All kinds of operating systems enable us to format hard drive. One can format an internal as well as external hard drive attached to system.The process of formatting helps to create new partitions and make them ready for use. Another benefit of disk formatting is permanent removal of hard-drive errors or viruses from the system. Before partitioning or formatting a drive, it is recommended to create a valid and complete backup of your important data. This is what the message I got while using a Mac partition manager.
So, its very necessary to all computer users to know the significance and procedure of formatting and partitioning a hard drive.
Why should we format a Mac hard drive ?
When a user buys a new hard drive for his Mac ( SATA/ATA or FireWire), it is mentioned on the box that the drive will run on both Macs and PCs. This is true, but this cross platform compatibility can cause some stability issues. It is possible that your new cross platform hard drive could have a file size limit of 2 gig only. If we save a file of more than 2 gig, it will get splitted and saved as separate files. But, when you format a drive for Mac, the file size limit get dynamically allocated. So, you must reformat the new hard disk for Mac. Its important to note here that if a user is working at new FireWire hard drive and want to use it with both Macs and PCs, then leave it as is and do not reformat.There are several third party applications or utilities to help us to perform desired manipulations in hard drive partitions. The manipulations include resize, create , delete, format, hide and reveal. Formatting a hard drive with third party utilities like Stellar partition manager is not more than cutting a piece of cake.
Its very necessary to note that there should not be any kind of interruption while running a partition manager software because if you do not take protective measures, critical data loss situations may occur.
Follow our next post to know how to use Stellar partition manager for formatting
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