- You will see output like this (note - your Mac's terminal may be black text on a white background if you haven't customized it). Copy the text I point to here. It will probably be something like /dev/disk2. Step 4: Format your USB Drive to work with Windows. Next format your USB drive to Windows FAT32 format.
- Connect the USB device now:-In order to format a particular drive with Mac, you will first need to connect the USB device to the dedicated port of your Mac. There is an application folder in every version of Mac which can be opened in order to locate utilities. You have to click this folder of applications in order to open utilities in your.
- The overwhelming majority of USB flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats: FAT32 or NTFS. The first format, FAT32, is fully compatible with Mac OS X, though with some drawbacks.
To format your USB drive on Mac, enter the following command: sudo diskutil eraseDisk FORMAT VOLUME-NAME USB-LOCATION-AND-NAME Where: FORMAT is where you choose which format you want to use when erasing and formatting your pen drive. There are many file types available when you format a USB drive on Mac, such as exFAT, FAT32, JHFS+, etc. How to Format USB Drive/External Hard Drive on macOS Catalina? By Shirly Chen, updated on 2019-07-08 to Mac Data Wipe USB drives and external hard drives on macOS Catalina are used for storing and backing up important data such as photos, videos, audios, images, notes, messages, music files, PDF files, Word documents, among other files.
Formatting in context of USB or Hard Drives means deleting everything from that drive and rebuilding the file system so that we can use it with an Operating System. And we usually perform formatting in our USB or External Hard Drive when we want to get rid of viruses, or we want to clean the disk as it was when we purchased it. Also when we buy a new USB or Hard Drive, it often comes with windows compatible not the mac so formatting it even needed in this case. So in this post, I will tell you 'How to Format USB on Mac?'.
How to Format USB on MAC?
If you never formatted a USB drive then don't worry it is effortless. And here I will tell you two answers to this question that 'How to Format USB on Mac?'. First, we will go with the straightforward way of doing it; then we will move to the easy way. 😉
So first, we will use the Disk Utility program, which is a GUI and very straightforward so that any kid can do it. Then in the next method, we will format USB drive from mac terminal. So let's start. https://pod-download.mystrikingly.com/blog/google-calendar-download.
Format USB on Mac using Disk Utility
- Connect the USB Drive to your Mac. (This is obvious we need a USB first, then only we can format it 😛 )
- Now we need to open Disk Utility. (Here I will give you one more tip. To open any program in your Mac just press the command + spacebar. It will start the Spotlight Search, now from here you can search for any program, but now we need Disk Utility, so search it).
- Now, on the Disk Utility window you will see External Drives on the left.
- Here I have my USB Drive connected, and its name is No Name. In the top we have options like First Aid, Partition, Erase, Restore, Unmount. To format the drive we need to click on the Erase Button.
Format USB on Mac
- Here, we have two options, the first one is the Name that you can set for your USB Drive. The second one is the Format. If you want to make it windows compatible you need to select MS-DOS (FAT) here. And you can also use the Mac OS Format. So its up to you what you want.
- Now, just click on the Erase Button to complete the format.
- And thats it. Your drive is formatted.
For formatting any External Hard Drive, we can follow the same steps. How to make games in roblox on phone.
Format USB Drive Mac using Terminal
We also have a Command Line Disk Utility interface in Mac. And we can use it to format the USB on Mac as well. Now lets see how we do this.
- First open the terminal (Again press command + space, write terminal and hit enter).
- In terminal now type the following command.
- The above command will display all the disk connected with your machine.
- Here the USB Drive that is connected, is disk2 and we will format this disk only. To format the USB drive here we will write the following command.
Formatting Usb Flash Drive Mac
- In the above command eraseDisk is the format command. Then comes JHFS+ is the Disk Type which is Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then Belal is the name of the disk that will be assigned after formatting. Finally we are writing the name of the disk that we need to format, which disk2 is in this case. Now hit enter.
- And the disk is formatted. 😉 Super Easy, isn't it?
So that's it for this tutorial friends if you got some problems then tell me in the comments. And if you think this post was useful for you, or it helped you in any way, then I request you to please SHARE it with your friends. I hope you got the answer very clearly that 'How to Format USB on Mac?'. So thank you, guys. Will catch you in the next post.
