Not every USB drive can be used with a Mac out of the box, you'll need to format the drive to compatible with the MacOS extended file system. If you want to ensure full Mac compatibility on your USB drive or flash disk, just read this article. And you will find two ways which will teach you how to format a USB drive on Mac, including Disk Utility and Terminal command. And if you lost your important data because of formatting, you can use a data recovery tool to recover data from a formatted USB drive on Mac.
Format the USB device for the Tesla (Mac) Mac users do not need to use any special tools to format the device. Simply delete the device with the disk utility, selecting the MS-DOS (FAT) setting. You can also name the device with an appropriate name. Then create the TeslaCam folder on the newly formatted USB device. Problem troubleshooting. Connect the flash drive that you want to format. Go to Applications and Utilities and launch Disk Utility. The application will appear on the screen, and you will see the main window, with a list of available storage devices on the left and various disk management options on the right.
1 Format a USB Drive with a Mac. Any and all data on the USB drive will be destroyed during this process. Make sure the drive is blank, or copy the data to a safe place before proceeding. Insert a USB drive into your USB port. MacOS will recognize the drive and show its icon on the desktop. This is a typical partitioning format that is supported by practically all computers (windows, linux and mac os). FAT32 limits file sizes to 4GB and device sizes to 8TB. For you to be able to store a file greater than 4GB in size, you'd need to reformat the drive to either ExFAT (file size is limited to 16EB, or 16 BILLION TB) or a MacOS.
Yоu hаvе tо be sure that уоu know whаt уоu are doing whеn you execute thе соmmаndѕ, because you саn еrаѕе your еntirе hаrd drivе if уоu do this wrоng.
The only way to be sure of the content you are formatting is to first remove the USB drive from Mac, know the title of other storage disks, insert the USB disk again and note the name of the disk. Now you are sure not to be formatting a wrong disk this way. Next, drag the USB data to a safe location for backup/recovery measures before formatting it. Then you are set to get it done!
You'll be given several format options when you try to format a USB drive on Mac, including OS X Extended (Journaled), OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled), MS-DOS (FAT) and ExFAT. If you are using macOS 10.13 or later, you'll also see an option named APFS, which is the default file system of macOS 10.13 and later.
APFS is a new file system for macOS. It's the most appropriate format for flash drives and SSDs. However, in order to write to this file system, you need to have the latest macOS. If you're sure that you won't connect the USB drive to a Mac computer running old version, then you can format your USB drive with APFS.
This is the default file system for macOS 10.12 and earlier. It doesn't put a limit on the size of files you can save on the drive, and that's the greatest advantage. Windows-running computers can read the files formatted to OS X Extended (Journaled), but can't write to them. In other words, you can transfer files from Macs to PCs without any problem, but you won't be able to transfer files from PCs to Macs. If you need to transfer data between PCs and Macs, you should consider other options.
The biggest difference between OS X Extended (Journaled) and OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) is the latter is case-sensitive to folder names. Therefore, if you do not have special needs, you can ignore this option.
This is Disk Utility's name for FAT32 file system. It's compatible with Windows operating systems and macOS. A USB drive formatted this way can easily transfer data between PCs and Macs. However, a USB drive formatted to FAT32 doesn't support an individual file larger than 4GB.
ExFAT, the successor of FAT32, offers larger storage space and supports files larger than 4GB. So, if you need to transfer large files between PCs and Macs, ExFAT will be the best format for your USB drive.
As earlier stated, you need to first back up your USB drive before formatting the drive as you may not be able to recover the contents again. Now, you can follow the steps highlighted below to get it successfully formatted.
Step 1: Insert the USB to be formatted to a Mac computer.
Step 2: Navigate to Applications > Utilities, and click it twice to open it.
Step 3: Select the drive you want to format and click on Erase.
Step 4: Rename the USB drive (optional), and choose one file system from the options.
Step 5: Then select Master Boot Record for scheme, hit Erase.
Step 6: Once the process is done, you are ready to reuse the drive with new file system to save data again. Pharoahs fortune slot machine.
Step 1: Connect the USB drive to your Mac computer.
Step 2: Click on cmd + space to run spotlight, input terminal then tap Enter key.
