In this Mac tutorial, we show you how to create a new volume using Disk Utility and erase or delete it if required.
How to add, mount, unmount, erase, and delete volumes using Disk Utility on Mac
Disk Utility
How to create a macOS Ventura volume partition on your Mac
This tutorial shows you how to create a separate volume (partition) on your Mac’s internal drive to install macOS Ventura on it.
Using this method, you will have two macOS versions on the same Mac. The first volume will have the macOS you’re currently running (likely macOS Monterey), and the second volume will have macOS Ventura. You will be able to start up your Mac into either one.
New to Mac? Here’s all the tools in the Mac Utilities folder
If you’ve just purchased your first Mac, and especially if you’re coming from Windows, you might be wondering about the Utilities folder. You may see the folder but have yet to open it or you might be looking for a specific tool and don’t realize it’s in that folder.
Whatever the case, we’re here with another in our New to Mac series to help you out! We’ll explain what’s in the Utilities folder and what each tool is for.
How to encrypt and password protect folders on Mac
Even if you’re the only user on your Mac, there’s nothing wrong with adding an extra layer of security. You may have files within folders that contain sensitive information. Or maybe you do share your Mac with others in your household and have private items that you don’t want anyone to accidentally come across.
With this in mind, you can encrypt and password protect folders like this on your Mac and here’s how.
macOS High Sierra 10.13 Supplemental Update fixes Keychain & APFS Disk Utility vulnerabilities
Apple on Thursday released a supplemental update to macOS High Sierra 10.13 which fixes a few bugs, among them a major vulnerability (we told you about it this morning) that could expose the passwords of encrypted Apple File System volumes in plain text in Disk Utility.
macOS High Sierra’s Disk Utility exposes passwords of encrypted APFS volumes
Brazilian developer Matheus Mariano has discovered a pretty serious security vulnerability in macOS High Sierra which exposes passwords of any encrypted APFS volumes in plain text.
How to erase and format external disks on your Mac
Do you use one or more external disks with your Mac for storing videos, backups, installers, archived projects and other large files, which helps conserve storage space on your startup disk? If so, chances are you'll need to erase your external disk at some point to wipe it clean, change its format and so forth.
macOS's built-in app called Disk Utility lets you erase and reformat internal and externals disks with just a few clicks. You can also adjust the partition format if you intend to share the disk with your Windows-toting friends, access it as an external disk on a Windows computer or use the disk with Windows on your Mac through Boot Camp.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you'll learn how to erase and reformat external disks connected to your Mac using macOS's Disk Utility. We'll educate you about the partition maps that macOS supports and detail other important options that are at your disposal within Disk Utility.
How to remove disk partitions on a Mac with Disk Utility
Following on from our guide on creating and disk partitions on macOS, today we'll cover safely removing them, including in what situations it involves loss of data. This guide uses macOS's built-in disk management program, Disk Utility.
How to create a disk partition on Mac
If you've ever needed to add an extra partition to an external hard drive, then look no further! This guide goes through how to add a partition to an existing drive on macOS, using its built-in program, Disk Utility.
How to hide mounted volumes from your desktop and the Finder
We've already covered how to completely prevent partitions from mounting under macOS but, as one iDB reader pointed out, sometimes you want a partition mounted and ready to use but still want the benefit of it not cluttering up your desktop and the Finder sidebar. Luckily, there is a way to leave specific volumes mounted whilst hiding them from both the desktop and the entirety of the Finder in one fell swoop.
How to create blank disk images with Disk Utility
Should you ever find yourself in the need to create blank disk images, OS X's built-in Disk Utility is your friend. A disk image usually has a .dmg extension and appears, looks and behaves like any ordinary file, with one key exception: launching it prompts OS X to mount the volume on the desktop.
These mountable disk images can be useful in a number of situations. For example, you may want to create blank disk images for storage.
Furthermore, disk images can be used as a virtual disk for software distribution, to burn CDs or DVDs and so forth. In this step-by-step tutorial, you'll learn how to create blank disk images in Disk Utility, at any size, with optional password protection, formatting options and more.
How to format drives on your Mac with Disk Utility
At times, you may have the need to erase and re-use a hard drive, solid state drive, or even a USB flash drive so it can be used for alternative purposes. Fortunately, your Mac comes with all the tools you'll need to do this, making it super simple for you to erase and format that drive for your needs.
In this tutorial, we'll show you how you can format a USB flash drive using the Disk Utility built into your macOS operating system. This process also works with external hard drives, internal solid state drives, and any other drive that doesn't contain your operating system on it.