How to Erase a Flash Drive on an Apple Mac

A USB Flash drive is very convenient for transporting files because the drive has no moving parts and can easily fit in a pocket or purse. Erasing a USB Flash drive on an Apple Macintosh computer results in a pristine environment for storing files, and the formatting can be done so that the Flash drive will be recognized by PC or Mac computers with equal ease. The formatting is done on the Mac using the Disk Utility software program, which comes with the OS X operating system at no cost.

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Disk Utility

Instructions

- 1
  
  Double-click on the "Applications" folder inside of the hard drive. Scroll down the list of names in the window that appears until you come to the "Utilities" folder. Double-click on the "Utilities" folder and then double-click on the Disk Utility icon to launch it.
- 2
  
  Insert the USB Flash drive into a USB port on the Macintosh. Wait for the icon of the USB Flash drive to appear in the left column of the Disk Utility program.
- 3
  
  Click once on the icon of the USB Flash drive. Select "Erase" from the tab at the top of the Disk Utility program. Name the USB Flash drive in the "Name" column.
- 4
  
  Select "MS-DOS (FAT) from the drop down menu above the "Name" column. Press the "Erase" button at the lower right hand corner of the window. Select "OK" from the "Confirmation" window that appears. Wait as the window disappears and the USB Flash drive is erased and formatted.
- 5
  
  Quit the Disk Utility program by pressing "Command+Q." Drag the USB Flash drive's icon to the Trash. Remove the USB Flash drive from the Mac's USB port once the USB Flash drive icon has disappeared from the Mac's desktop.

Tips & Warnings

Do not plug the USB Flash drive into a USB hub because there might not be enough power in the connection to provide for an effective connection between the Mac and the drive.
Formatting the USB Flash drive into a Mac-specific drive format will render it unreadable when inserted into a USB port of a PC.

Suggest item

Macworld: Storage & Backup: Formatting a flash drive

amstore memory: History of USB Flash drives

Comments

Edward Oct 14, 2011
My drive does not appear in my disk utility. My Mac does not recornize the flash drive. Ed D
Denise Apr 28, 2011
thanx soooooooooooooo much.

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How to Erase a Flash Drive on an Apple Mac

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