Step 3: Type diskutil list to find the location of your USB drive (eg: dev/disk2 is the USB drive in the below picture). The final take 1 0.
Step 4: Type sudo diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 MBRFormat /dev/disk2.
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Diskutil calls disk utility program.
eraseDisk commands to format.
FAT32 sets the file system.
MBRFormat tells disk utility to format with a Master Boot Record.
/dev/disk2 is the location of the USB drive.
Note: You can replace FAT32 with ExFAT in the command, and your USB drive will be formatted in that way.
After the process completes, type diskutil list in command once more to check if the USB drive has been formatted successfully.
Users perhaps format a USB drive by mistake. Only after formatting it, they would realize that they had lost important data. If you don' t have a backup for data, then you can recover lost data from formatted USB drive on Mac with this trusted data recovery software - iMyFone AnyRecover. You can now recover all kinds of data from formatted USB drive on Mac with only 3 simple steps.
- Your Comprehensive Mac Data Recovery Solution
You can get back your lost photos, videos, documents, compressed files, and numerous kinds of data from formatted USB drive easily.
It adopts all-round scan and deep scan simultaneously, which can greatly shorten the scanning time and recover more data.
It supports data recovery on all types of USB drives. It also supports file formats like NTFS, HFS+, FAT32, exFAT, etc.
It allows you to preview scanned files before recovery. And you can recover any 3 files for free.
Follow the simple steps below to recover data after formatting USB flash drive on mac:
Step 1: Make sure you have connected your USB drive to your Mac successfully. Launch AnyRecover software on your system and select the formatted USB drive you are trying to recover from. And press the 'Start' button to start the scanning.
Step 2: The software will immediately begin the scanning process. You can pause the process at any time and resume from that point later.
Step 3: Immediately after the scanning process is complete, the software will list all the files in their respective file formats and folders. Tick on and confirm what you are going to recover, then click on 'Recover' button.
May 12,2020 • Filed to: Flash Drive Recovery • Proven solutions
Not every USB flash drive available out there can be used with your Mac system right away after buying it. There are some flash drives that need to be first formatted before you store data on them. Mac system provides support for different file systems.
If you find that the USB flash drive you’ve purchased isn’t compatible with your Mac computer, then you need to format to file system supported by your system. The main reason behind why all USB drives aren’t compatible with Mac is because most of them are designed to use on Windows OS, which operates on the FAT32 system. On the other hand, Mac systems operate on either APFS or Mac OS Extended.
The good news is that there is no need to panic if you’ve purchased a USB flash drive running on a different format than what is supported by your Mac.
Here, in this article, we will show you how to format USB on Mac to a compatible file system. As formatting leads to data loss and that’s why we will also introduce you with best USB drive data recovery tool you can use to recover your lost data.
Formatting a USB flash drive on Mac is a little bit lengthy process but yields the desired result. Also, before you process with the process, make sure that the device has no important data on it. This process will erase all the data from it. Thus, copy all important files that you need from the drive to your computer or another external storage device.
Now, let’s learn how to format the flash drive on Mac:
Step 1 Start the process by plugging the USB drive into a USB socket. If you’ve MacBook Pro or latest MacBook, then you need a USB-C to USB Adapter.
Step 2 Next, launch the new Finder window and then, click the drive. And move to “Applications”>” Utilities”> and here, double-tap on “Disk Utility”.
Step 3 After that, tap on the USB drive in the sidebar and next, you need to select “Erase” option from the toolbar located at the top of the current window.
Step 4 Now, a window will drop down and here, enter a specific name for the formatted drive. After that, choose the type of format you would like to have from the drop-down menu.
Step 5 If the flash drive has some kind of sensitive data, then click “Security Options”. This will enable you to select how securely you would like to have data to be deleted.
Step 6 Thereafter, you need to move the slider to right. The further you move the slider, the more passes the delete/erase feature will make the meaning more securely data will be deleted. But, this will boost the format time too.
Step 7 Finally, tap on “Ok” and next, choose Erase.
That’s how to format the flash disk on Mac. As you can see that it is quite a time-consuming process, and you need to follow every step to get the desired results.
