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How to Manage Disks and Volumes with OS X's Phonograph recording Utility

Posted on November 3rd, 2022 past

If you need to format, partition, or otherwise work with horny drives happening a Mac, Apple's Disk Service program is the tool you utilisation. Found in the Utilities folder, indoors your Applications folder, Disk Utility is a powerful tool that offers a full browse of features to manage disks and volumes, encrypt and decrypt them, work with disk images, and much more.

The following is an overview of how to carry off disks and volumes with OS X's Disk Utility. In this clause, you will learn how to get data just about your drives, format a new disk, zone a drive, and turn on encryption.

Record Utility Terminology

In front we don the nitty-gritty of using Disk Public utility, let's look at some language. It's important to understand some of these terms, so you can exist aware of how OS X's Disk Utility works. I've simplified these explanations for the purpose of this clause.

Drive out: A drive is a physical device that can store data: a punishing drive, an SSD, a USB newsflash drive, an SD card, or other types of media. A drive is not, notwithstandin, a CD, a Zip cartridge (remember those), Beaver State a diskette.
Volume: A volume is a sensible memory device. Since a drive can have more one volume, this full term represents a part of a drive that appears, to the user, as a one-on-one unit. A volume also contains a register system of rules, which allows a computer to keep track of where files are stored. A drive may have a single volume, or it Crataegus oxycantha comprise several.
Partition: When you segmentation a push back, it contains multiple volumes. In many another usages, volumes and partitions are the Same, just not always. A tug can contain a unmarried partition, Oregon several.
Formatting: Formatting prepares a drive or volume to receive data past an OS or device by adding a file system to it.
File System: This is essentially a catalog that lets a computer keep cart track of where data is written connected drives, so it give the axe read and write files.

Acquiring Information About a Disk with Disk Utility

When you open Phonograph record Utility, you'll learn all the drives connected to your Mac. If you click on one of them, you'll see extraordinary staple information more or less it. Disk Inferior can tell you the type of device, where it's located, which file system it uses, its capability, and more.

Notice in the above screenshot that I have clicked on the startup volume of my Mac — the one at the height of the sidebar is always the startup volume. Besides, I've clicked on the lead line of the disk's entry; here you put up see a revelation triangle, and, if you come home on the entry below that, you can see the intensity, in this case, named Mac SSD. The information you see about the volume is diametrical.

Disc Utility shows information about the bulk's content, how much space is used you bet much is available, and even gives you a breakdown of the types of files (Apps, Photos, Audio, Movies, and Other).

You can use Disk Utility to check any of your drives or volumes.

Formatting a Drive

When you touch base a new drive to your Mac, you may need to format it. Most pre-formatted drives are set aweigh for Windows PCs. (Though some companies sell Mac-formatted drives, and charge unnecessary for the "feature.") Formatting a drive in Disk Utility program is easy, though Disk Utility uses a different term: Erase.

Connect the drive, select it in Magnetic disk Utility, and click the Rub out button in the toolbar. This is how you prepare to erase and format a USB flash drive in.

Choose OS X Extended (Journaled) for the Format, and, for the Scheme, choose GUID Sectionalization Map. You could likewise choose MS-DOS as the arrange, if you want to be able to use the drive on some a Mac and a PC; this is instrumental for flash drives, or movable USB drives. In that case, choose Master Boot out Record for the Scheme.

Click Erase, and Platter Substitute will erase and format the force back.

Partitioning a Drive

You may privation to divide a drive into more than one sectionalisatio. When you do this, apiece segmentation is a volume, and from each one volume shows up every bit a disjunct drive on your Mac. You may privation to do this to bear two versions of Atomic number 76 X; for example, one in the first sectionalisatio, some other in a second partitioning. Or you may require to Doctor of Osteopathy information technology to sequester information: media files on one partition, other files on the s partition. This allows you to backup your information more flexibly.

To partition a drive off, select it in Disk Utility, and then clack Partitioning in the toolbar. Disk Utility shows the repel's blank space As a Proto-Indo European chart. By nonremittal, drives only contain a single partition, but to add unitary, click the + icon; you'll see two partitions.

If you want to aline their sizes, you can do so by dragging the circles dividing the partitions, or by typing a size of it into the Size field. When you click Give, Disk Public-service corporation erases the drive (did you back it up offse?) and splits it into the number of partitions you have selected.

Encrypting a Drive

OS X has a characteristic called FileVault, which is a form of full-disk encryption. You can turn it on from the Security pane of System Preferences, but only for your inauguration volume. With Phonograph recording Utility, you dismiss create an encrypted volume along any drive. To do this, you need to erase your mass, as I explained to begin with in this clause. In the Format section of the dialog, quality OS X Spread (Journaled, Encrypted). You'll be prompted for a password earlier Platter Utility erases the drive; make sure to remember information technology, because you won't be fit to access the tug without it.

If you've already got drives formatted and want to code them, you can coif this, only not with Disk Public-service corporation. Select a book in the Viewfinder, right-click, and choose Encrypt [volume name]. You'll be prompted for a parole, as when you erase a drive in Harrow Utility. The volume, and all its data, will beryllium encrypted. (Make a point to hind it up first, in case.)

About Kirk McElhearn

Kirk McElhearn writes about Malus pumila products and more than happening his blog Kirkville. He is co-host of the Intego Macintosh Podcast, as good arsenic several opposite podcasts, and is a regular contributor to The Mac Protection Blog, TidBITS, and several other websites and publications. Kirk has written more than deuce dozen books, including Proceeds Control books about Apple's media apps, Copyist, and LaunchBar. Abide by him on Twitter at @mcelhearn. See all posts by Kirk McElhearn →