Format Usb Drive Mac

USB sticks and other removable media are an excellent solution for storing certain files separately from the computer system in use. They enable you to create a backup copy of the data or to copy it to another device. The prerequisite is that the storage medium features its own file system supported by the operating system (both by the origin and target platform in the case of copying).

• Format Usb Drive Mac
• Format Usb Drive Mac Osx

If this system has not yet been defined – on a new storage device, for example – or is heavily corrupted, you'll first need to do this manually by formatting the USB stick. The 'Disk Utility' program is available for this purpose on Mac computers. The following sections explain how USB formatting with this Mac tool works and which file system is suitable for your USB stick.

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. How to format a USB drive on a Mac 1. Plug the drive into a USB socket (if you have a recent MacBook or MacBook Pro that only has USB-C connectors, you'll need a USB-C to USB-A adaptor).

Format USB drive for Mac and PC via freeware AOMEI Partition Assistant, a free powerful format tool, is specially designed for Windows operating systems. It can support almost all file systems including Ext2, Ext3, NTFS, FAT32,exFAT, etc. You can use it to format USB drive quickly and securely. All you need to do is to open your Mac and insert the USB flash drive n one of the ports. The following steps will help you to understand how to format pen drive in Mac. Insert your USB flash drive in the USB port. Now, launch the disk utility from the Application Utilities option. Search for the USB drives from the.

Formatting USBs (Mac): Choosing the right file system

When you format your USB drive on a Mac computer, you should first consider which device you wish to connect the data storage device to and which operating systems are running on these devices. This is important, since the various types of system software – such as Windows, Linux, or macOS – may or may not support different file systems. What's more, the memory size of the USB stick and the size of the files to be stored also play a key role when choosing the right file system. That's because depending on the chosen format there are different limits, as clearly shown by the list of available file systems for USB formatting on Macs below:

If you're planning to use your USB stick exclusively on Apple computers, the native format Mac OS Extended (officially called HFS+ since Mac edition 8.1) is definitely a suitable choice. And if there's no special reason why the system should be case-sensitive, it's generally advisable to go without this option. However, if the flash drive formatted on a Mac needs to also be readable and writable for all Windows and Linux devices, FAT is the better choice – or rather ExFAT if you have to work with large files with over 4 gigabytes and a data capacity of more than 32 gigabytes.

Tutorial: How to format a flash drive on a Mac – step by step

macOS provides its own tool for managing external storage media like USB sticks: the Disk Utility program. You can open it at any time by accessing the spotlight search via the small magnifying glass icon in the top right of the menu bar and entering the search term 'Disk Utility.' Next, confirm your entry by using the 'Enter' key:

Formatting a USB stick on a Mac is the same on all systems: If there are still files on the flash drive, they will be deleted during the formatting process. You should therefore save any files you may need somewhere else first.

A list of your internal and external data media will now appear in the Disk Utility program. Under the 'External' column, left-click on the USB stick you wish to format on your Mac PC and then click on the 'Erase' button:

The Disk Utility program will open another window, where you can enter the name of the USB stick and also define the preferred file system. You can configure the file system by clicking on the small arrow in the 'Format' row and then pressing on the entry for the respective system format:

After you've made your choice, you can define in 'Security Options' whether the USB stick should be formatted by your Mac especially quickly (slider toward the left) or if the focus should be on deleting the stored files as thoroughly as possible (slider toward the right). The latter option is particularly recommended if you don't want the data to be recoverable in any way. If you don't need this security or the USB stick is new, you can simply opt for a faster formatting process:

Confirm the selected security level with 'OK' and lastly click on 'Erase.' Your Mac will then start formatting the USB stick:

Sep 27,2020 • Filed to: Hard Drive Recovery • Proven solutions

'How to format an external hard drive Mac? What format system to use when reformatting my storage drive for a Mac?'

This is a frequent question asked by first-time, as well as the not-so-tech-savvy, macOS users. Learning how to format an external hard drive Mac is essential. Because saving all your data on the Cloud is nice and all, but physical storage is still popular. Especially if you don't have a stable internet connection or if most of your files are large.

Luckily, you don't have to learn rocket science to be able to format an external hard drive for Mac or PC. The operation is pretty straightforward. When it comes to your iOS device, we have listed two methods for you, read below and explore more.

Part 1: What Is the Best Format for External Hard Drive Mac?

The first step to formatting your external drive for a Mac computer is choosing the right format. There are four possible choices:

• APFS (Apple File System)
• HFS+ (Mac OS Extended)
• exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
• FAT (MS-DOS)

To understand which is the best for you, let's have a comprehensive overview of each of them.

1. Apple File System

The APFS was first introduced in 2017 as a replacement for the HFS+. Nowadays, all new Macs come with the operating system preinstalled on APFS, as this system is optimized for use with SSD and flash storage drives. However, it still works with traditional HDD drives too.

This is the best format to pick if you have an external SSD or USB flash drive that you don't intend to use with a Windows device.

The biggest strength of this system is the speed, as well as the encryption and metadata handling. However, you won't be able to use this system with Time Machine.

2. Mac OS Extended

The HFS+, or Hierarchical File System plus on its real name, was the main file system used for Mac until 2017.

This type of file system is suitable to use with both HDD and SDD drives, but the latter will perform slightly better with the APFS mentioned above. If you have an older Mac, though, choosing the HFS+ is your best bet.

In general, all external drives formatted to HFS+ work nicely with older Mac versions but are incompatible with Windows.

