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Usb Format For Mac

Terminal command line in Mac can be used to format USB devices. This method can be used when you are unable to format the USB device through Disk Utility. As always, having a backup option will save you when plan A fails for some reason. Let us go through the exact steps in formatting your USB drive to FAT32 on Mac using the command line. Here's how to format a drive using a Mac - including how to format a drive for Windows and Mac so the contents can be read on both platforms, and what format to use for Time Machine. There are all.

Erasing a disk or volume permanently deletes all of its files. Before continuing, make sure that you have a backup of any files that you want to keep.

How to erase a disk

Proceed based on whether you're erasing your startup disk or some other disk. Your startup disk is the disk (volume) that your Mac started up from. By default it's the disk built into your Mac, named Macintosh HD. If you're selling, giving away, or trading in your Mac, you should erase your startup disk.

Erase a startup disk

  1. Start up from macOS Recovery.
  2. Select Disk Utility from the Utilities window in macOS Recovery. Then click Continue.
  3. Make sure that the sidebar in Disk Utility shows the name of your startup disk. The volume representing your startup disk is Macintosh HD, unless you renamed it. Don't see it?
  4. Look for a ”Data” volume with the same name, such as ”Macintosh HD - Data.” If you have such a volume, select it. Then choose Edit > Delete APFS Volume from the menu bar, or click the remove volume button (–) in the Disk Utility toolbar. Do the same to delete any other volumes you might have on your startup disk—except the volume named Macintosh HD.
  5. Now select Macintosh HD.
  6. Click the Erase button or tab, then complete these items:
    • Name: Enter a name that you want the volume to have after you erase it, such as Macintosh HD.
    • Format: Choose either APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) to format as a Mac volume. Disk Utility shows the recommended Mac format by default.
  7. Click Erase to begin erasing. You might be prompted to enter your Apple ID.
  8. When done, quit Disk Utility to return to the Utilities window.
  9. If you want your Mac to be able to start up from this volume again, choose Reinstall macOS from the Utilities window.

Erase some other disk

The steps above also work when erasing a storage device that you're not using as a startup disk. However, in that case it's not necessary to open Disk Utility from macOS Recovery: you can instead open it from the Utilities folder of your Applications folder. And you don't need to delete data volumes first: just select your disk in Disk Utility, then click Erase.

How to change the partition map (scheme) of a disk

In some circumstances, you might need to change the partition map (scheme) while erasing. If you're following instructions that require choosing a scheme, the steps in Disk Utility differ from the steps above.

  1. After opening Disk Utility, choose View > Show All Devices from the menu bar.
  2. The sidebar now shows not just volumes, but also the disks (devices) that contain those volumes. In the following example, APPLE SSD is the disk, Container disk1 is a container on that disk, and Macintosh HD is a volume in that container. (Only APFS-formatted disks have containers.)
  3. Select the disk that you want to erase, such as Apple SSD.
  4. Check the information shown on the right side of the window to find out which partition map is currently in use:
    • GUID Partition Map is appropriate for Mac disks.
    • Master Boot Record is appropriate for secondary or external drives used with a PC or Boot Camp.
  5. If the partition map is not appropriate for the disk's intended use, click the Erase button or tab, then complete these items:
    • Name: Enter a name that you want the disk to have after you erase it, such as Apple SSD.
    • Format: To format as a Mac disk, choose either APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Disk Utility shows a compatible format by default.
    • Scheme: Choose the appropriate partition map scheme.
  6. Click Erase to begin erasing. If you're erasing your startup disk, you might be prompted to enter your Apple ID.
  7. Quit Disk Utility when done.

Why erase a disk

Mac Format Usb For Windows

You can erase a disk or volume at any time, including in circumstances such as these:

  • You want to quickly and permanently erase all content from your Mac and restore it to factory settings, such as when you're selling, giving away, or trading in your Mac.
  • You're changing the format of a disk, such as from a PC format (FAT, ExFAT, or NTFS) to a Mac format (APFS or Mac OS Extended).
  • You received a message that your disk isn't readable by this computer.
  • You're trying to resolve a disk issue that Disk Utility can't repair.
  • The macOS installer doesn't see your disk or can't install on it. For example, the installer might say that your disk isn't formatted correctly, isn't using a GUID partition scheme, contains a newer version of the operating system, or can't be used to start up your computer.
  • The macOS installer says that you may not install to this volume because it is part of an Apple RAID.

About APFS and Mac OS Extended

Disk Utility in macOS High Sierra or later can erase most disks and volumes for Mac using either the newer APFS (Apple File System) format or the older Mac OS Extended format, and it automatically chooses a compatible format for you.

Identify the current format

If you want to know which format is currently in use, use any of these methods:

  • Select the volume in the Disk Utility sidebar, then check the information on the right. For more detail, choose File > Get Info from the Disk Utility menu bar.
  • Open System Information and select Storage in the sidebar. The File System column on the right shows the format of each volume.
  • Select the volume in the Finder, then choose File > Get Info from the menu bar. The Get Info window shows the Format of that volume.

Choose between APFS and Mac OS Extended

If you want to change the format, answer these questions:

Are you formatting the disk that came built into your Mac?
If the built-in disk came APFS-formatted, don't change it to Mac OS Extended.

Are you about to install macOS High Sierra or later on the disk?
If you need to erase your disk before installing High Sierra or later for the first time on that disk, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled). During installation, the macOS installer decides whether to automatically convert to APFS—without erasing your files:

  • macOS Mojave or later: The installer converts from Mac OS Extended to APFS.
  • macOS High Sierra: The installer converts from Mac OS Extended to APFS only if the volume is on an SSD or other all-flash storage device. Fusion Drives and traditional hard disk drives (HDDs) aren't converted.

Are you preparing a Time Machine backup disk or bootable installer?
Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for any disk that you plan to use with Time Machine or as a bootable installer.

Will you be using the disk with another Mac?
If the other Mac isn't using High Sierra or later, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Earlier versions of macOS don't mount APFS-formatted volumes.

Disk Utility tries to detect the type of storage and show the appropriate format in the Format menu. If it can't, it chooses Mac OS Extended, which works with all versions of macOS.

If your disk doesn't appear in Disk Utility

If Disk Utility doesn't show a sidebar, choose View > Show Sidebar from the menu bar.

If Disk Utility shows the sidebar, but your disk doesn't appear within it, disconnect all nonessential devices from your Mac. If the disk is external, leave it connected, but make sure that it's turned on and connected directly to your Mac using a good cable. Then restart your Mac and try again. If your disk still doesn't appear, your disk or Mac might need service. Learn how to get your Mac ready for service.

Learn more

  • If you can't start up from macOS Recovery, you can instead use a different startup disk, if you have one.

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?”.

We used “Alt + N” because it’s not assigned to anything else in Word. Click “Assign”.The new keyboard shortcut is added to the “Current keys” list.If you made other changes on the “Word Options” dialog box (not a sub-dialog), click “OK” to accept your changes and close the dialog box. Shortcut for bullet points in word mac online.

Format Usb For Mac And Pc On Windows 10

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?”.聽First, we will go with the straightforward way of doing it; then we will move to the easy way. 馃槈

Usb Format For Mac

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.

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 馃槢 )
  • 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.聽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.聽

Format USB Drive Mac using Terminal

Format Usb For Mac Os Install

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.
  • 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.

Freeware Usb Format

  • And the disk is formatted. 馃槈 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.

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