How to Format SSD on a MacBook (11 Steps)

By Dan Stone

SSDs can be much faster than mechanical hard drives.
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You can cut down load times on a MacBook by adding a solid-state disk drive to the system; however, the drive won't do you any good unless it is formatted correctly for Mac OS. The only difference between a Mac hard drive and a PC hard drive is what file system it's formatted in; Mac hard drives usually come formatted in FAT32, which will work on both Macs and PCs, but isn't optimal for the MacBook's operating system. PC formatted hard drives use the NTFS file system and need to be reformatted to work with Mac computers.

How to Format SSD on a MacBook

Step 1

You can copy files already on the SSD to a mechanical hard drive.
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Backup any information you want to keep that's stored on the SSD.

Step 2

The SSD may be an external drive or use an external enclosure.
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Connect the SSD to the MacBook.

Step 3

SSDs can improve performance on MacBooks.
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Click on the "Go" menu in the Finder.

Step 4

Select the "Utilities" option to launch the Utilities folder.

Step 5

Launch the "Disk Utility" from the Utilities folder.

Step 6

Click on the icon for the SSD.

Step 7

Open the "Erase" tab, which can be found at the top of the "Disk Utility" window.

Step 8

Change the "Volume Format" drop menu to the "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" option.

Step 9

Change the name of the hard drive under the "Name:" section if desired.

Step 10

Macs and PCs share some overlapping drive format support.
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Click the "Erase..." button.

Step 11

Newer MacBooks may lack an internal position to add a SSD.
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Select "Erase" from the pop-up window that asks if you are sure you want to erase the disk. Wait for the formatting process to complete; it can take several minutes to finish. The drive will be ready for use after the formatting has completed.

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