Disk Utility

Disk Utility is a multi-purpose system utility developed by Apple for managing drives for use with macOS.

Features
The functions supported by Disk Utility include:
 * Creation, conversion, backup, compression and encryption of disk images from a wide range of formats read by Disk Utility, such as .dmg (for drive images) or .cdr (for CD/DVD images).
 * Mounting, unmounting and ejecting drive volumes (including hard disks, removable media, and disk volume images)
 * Enabling or disabling journaling
 * Verifying a disk's integrity, and repairing it if the disk is damaged (this will work for both Mac compatible format partitions, and FAT32 partitions with Microsoft Windows installed)
 * Erasing, formatting, partitioning, and cloning disks
 * Secure deletion of free space or disk using a "zero out" data, a 7-pass DOD 5220-22 M standard, or a 35-pass Gutmann algorithm
 * Adding or changing partition table between Apple Partition Map, GUID Partition Table and master boot record (MBR)
 * Checking the S.M.A.R.T. status of a hard disk
 * Restoring volumes from Apple Software Restore (ASR) images.

Disk Utility functions may also be accessed through the macOS Terminal command line interface with the  and   commands.

History
Drive Utility dates back to on January 4, 2001, before the first release of Mac OS X 10.0 (Cheetah). It initially consolidated the features of Disk First Aid and Drive Setup from classic Mac OS. The version included with Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) incorporated the features of Disk Copy.

Version 15, which was included with OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), greatly streamlined the user interface, eliminating permissions repairs due to the introduction of System Integrity Protection (SIP). Version 16, which was included with macOS 10.13 (High Sierra), added support for APFS.

Articles

 * What’s the Difference Between APFS, Mac OS Extended (HFS+), and ExFAT? by Justin Pot at How-To Geek (2019-09-20)