MacOS – Format a SSD from Mac OS Extended to NTFS

hard drivemacosntfsssd

I have a SSD formated in Mac OS Extended, and I want to format it to NTFS because I will use it on Windows.

To do it, I installed Paragon. I rebooted my MacBook. I checked if the driver was actived, and it was. So I went to Disk Utilty, but I have no choice to format to NTFS. Only Mac OS Extended is proposed.

I tried with Tuxera too. But same result, it didn't show the NTFS option.

Do you know any other way to format a SSD or a HDD from Mac OS Extended to NTFS ?

Best Answer

I respond to myself because I managed to do it. On my SSD I had an installation of OS X Yosemite, so I couldn't format it directly to NTFS.

So I first format the SSD to Mac OS Extended. And then I could choose the NTFS format option from Disk Utility.

Related Solutions

MacOS – Name-error when formatting NTFS on OS X 10.8.4 using “diskutil” (Terminal)

This is not possible using stock OS X since even on a normal drive (and not getting into any core storage considerations), diskutil does not support the UFSD_NTFS and NTFS formats:

Mac:~ bmike$ diskutil listFilesystems
Formattable file systems

These file system personalities can be used for erasing and partitioning.
When specifying a personality as a parameter to a verb, case is not considered.
Certain common aliases (also case-insensitive) are listed below as well.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PERSONALITY                     USER VISIBLE NAME                               
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ExFAT                           ExFAT                                           
Free Space                      Free Space                                      
  (or) free
MS-DOS                          MS-DOS (FAT)                                    
MS-DOS FAT12                    MS-DOS (FAT12)                                  
MS-DOS FAT16                    MS-DOS (FAT16)                                  
MS-DOS FAT32                    MS-DOS (FAT32)                                  
  (or) fat32
HFS+                            Mac OS Extended                                 
Case-sensitive HFS+             Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive)                
  (or) hfsx
Case-sensitive Journaled HFS+   Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)     
  (or) jhfsx
Journaled HFS+                  Mac OS Extended (Journaled)                     
  (or) jhfs+

You would need to use a tool other than diskutil to perform the formatting, but the Apple tools will respect and leave alone these volumes or make space for them by leaving free space or a FAT/ExFAT partition that you could then erase and leave NTFS data on the drive. Additionally, the Paragon pre-sales FAQ for 10.0.2 doesn't mention either Fustion Drive or Core Storage, so I would assume they don't support this. Have you asked them if core storage is supported?

MacBook – Cannot format SSD in optical bay

Have just faced a similar problem with MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2011) and SSD installed into the Optibay. Operating system: macOS 10.12.3 (16D32).

«Disk Utility» got stuck on the «Waiting for partitions to activate» phase of the erasing process.

The solution, which worked for me, was to put the SSD into the main bay and the HDD into the Optibay.

Best Answer

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MacOS – Name-error when formatting NTFS on OS X 10.8.4 using “diskutil” (Terminal)

MacBook – Cannot format SSD in optical bay

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