Format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). • Click the Apply button and when it is ready click Done. • Now, quit the Disk Utility and return to the Utility Menu.

Select Reinstall OS X and click Continue. You have just restored your Mac to a baseline, removing all files and documents from the system’s drives.

A clean slate so to speak. The final step is to access your backup and begin to transfer the files and software back to the computer’s drives. This can be easy or tedious depending if you are filtering and being selective in what does not need to return to the drive. Formatting an External Drive for Mac OS X Here are the steps to format an external hard drive or flash drive using your OS X device: • Connect the external hard drive you wish to format. • Go to disk utility wherein all of the contents of the disk and further details about the hardware are displayed. You can get here by quickly by hitting the command and spacebar buttons together and typing ‘disk utility’ into the search bar.

• Look for the name of the external drive that you wish to reformat, and press the erase button that is shown on the top area of the window. • Here you can rename the device and change the formatting, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is the standard format for Mac specific devices. Formatting FAT/ExFAT for Windows and Mac on a Mac Following the same process as before you are now formatting the drive to work easily with both Mac and PC interchangeably. Make sure the drive is empty before reformatting because all information on the drive will be deleted in the process. When selecting the formatting select MS-DOS (FAT). This format works easily with both operating systems with one drawback, file sizes must be smaller than 4GB.

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