How do I identify the file system of a drive in Mac OS?

Question

I have an external drive hooked up to my Mac, and I'm trying to determine things like, e.g., is this HFS or FAT, is it 32-bit or 64-bit, etc. It seems like there should be some trivial command that gives me this info, but I can't seem to find one. Ideas?

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-26T09:46:36.787

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diskutil(8) with the info predicate will give you information about a disk or partition.

edited Jun 26 '18 at 09:46

answered Jun 01 '11 at 22:11

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

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link is dead mate – Theo Jun 26 '18 at 09:22
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`diskutil list` also shows all available drives and volumes with their type (file-system). – Robert Nov 27 '18 at 10:04
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`diskutil info -all` – Shayan Oct 20 '19 at 22:48

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 01 '11 at 22:35

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Highlight the volume in finder (note, that it must be the root of the volume), and hit cmd + i. The info dialog that appears shows you the filesystem type against the Format label.

answered Jun 01 '11 at 22:35

Bryan

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score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 06 '18 at 21:02

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Running mount in Terminal.app also works and has way less noise when compared to diskutil info -all.

answered Apr 06 '18 at 21:02

erik.weathers

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it works, but output is a bit ugly though. – pdwalker Oct 28 '19 at 06:56
`mount | column -t` makes it less visually dense. – erik.weathers Nov 20 '19 at 20:15

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 02 '11 at 18:48

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Unless you're wedded to doing it from the command line, use Disk Utility and it's "Info" button.

answered Jun 02 '11 at 18:48

AlanGBaker

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 10 '19 at 03:52

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The 'mount' will show the filesystem type.

answered Jun 10 '19 at 03:52

user2114496

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How do I identify the file system of a drive in Mac OS?

5 Answers5