You cannot back up installed programs. These will need to be reinstalled on your new drive. You can, however, usually back up settings and preference files. See this guide for details on backing up your data.
Make sure you select the right drive. Everything will be deleted when the drive is formatted.
FAT32 and exFAT can be written to and read by all newer operating systems. FAT32 is an older system, and doesn’t support files larger than 4 GB, but can be read by virtually any operating system. exFAT has no restrictions, but won’t work with older operating systems like Windows 95. In general, exFAT will be the best option for an external drive, as it is compatible with the most systems. Plus, it can store the largest files.
The Quick Format option does not affect how securely the data is erased. If you need to securely wipe the drive, see the last section of this article.
In OS X your programs will be safe backed up when you use the built-in Time Machine (TM), so they don’t need to be reinstalled manually – saving a lot of time. If your back up is a simple copy, your programs will – in many cases – actually still work, since a Mac program mostly is one big file and not a lot of small files everywhere in the system. Your settings and preference files can also be backed up, and using TM will replace them correctly without you having to think about placing. See this guide for details on backing up your data with TM
FAT32 and exFAT can be written to and read by all newer operating systems. FAT32 is an older system, and doesn’t support files larger than 4 GB, but can be read by virtually any operating system. exFAT has no restrictions, but won’t work with older operating systems like Windows 95. In general exFAT will be the best option for an external drive. It is compatible with the most systems and can store the largest files.
Formatting your drive this way does not securely wipe the data. To ensure that your data is truly erased, see the last section of this article.
See this guide for details on backing up your data.
To open your BIOS, reboot your computer and press the setup key. This is usually F2, F10, or Del.
NTFS format is strictly for Windows. You can only format your boot drive as NTFS.
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In OS X your programs will be safe backed up when you use the built-in Time Machine (TM), so they don’t need to be reinstalled manually – saving a lot of time. If your back up is a simple copy, your programs will – in many cases – actually still work, since a Mac program mostly is one big file and not a lot of small files everywhere in the system. Your settings and preference files can also be backed up, and using TM will replace them correctly without you having to think about placing. See this guide for details on backing up your data.
See this guide for details on backing up your data.
DBAN does not work for solid state drives (SSD). You will need to use a different program, such as Blancco.
See this guide for details on burning ISOs to DVD.
Windows - You will need to set your optical drive as the boot drive from the BIOS menu. See this guide for details on setting your boot order. OS X - Press and hold C while your computer is rebooting. After a little while DBAN will boot.
