OS X Extended (Journaled)– this is the default (and recommended) format for creating secure password-protected drives. Choose the drive you’d like to format, and then select/click the Erase option.ĭisk Utility automatically defaults to the OS X Extended (Journaled) file system format, but you can choose a different option by selecting Formatting options. You should see a list of available drives. Open Applications > Utilities, which is found through Finder, then open the Disk Utility application. There are several options which we will look at to help you choose the correct format for you and show you how to ready the disk for use Step 1: Launch Disk Utility Formatting an external drive for use with an Apple Macīefore you can use a new (or old) drive with a Mac you will need to format it.