When you buy a new hard drive, it’s usually pre-formatted, so all you have to do is connect it to your Mac. But there may come a time when you need to format a hard drive.

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.

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.

Step by step tutorial on how to format a Hard Drive or Disk. Use built-in tools such as Diskpart, CMD, Disk Management, etc, to format.

An SSD for the OS is, therefore, an ideal option. When you plan to use an SSD, it is easier to clone the HDD to a new SSD instead of migrating all your existing data. It takes less time too.

How to format a portable SSD One final step the drive may need before it’s recognized by Windows is to provision it within the operating system. Press Windows + X and select Disk Management.