3. Extended File Allocation Table

Designed by Microsoft, the exFAT is a good choice if you plan to use the external hard drive with both macOS and Windows systems. Yet, you won't get top performance on either. This choice is more appropriate for USB flash drives, although you can still use it for SDD and HDD units too.

The main issue with exFAT is that your drive will be more prone to fragmentation when used with Apple devices and is less stable than NTFS on Windows. If you really have to share the drive between Mac and Windows machines, that's your best option though.

4. MS-DOS

Macs also support FAT32 drives, marked as FAT in Disk Utility. This format should be avoided at all costs unless you're dealing with a really old Windows computer, which you really have to use in parallel with your Mac system.

Typically, there is no reason to choose this option unless you're planning to use the external hard drive on a Windows XP or earlier machine.

Part 2: How to Format an External Hard Drive Mac?

Now that you know which format to choose, it's time to learn how to format an external hard drive for Mac. There are essentially two methods, with Disk Utility or Time Machine function.

Note: If you plan to format an older external drive, perhaps one you used with another device, make sure to backup all data before proceeding. Formatting is a permanent procedure that can't be reversed. While there are data recovery software you can use if you lost data, it is always better to prevent.

That said, here's how to format an external hard drive Mac:

Method 1: Format Mac Hard Drive with Disk Utility

Disk Utility is a utility application proprietary to macOS that is used to both format and manage internal and external disks. Here's how to use it:

Step 1 Connect the external hard drive you want to format to your Mac, then start the Disk Utility app that you can find under Applications -> Utilities.

Step 2 On the left side of the Utilities screen, find the name of the external hard drive you want to format and select it. Then, on the top side under the Disk Utility, click on the Erase button.

Step 3 Follow the on-screen prompts to select the desired file system and allow the drive to format. That's it! After the process is complete, you can either start using the drive or choose to create partitions on it.

Method 2: Format Mac Hard Drive with Time Machine

Formatting an external hard drive with Time Machine is as easy as formatting it with Disk Utility. Time Machine, however, gives you the possibility to create an automatic backup of the data on your hard drive before formatting it.

Before you proceed, therefore, you should first set up the external drive to use with Time Machine. To do this, open System Preferences and select Time Machine after you've connected the external drive to your Mac.

Now, click on Select Disk and select the desired drive from the list. Click on the Use Disk button. At this point, the system will run an automatic backup two minutes after you've clicked on the Use Disk button, or you can proceed with the formatting if the hard disk is empty.

To format an external hard drive for Mac with Time Machine, you must follow the steps below.

Step 1 Open Finder, Applications, then go to Utilities and Disk Utility.

Step 2 Follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with Time Machine on your Mac system.

Part 3: Bonus Tip – Data Recovery from Formatted Hard Drive on Mac

Sometimes, it may happen that you accidentally formatted an external hard drive containing important data. Whether it's your wedding pictures or your bachelor's degree thesis, chances are you want to get that data back as quickly as possible.

If you have a newer version of Mac, you can use the Apple Time Machine to recover your canceled files, or you could choose to use external software, such as Recoverit Data Recovery.

Format Usb Drive Mac

1. Recover Data with Apple Time Machine

In the former hypothesis, you can try to recover your data with the Time Machine. This app is Apple's backup feature present on the newer systems. If you followed the steps above before formatting the hard drive with Time Machine and allowed the app to execute the backup, then there are high chances that you can recover any lost data without too much hassle.

To do so, just launch the Time Machine and browse through the folders to see if it has saved the files you require.

For easier browsing, you can use the time stamp feature on the right side of the screen and select the date or time when you executed the backup. Once you found the files, simply click on Restore to get them back.

2. Recover Data with Recoverit Data Recovery

Format Usb Drive Mac Osx

If you didn't use the Time Machine function or couldn't find the files you need, you can try to recover any lost files with trusted third-party software, such as Recoverit - Data Recovery.

Recoverit (IS)

A Life Saver to Solve Your Data Loss Problems!

• It allows you to recover unlimited lost or deleted files from your Mac device, including photo, video, and audio data, document files, and more.
• It supports all types of Mac files irrespective of their extension.
• Compatible with both internal and external drives, USB pens, memory cards, and other hardware, so you can rest assured it will retrieve your data if it's there.
• Retrieve data from accidentally deleted files, lost or formatted partitions, data lost due to virus attacks, system crashes, or data lost by the Time Machine.
• It is free to download and supports all leading macOS versions, including the 10.14 release.

This system is also very easy to use, in just three easy steps:

Step 1Install the application and choose the desired location

Download and install the software on your Mac computer, then open it and select the external hard drive, partition, or location where you want to retrieve data.

Step 2Start the scan to retrieve your lost data

Click the Start button. The software will now scan the selected drive and display all retrieved data in an easy-to-scour list.

Step 3 Preview the recovered files and save them in your chosen location

Review and select the target files, then launch the recovery process. That's it. The software will restore your lost data.

Conclusion

As you can see, how to format an external hard drive Mac is not particularly complicated. The Disk Utility allows you to format the desired drive to the desired system in a blink of an eye. Backing up the data on your drive with Time Machine also allows you to avoid the recovery hassle. If you still lost some data, you even know which software to use to recover all lost files.

Now it's your turn. Use this guide to format your unreadable external drive, download, and use the data recovery software if needed, and don't forget to share this article with your Mac-addicted friends. They might make good use of it too.