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 burning the files onto a CD or DVD. While flash drives are universal, some Mac computers are unable to read flash drives that have been formatted in a particular way, so learning how to properly format your pen drive is paramount.
- Difficulty:
- Moderately Easy
Instructions
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1
Plug the USB drive into the Mac. Avoid plugging it into a USB hub or the USB port on a Mac keyboard.
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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.
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3
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.
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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.
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5
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).
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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.
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7
Eject the pen drive, either by dragging it into the trash, or using the eject button (the triangle icon) in the finder window.
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1
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.
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- Photo Credit usb flash drive image by NatUlrich from Fotolia.com
Comments
-
Now you can use the format ExFat, who is much better and reliable than the MSDOS(FAT). and you can also use on Mac and PC, the most great advantage is that this format allow you to put much bigger files instead the late MSDOS(FAT), the steps are the same as show on the note above, you just have to select the ExFat on list of options. tks !!!
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Now you can use the format ExFat, who is much better and reliable than the MSDOS(FAT). ando you can also use on Mac and PC, the steps are the same as show on the note above. tks !!!
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Now you can use the format ExFat, who is much better and realiable than the MSDOS(FAT). ando you can also use on Mac and PC, the steps are the same as show on the note above. tks !!!
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cool~ :D
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Very professional and accurate Nice Thank you.