Formatting a USB drive is one of those things that most of us do so rarely, we forget how to do it every time. Fortunately, macOS has simple built-in tools that make it super easy. In this article, we'll show you how to format a USB drive for use with Windows, Time Machine compatibility, or simply to erase it.
Using Disk Utility To Format A USB Drive
The simplest way to format a USB on macOS is through the Disk Utility. First, plug your USB drive into your Mac. Depending on which Mac you're using, you may need to use a flash drive that has a USB C socket or an adapter from USB A to USB C.
Once your USB drive is plugged into your Mac, open Finder. You should see the drive in the sidebar.
Make sure that there are no files on the drive that you wish to keep because the formatting process will erase everything on the drive.
Next, press command + spacebar to pull up Spotlight, type 'Disk Utility', and hit return. This will open the Disk Utility app.
In the sidebar of Disk Utility, click the USB drive you want to format and then click Erase in the toolbar at the top of the window.
A dropdown menu should appear asking you to rename your drive. You can name it anything you like, or simply leave the name the same
Mac Os How To Format Usb
Next, choose the format that you're going to reformat the drive to. You'll see the drive's current format already selected, like so:
If you're not sure which format to choose, here are some pointers:
- APFS (Apple File System): This is a relatively new drive format from Apple that is now macOS's default. It's secure, simple, and reliable. However, it's not readable by a non-Apple machine (meaning you can't plug the drive into a Windows or Linux computer) and Macs running software older than High Sierra won't be able to read the drive. If none of these things affects you, choose this format.
- Mac OS Extended (Journaled): This was the default Apple drive format before APFS. It's more or less the same as APFS, just a bit older. You can't move files to a drive using this format on Windows computers either, but you can view the files on it on a Windows computer, which is a small point for compatibility.
- Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled): This is the same as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), with the exception that you can give your drive a case-sensitive name ('Flash Drive') instead of an all-uppercase name ('FLASH DRIVE').
- MS-DOT (FAT): This file format comes with a big benefit and a big drawback. It's compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux, making it a great option if you need to move files between the three operating systems. However, MS-DOT (FAT) only allows files that are 4GB or less. And, since it's a little older, it has no security features.
- ExFAT: The same as MS-DOT (FAT) except that it supports files over 4GB in size.
- NTFS: This is the Windows equivalent to APFS; it's Windows's default drive format. A Mac computer can read files on an NTFS drive, but it can not write files to that drive. This is a good option if you're formatting the drive for a Windows computer.
Finally, there's Security Options…:
This brings up a slider where you can choose how deleted the files you erase from your drive really are. On the least secure option, a sophisticated program would be able to recover the deleted files, and on the most secure option, it would be more or less impossible for anybody to recover the files. If you're not in a rush, the most secure option is obviously best, though you should be safe on the least secure setting, unless you have particularly sensitive data on the drive.
All that's left to do is press erase! Once you do this, Disk Utility will erase all of the data on your drive and format it to your format of choice. How long this takes will depend on how many files you have on the drive, how much storage the drive holds, and which security settings you chose.
And that's it!
FAQs
What happens when you format a USB drive?
When you format a USB drive on macOS, the computer wipes all of the data off of the drive, making it a blank slate of computer memory. It then configures this memory to whatever format you choose.
Will formatting a USB drive delete my files?
Yes, formatting a USB drive will delete all of your files on that drive (though not the files on the rest of your computer) so make sure you have them backed up somewhere if they are valuable to you. And if you don't want those files to be saved, choosing the highest security settings when formatting the drive will ensure the erased files are unrecoverable after formatting.
Why would you format a USB drive on macOS?
There are a few reasons to format a USB drive on macOS. First, to prepare the drive for Time Machine; macOS should handle this for you. Second, to make the drive compatible with Windows or Linux devices, as all three operating systems use slightly different USB formats. And third, to erase all of the data on a USB drive.
How do I format a USB drive for Time Machine?
Most USB drives should automatically bring up a prompt for Time Machine the first time you plug them in, assuming they are blank. Otherwise, you can format a USB drive for Time Machine by opening Disk Utility, selecting the drive you want to format, clicking Erase, and choosing the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.
Once formatted, open System Preferences, click Time Machine, click Select Disk…, and choose your USB drive from the available options.