When using Disk Utility 16.3 with macOS Sierra to format a 'thumbdrive' USB 3 Lexar flash drive (64 gigs), when I choose a Format of ‘Mac OS Extended (Journaled)’, I get a list of three Scheme item. Formatting With Windows 8.1: Insert the USB drive into an open port on your Windows computer.
- Reformat Thumb Drive Mac
- Format Thumb Drive To Fat32 On Mac
- Format Thumb Drive To Work On Mac And Pc
- Best Format For Usb Drive
To begin to format USB for Mac and PC on a Windows 10 computer, insert the USB drive into an open port and then launch the Windows Disk Management Utility. To find it, type 'disk management' or 'format disk' in Windows Search and select ' Create and Format Hard Disk Partitions.' Step 2: Select the Drive to Format. To use it: 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. Formatting or reformatting is the efficient and secure way to remove all data on the USB flash drive. It is very simple to format USB flash drive on Windows PC. However, it is not easy to format the USB flash drive under Mac OS. Actually, if we want to format a USB flash drive under Mac OS, we should find USB flash drive formatting software at.
WARNING: Formatting will erase all data on the device. Back up all your data before proceeding.
Instructions below are for 10.11.x (El Capitan) and 10.12.x (Sierra)
1. Double-click on Macintosh HD - or in the Finder menu clickFile > New Finder Window
2. Click the Applications folder - if using a Finder Window Applicationswill be in the left side menu.
3. Click the Utilities folder.
4. Double-click Disk Utility.
5. On the left side of the window are the drives connected to the computer. Select the capacity of the drive respective to the one containing the device you wish to format then click the Erase tab.
Example: If the drive is called 'NO NAME', directly above that, you should see the drive capacity of 'XXXX'. Select this capacity.
6. Verify Volume Format is set to MS-DOS file system or exFAT, Scheme is set to “Master Boot Record” (Do NOT select GUID Partition Map) then click Erase.
Instructions below are for 10.13.x (High Sierra)
1. Open Disk Utility. Please See Answer 20985: How to access Disk Utility macOS
2. In the top menu bar, go to View, and choose Show All Devices
3. Select the upper level of the drive you would like to format and click the Erase button
4. Choose how you would like to format the drive
- Enter a Name for your drive
- Choose exFAT or MS-DOS (FAT) for the format
- Choose Master Boot Record for the Scheme
- Click Erase
5. When finished, the drive will be formatted and repartitioned successfully. Click the Done button
NOTE: exFAT is used on SDXC card (64GB and higher).
NOTE: exFAT can be used on flash drives or memory cards to transfer files larger than 4GB.
Reformat Thumb Drive Mac
NOTE: MacOS 10.6.2 or higher is required for exFAT file system. Some older operating systems must have a patch installed before they can use the exFAT file system.
NOTE: If the above steps do NOT resolve the problem or if the lock switch is missing or broken, please back up your data and request a replacement using our online web form.
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Operating systems that support exFAT
Deleting files on a memory card using a Mac
Deleting files on a Cruzer USB flash drive using a Mac
Format Thumb Drive To Fat32 On Mac
For Apple Mac users, there are two ways to format USB flash drive to FAT32, including Disk Utility and Terminal command line. Refer to detailed steps of using both tools for FAT32 format. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. Otherwise, you can use data recovery software to recover data from a formatted USB drive.
Are you looking for a secure way to format USB to FAT32 on Mac? You are at the right place. Follow here, you can find two methods that will assist you in doing so on your storage device. And if you lost data during the formatting, reliable Mac file recovery software is ready to help anytime:
| Workable Solutions | Step-by-step Troubleshooting |
|---|---|
| Method 1. Use Disk Utility | Connect USB to Mac > Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility > Select USB and click 'Erase'...Full steps |
| Method 2. Use Terminal Command | Connect USB to Mac > Hit cmd + space keys > Type terminal and hit Enter...Full steps |
| Bonus Tip. Recover Formatted Data | If you lost data due to formatting, run EaseUS file recovery software > Scan and recover formatted data...Full steps |
How to Format a USB Flash Drive with Mac to FAT32
Computer users who use a USB might have the demand for formatting it to the FAT32 file system. Compare with the other commonly used NTFS file system on a flash drive, FAT32 has a compatibility advantage across many operating systems.
It's a universal format that is compatible with Mac OS X/macOS, Windows, Linux, and DOS systems. So, if users anticipate using the flash drive with more than one operating system, they will definitely benefit from the FAT32 file system. For Apple Mac users, there are two ways to format a USB flash drive to FAT32, namely Disk Utility and Terminal command line. Below are the detailed steps of the FAT32 format with both methods.
Method 1. Format FAT32 on Mac [Disk Utility]
To format USB to FAT32 with Disk Utility will erase all data on the flash drive, so before you doing so, please do remember to check whether you have saved useful data to another secure device in advance.
To format the USB drive to FAT32, follow the next steps:
Step 1. Connect the USB flash drive to your Mac computer.
Step 2. Go to Applications >Utilities > Double click and open Disk Utility.
Step 3. Select your USB flash drive on the sidebar, choose Erase.
Step 4. Rename the USB flash drive (optional).
Step 5. Choose the format as MS-DOS (FAT) for Format, Master Boot Record for Scheme. Then click Erase.
Wait for the process to complete, then you'll get an empty new USB flash drive with FAT32 as the file system. You can use it for saving data again.
Method 2. Format FAT32 on Mac [Terminal Command Line]
The command-line behavior does the same way to erase data with the Disk Utility. Again, create a backup before taking this action.
To format FAT32 on Mac with Terminal, follow the next steps:
Format Thumb Drive To Work On Mac And Pc
Step 1. Connect the USB flash drive to your Mac computer.
Step 2. Hit cmd + space to run Spotlight, type: terminal, and hit Enter.
Best Format For Usb Drive
Step 3. Type: diskutil list and find out which disk is your USB drive.
Step 4. Type: sudo diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 MBRFormat /dev/disk2.
- sudo gives you user right.
- 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.
Wait for the process to complete. After this, you can type 'diskutil list' in the command again to check if the formatting has been successful.
Bonus Tip: How to Recover Data from Formatted USB
Formatting the USB would erase the data on it completely, so please make sure that you have a backup. If you don't, you can count on data recovery software to retrieve the lost data.
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard has both Windows and Mac versions, so it's a good choice for data recovery, no matter you're using a PC or Mac. For Mac users, it only takes a few clicks for the software to scan and display the formatted data. To guarantee an effective data recovery without spending money to no avail, you can install the Mac data recovery free version for the first trial. You can preview all the found data before the final recovery.
To recover data from a formatted USB flash drive on Mac, follow the next steps:
Step 1. Correctly connect your USB flash drive to your Mac. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac. Start selecting the flash drive and click 'Scan' to let the software search lost files on it.
Step 2. After a quick scan and deep scan, all files will be presented in the left panel in the scan results.
Step 3. Select files you want to recover and click the 'Recover Now' button. Don't save the recoverable files to the USB drive itself in case of data overwriting.