Format A Flash Drive For A Mac



To format a flash drive on a Mac, plug in the drive and open the 'Applications' folder, the 'Utilities' folder and then 'Disk Utility.' Your flash drive should be listed in the left menu. There are a good number of reasons why you might want to format an external disk or a flash drive for full Mac compatibility. Here are the following most common reasons why would you like to format an external disk or a flash drive for Mac under Mac OS Extended ( Journaled).

WARNING: Formatting will erase all data on the device. Back up all your data before proceeding.

Instructions below are for 10.11.x (El Capitan) and 10.12.x (Sierra)

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Format

1. Double-click on Macintosh HD - or in the Finder menu clickFile > New Finder Window
2. Click the Applications folder - if using a Finder Window Applicationswill be in the left side menu.
3. Click the Utilities folder.
4. Double-click Disk Utility.
5. On the left side of the window are the drives connected to the computer. Select the capacity of the drive respective to the one containing the device you wish to format then click the Erase tab.
Example: If the drive is called 'NO NAME', directly above that, you should see the drive capacity of 'XXXX'. Select this capacity.
6. Verify Volume Format is set to MS-DOS file system or exFAT, Scheme is set to “Master Boot Record” (Do NOT select GUID Partition Map) then click Erase.

Instructions below are for 10.13.x (High Sierra)

1. Open Disk Utility. Please See Answer 20985: How to access Disk Utility macOS
2. In the top menu bar, go to View, and choose Show All Devices


3. Select the upper level of the drive you would like to format and click the Erase button

Macbook


4. Choose how you would like to format the drive

  • Enter a Name for your drive
  • Choose exFAT or MS-DOS (FAT) for the format
  • Choose Master Boot Record for the Scheme
  • Click Erase

5. When finished, the drive will be formatted and repartitioned successfully. Click the Done button

NOTE: exFAT is used on SDXC card (64GB and higher).

NOTE: exFAT can be used on flash drives or memory cards to transfer files larger than 4GB.

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NOTE: MacOS 10.6.2 or higher is required for exFAT file system. Some older operating systems must have a patch installed before they can use the exFAT file system.

NOTE: If the above steps do NOT resolve the problem or if the lock switch is missing or broken, please back up your data and request a replacement using our online web form.

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