How to Format a USB Pen Drive on a Mac

One of the most useful devices of the computer age is the pen (or flash) drive. With the ability to hold a surprisingly large amount of data, flash drives save time by allowing users to quickly transfer data between computers. Previously, the two computers had to be networked, or users had to revert to clunky methods such as attaching a hard drive to the computer, or burring the files onto a CD or DVD. While flash drives are universal, some are unable to read flash drives that have been formatted in a particular way, so learning how to properly format a pen drive is paramount.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Macintosh Computer with Free USB Port

1. 
   A USB port on back of a laptop.

   Plug the USB drive into the Mac. Avoid plugging it into a USB hub or the USB port on a Mac keyboard.

2. Open the Drive Utility Software. This is located in the Utilities folder, inside the Applications folder, on the top level of your hard drive. This software was installed as part of the Macintosh OS.

3. 
   Apple's Disc Utility.

   Select the drive in the list on the left hand side of the window, and highlight it. In the name field, enter your chosen name for the pen drive.

4. Select the "Erase" tab in Disk Utility, making sure the flash drive is selected in the list on the left hand side of the window.

5. 
   Dialog box warning of low power to the USB port.

   Choose the desired format that you want the pen drive to have. If you're planning to use it between computers with different platforms, then select MS-DOS (Fat), which will allow it to be read by both Windows and Macintosh computers. If you're planning only using for Macs, then select Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

6. Click on the "Erase..." button. Remember, this will destroy all the data on the pen drive, so back up any data you want to save before getting to this point.

7. Eject the pen drive, either by dragging it into the trash, or using the eject button (the triangle icon) in the finder window.

Tips & Warnings

• Formatting for MS-DOS will allow your drive to work with both Windows and Macintosh computers.
• Formatting a pen drives destroys all the data onboard.

Resources

• Apple