Thus, the Macintosh HD is the default startup disk. You can check your startup disk by clicking the Apple menu > System Preferences > Startup Disk. The disk where your current macOS is installed is the startup disk. This changes the startup disk for every startup.How to Delete System Data on Mac What is Startup Disk on Mac? Your Mac will reboot from the selected startup disk. Click the icon of the disk you want to use, then click Restart.

Click the Apple menu > System Preferences. And the Mac starts up from the startup disk previously selected in System Preferences the next time you restart your computer.Ĭhange your Mac's startup with System Preferences: When you see the available startup disks, select one, then click the Up arrow (on Mac) or Continue button (on Mac with Apple silicon).

On a Mac with Apple silicon: Press and hold the power button until you see 'Loading startup options.' On a Mac: Press and hold the Option key as you start up your Mac. You can change the startup disk once, or for every startup. And the process differs from Intel-based Macs to Apple silicon Macs. You can designate a disk for the Mac to start up from by changing the startup disk with ease. Read more > How to change startup disk on Mac Read this post to learn how to recover after accidentally deleting a startup disk on Mac. Recover Data from Accidentally Deleted Startup Disk on MacĪccidentally deleting Mac startup disk(Macintosh HD) makes all your files stored on the drive lost and could also make the Mac unbootable. If more than one, you can select to boot from a specific disk, especially choose to boot the Mac from an external hard drive when the MacBook won't turn on or there is no startup disk on Mac. Mac will boot from it automatically to turn on. If there is only one internal hard drive, then it is the startup disk. Certainly, it can be other external storage devices that contain macOS for MacBook Air/MacBook Pro/iMac, be it a USB, HDD, SSD, etc. A startup disk is used to boot your Mac, making the computer run normally.īy default, the startup disk is the built-in hard drive on the Mac, known as Macintosh HD. So what is the startup disk on Mac? Read on to know more about it.īy definition, a startup disk, also called a boot disk, is a volume where Mac's operating system and applications are installed. If there is no startup disk, or the startup disk is corrupted, you will fail to boot the Mac to work.

Being an essential part of a computer, the startup disk participates in the whole process of your Mac's operation.

How to clear startup disk on macbook