Well, formatting USB flash drive isn’t a complex task, but the real struggle starts when it comes to choosing the file format. As per the currently running Mac version, macOS High Sierra or older, there are two options available for file format - APFS and Mac OS Extended. Following are some factors that will help you determine the best USB format for Mac according to your needs:
Keep the above points in your mind while formatting a USB flash drive to make sure that you choose the right file format.
If you want to use a USB drive on both Mac and Windows, then you need to format the drive to the format supported by both systems. And FAT32 is the format that both Mac and Windows PC support. In other words, you can read and write FAT32 file format on both the operating system.
Moreover, there are a lot of users who want to use the USB drive on both Windows and Mac and there are also others who want to use it as a storage device for TV shows, and that’s why reformatting to FAT32 format is necessary.
However, no matter for what purpose you need to format the USB drive to FAT32, there are two methods available to how to format flash drive to FAT32 on Mac: How to screen record with mac.
Here’s what you need to do format USB drive to FAT32 with disk utility:
Step 1 To start with, connect USB drive that you want to format to your Mac.
Step 2 Then, select “Applications”>” Utilities”. Next, open the Disk Utility.
Step 3 Now, you need to choose the USB drive from the sidebar of disk utility. Next, select “Erase” from the toolbar of disk utility.
Step 4 Now, provide a name to the formatted disk and choose a FAT32 file format from the menu.
Step 5 Finally, choose Erase and in a while, your drive or disk will be reformatted to the FAT32 format.
Generally, users prefer disk utility to format a disk or drive. But, users who are quite good at using the terminal in macOS can also format the drive from the command line on Mac.
Here’s how to how to format USB stick for Mac and Windows PC using the terminal command line:
Step 1 First, go to the “Applications”>” Utilities”. Here, double-click the “Terminal” application to run it.
Step 2 Now, you need to run the command i.e. Diskutil list. This will provide a list of all the mounted drives on your Mac system.
Step 3 After finding the drive you want to format, you need to copy its identifier for the next command. Here, you also need to choose a name and format type.
The next command you need to run in the command line - Diskutil eraseDisk FILESYSTEM DISKNAME DISKIDENTIFIER.
Let’s take an example - the drive you want to format has “/dev/disk5s2” as its identifier and the file system, in this case, is FAT32 and you named the drive as “Full”. So, the command you will run in the terminal becomes - Diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 FULL /dev/disk5s2.
That’s how format flash drive on Mac to FAT32 file system using terminal command line works. No doubt, it is a little bit complex for users who aren’t much familiar with the command line. That’s why this method is recommended for those who know how to use the terminal on Mac.
Once you’re able to format your USB drive to FAT32, you can use it on both Mac and Windows PC. If you realize that you’ve lost some important files after formatting the drive, don’t be panic. The next part of our guide will help you to get back lost data from a USB drive.
Formatting a flash drive on Mac delete all data stored in the drive. To recover lost data from the USB drive, you need to use professional USB data recovery software like iSkysoft.
With the help of this software, you can recover various file types including photos, audio, video, documents, etc from any storage device, which include removable drives like USB. It is powerful enough to help you restore data under various data loss situations like accidental deletion, formatting, virus attack, etc. The best part of the software is that it provides support for all common file systems, which include FAT, APFS, etc.
A Life Saver to Solve Your Data Loss Problems!
Get Recoverit (IS) from its official site on your Mac, and follow the below steps to recover lost data after you format USB to use on Mac and PC:
After installing the iSkysoft on your Mac computer, run it and connect your USB flash drive to the computer. Then, select the connected drive as a partition or location from where you lost your data.
Next, the software will initiate the scan process to locate the files you’ve lost in the selected location. This may take several minutes to complete the scan process.
Once the scan process completes, preview data and choose the desired files you want to recover. Finally, click “Recover” button to get back the selected ones into the safe location on Mac.
We hope that this guide helps you learn how to format USB on MacBook. There are many situations when you need to use the drive on both Mac and Windows PC. In such cases, you can make it possible by simply formatting the drive. Most users don’t back up their data before formatting and thus, end up losing their important files from the drive. Luckily, Recoverit (IS) can help you to perform USB drive recovery to get back the lost data.
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