How To Format Flash Drive For Mac Os

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Mac OS and Windows are both operating systems for your computer but they are very different in their components are sometimes functionalities. There are constraints on one side and vice versa but some of these constraints target both of the parties. One of these constraints is the format on which these operating systems perform their storage functions.

How to Perform Pen Drive Data Recovery on Mac. Sometimes, users end up formatting a pen drive by mistake as well. If you also have accidentally deleted data on Mac or have formatted a pen drive, then take the assistance of Recoverit Data Recovery Mac.Developed by Wondershare, it is one of the most advanced and trusted data recovery tools for Mac. The stand alone installer knows enough to run Disk Utilty and prep a drive, so you don’t need a formatted drive. When you run the installer it will detect the bare drive and offer to erase, format, partition and install the OS. Just boot up the installer and connect the new drive.

How To Format Usb Flash Drive To Fat32 In Macos

How to format an drive to use with a Mac & PC If you want to format a drive so that you can copy files between a Mac and a PC you'll want to follow the tutorial above, but choose ExFAT from the. Indeed, one of the reasons to use the Terminal to format a USB drive on Mac is to stick to a procedure that is readily available on your stock OS. Note: if you want to use your pen drive to burn the disk image of Windows 10, then you have to use MBR for your boot loader partition.

We are also no strangers to the fact that this is an era of portability and versatility of data. The problem at hand is that the portable storage media, such as a USB flash drive or an External hard drive can’t be used on both OS because they use different file systems. While the Mac OS can read the data present on the storage medium, it can’t write to it. There are file systems however that allow for communications for both Mac and Windows but you would have to format them first.

How To Format Flash Drive For Mac Os 10.13

The procedure we will be telling you can be used for storage medium of all drive types, whether they are USB, external Hard Drives or Flash drives. Before you proceed, make sure you make a copy or a backup of the data present on the drives as it will be deleted when the format process takes place.

Steps for Hard Drive or USB Flash Drive Formatting

  1. The first step is to connect the hard drive or USB key to the Mac. If you have a newer version of MacBook or MacBook Pro then you would need to use a USB-C to USB-A adapters since the recent one only has USB-C ports.
  2. After that, open a Finder window and click on the drive you want to format and copy any sensitive data if there is any.
  3. When you are done with copying your data from the external drive to your Mac, go to Applications then click Utilities and then launch Disk Utility.
  4. Select the desired drive from the left side of the Disk Utility window and click on it
  5. Select Erase on the top and click Format. You will then be given a menu where various file systems will be present to offer you a choice.
  6. You can also name the drive here if you want if you want from the Name option but the name can be changed at any point
  7. Select the desired format and click Erase to confirm again on the window that pops up.
  8. If your desired media had any sensitive data on it you can opt for the Security tab to be on the safe side.
  9. While there, choose a security level using the slider. The further you move the slider to the right, the more securely the files will be deleted. It is worth mentioning that this increases the time it takes to format the drive.

A factor to consider how fast the process will be completed is dependent on how big your media is. Smaller flash drives or HDD will be formatted much quicker compared to those with a bigger storage. Also if you want to read and write data on Windows and Mac OS then you should format the drive with the Fat32 file system. It allows for data manipulation on both operating systems, the only downside is that the files can no longer exceed 4GB.

Mac Flash Drive To Pc

Yo just got a new external hard drive and want to use it on your Mac. However, the Mac OS does not allow you to write data to the drive. You may wonder how to reformat an external hard drive on Mac. Follow the tutorial below, you'll get everything covered.

  • Bonus: How to Recover Data from Formatted External Hard Drive on Mac

Reformatting an external hard drive for use with Mac OSX is not as difficult as it might seem. In a few simple steps you are ready to go and can save your back-up files to the external drive, keeping your information safe and giving you peace of mind. Keep in mind that a MAC can generally read other file formats, but for the best performance and to create a bootable disk, formatting exclusively for MAC is required.

Part 1: Which File Format You Should Choose?

Before you begin formatting the drive, there are a few things to do. The most important, you should decide which format to use.

There are a few file formats you can use, but it depends on the purpose you want to use the drive for. Which one is right for your circumstance? We'll describe them here, you'll know your choice after reading the details.

APFS: This is the default file system in Macs with High Sierra. It is efficient and reliable. However, it won't be readable and usable on machines that are not running Mac High Sierra, and Windows or Linux PCs. What's more, it is compatible with SSD and flash storage devices only.

Mac OS Extended (Journaled/HFS+): If you didn't update your Mac OS to High Sierra, the default file system on your Mac shoule be Mac OS Extended. Mac OS Extended (encrypted) would be an ideal option if you probably carry your laptop or external drive here and there. You can encrypt it so that no one can access the contents on your drive.

MS-DOS FAT (aka FAT32): In addition to Mac, it can also be written and read by Linux and Windows. It enables you to regularly share files with your friends who own a PC. Nevertheless, this older file system is limited to no more than 4GB and there might be security issue and disk errors.

ExFAT: It is similar to ExFAT which can be read by both Windows and Mac, but it can store more than 4GB files.

NTFS: As the default file system in Windows, it can only read by Mac OS, writing to it is not available. Luckily, there are third-party tools to help you do so.

Part 2: Format External Hard Drive for Mac with Disk Utility

Formatting an external hard drive would erase everything on it. Hence, you must backup your important files before reformatting the drive if you want to save them. The easiest way is to drag it from one drive to another.

All is set, then you can go ahead to format the drive on your Mac. Disk utility - the MacOS utility application can help you with this. Just follow these steps below:

Step 1. Connect the external drive or the USB drive to the MAC.

Flash

Step 2. Start the Disk Utility, located under Applications > Utilities.

Step 3. Find the name of the drive in the left side of the Utilities window and select it. And click Erase button.

Step 4. Follow on-screen prompts to choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system and allow the disk to format.

Bonus: How to Recover Data from Formatted External Hard Drive on Mac

How To Format Flash Drive For Mac Os

In case you forgot to backup files before formatting the external drive. Here comes the cure - iMyFone AnyRecover - a one-stop solution to recover deleted, lost or formatted files from Mac.

Follow these simple steps using AnyRecover to get your files back!

Get Ready!

First, download and install AnyRecover, following on-screen prompts to accomplish the task.

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How To Format Flash Drive For Mac Os

Get Set!

  • 1. After loading AnyRecover, plug your external hard drive into your Mac directly or via USB.

  • 2. Next select the drive under 'External Removable Devices' tab, click 'Start' to begin scanning lost files on the drive.

Go!

How To Format Flash Drive For Mac Os Versions

  • 1. AnyRecover takes a moment to scan your drive. Once done, it will list out all scanning results by file type.

  • 2. Double click a single file to preview it before recovery.

  • 3. Select the files and press Recover to get them back.

How

What If?

What if my files were not found? Fear not. We can take this a step further. Enable 'Deep Scan' to try one more time, follow the steps above just as before to locate and recover your files.

How To Format Pendrive In Mac Os

It is plain to see that AnyRecover for Mac is a tool worthy of top shelf treatment in your arsenal of items that are used to defend, recover and keep your system up and running. Don't get caught without the file you need for that meeting or stumbling looking for baby photos that were stored on disk and suddenly 'hid' from your view. Allow AnyRecover to find and recover your lost files. AnyRecover is easy to use but provides sophisticated results that mean you know what you're doing!