How to Format Hard Drive/External Device on macOS Big Sur?

author

Anna

updated on 2020-11-06 to Mac Data Erasure

macOS Big Sur disk format

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macOS Big Sur 11 is the biggest update for Apple Mac operating system. If you are looking for a solution to formatting hard drive or memory card, USB flash drive etc on macOS Big Sur, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we will show you three methods to help you easily and quickly format a hard drive or external device after upgrading macOS Big Sur, meeting the various needs of format.

Method 1. Format hard drive or external device with Disk Utility.

Disk Utility is a built-in disk management tool in macOS including macOS Big Sur. Just open it on your Mac, then select the hard drive or device you want to format and click on Erase button. This tool will help you securely and easily format the hard disk drive or memory card, USB flash drive, portable hard drive on macOS Big Sur. However, the formatted data is still can be recovered by data recovery software.

format hard drive with Disk Utility

You don’t need to install third-party disk formatting software. Disk Utility can meet the normal format needs of you. Disk Utility even can help you format a corrupted memory card, USB flash drive.

Method 2. Format and wipe hard drive with AweEraser.

As said above, the lost data can be recovered even the hard drive has been erased by Disk Utility. In some cases, you need a solution to permanently wipe your sensitive data. For example, before you sell or donate a portable hard drive, you’d better permanently erase all your private files in the portable hard drive to prevent potential data recovery.

AweEraser for Mac is a powerful data erasure application for macOS including macOS Big Sur. You can use this application to format and wipe your hard drive to securely and permanently erase all your sensitive data.

  • Once your data is erased by AweEraser for Mac, the erased data is gone forever, can’t be recovered by any data recovery software.
  • The erasure process is 100% safe, will not cause any damage to your HDD, SSD or external device.
  • Certified data erasure methods, such as: HMG Infosec Standard 5, Baseline, DOD 5220.22-M, U.S. Army AR380-19, Peter Gutmann's algorithm.

Now, you can follow the steps below to format and wipe hard drive on macOS Big Sur:

Step 1. Download and install AweEraser for Mac on your Mac computer, then run it from Launchpad.

AweEraser for Mac

AweEraser for Mac

Powerful and easy-to-use data eraser & junk cleaner software for macOS Big Sur.

Step 2. Select data erasure mode - Erase Hard Drive, this mode will help you format the hard drive and permanently erase all data from your hard drive.

format hard drive with AweEraser for Mac

Step 3. Select the target hard drive, then click on Erase button. Once the process gets finished, all data on the hard drive will be gone forever, can’t be recovered by any data recovery method.

format hard drive on macOS Big Sur

This disk formatting method will help you format and wipe your hard drive. So, before you sell, donate or trade in your Mac/Device, you can choose this method to permanently erase your sensitive data so that nobody can restore your private information.

AweEraser for Mac also can help you shred files on macOS Big Sur, wipe free disk space, uninstall unwanted applications, clear web browsers’ cookies, fix corrupted memory card, USB flash drive, etc.

Method 3. Format hard drive with AweCleaner for macOS Big Sur.

AweCleaner for Mac is a junk cleaner & disk management tool for macOS Big Sur. It offers a disk manager tool to help you quickly format hard drive or external device. Like method 1, the formatted data also can be recovered by data recovery software.

Just open AweCleaner for Mac > choose tool ‘Disk Manager’ > Select the hard drive > Click on Format button > the selected hard drive will be quickly formatted to exFAT, HFS+, etc.

format hard drive with AweCleaner for Mac

We highly recommend AweCleaner for Mac to macOS Big Sur users as it is an excellent disk cleaner & optimization tool. It can help you quickly remove junk data, uninstall unwanted applications, manage your Mac after upgrading to macOS Big Sur.

AweCleaner for Mac

AweCleaner for Mac

All-in-one Mac cleaner & manager to optimize, clean and speed up your Mac in easy way.