Click the 'Format' box. It's in the middle of the page. This will bring up a drop-down menu with the following options: Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted) MS-DOS (FAT) ExFAT. After choosing your drive, click on the 'Erase' button on the top menu bar. You will see a popup window, in that window, give the name to your drive and select a format for your USB drive. Once done, click on the 'Erase' button. This will format Write Protected USB drive on Mac using Disk Utility.
Summary: How to format USB flash drive on Mac? How to format USB flash drive on Mac and permanently wipe all data on the USB flash drive, beyond the scope of data recovery? Don't worry, here we lost all top 5 USB flash drive formatter for Mac. You can read all the reviews and then choose one of them to help you format or erase USB flash drive under Mac OS.
If you only want to format the USB flash drive on Mac, Disk Utility is the best choice. Just run this built-in application on your Mac, and use it to erase the USB flash drive. However, the data on the formatted USB flash drive could be recovered by data recovery software.
USB flash drive is very useful data storage device for Mac users. When a Mac user would like to dispose or recycle a USB flash drive, he or she may need to format the USB flash drive on Mac. But, do you know how to format/reformat USB flash drive under Mac OS? Don't worry, top USB flash drive formatter for Mac can make the USB flash drive formatting become simple and easy.
In this article, we would like to introduce the top 5 USB flash drive formatter software for Mac. Just read on. Then choose the wanted USB flash drive formatter to help you easily and securely format USB flash drive on Mac.
Top 5 USB flash drive disk formatter for Mac
No.1 USB flash drive formatter for Mac - Magoshare AweEraser for Mac.
AweEraser for Mac is the NO.1 USB flash drive formatter for Mac. It can securely and easily format/reformat USB flash drive on Mac. And it also can permanently erase all data from the USB flash drive to avoid data recovery. How to use it? Actually, it is very simple to use. Just run it on your Mac, connect the USB flash drive with your Mac. Then you can easily format USB flash drive on your Mac.
Choose this mode 'Erase Hard Drive' >> choose the USB flash drive>> click on 'Erase' button.
This USB flash drive formatter for Mac will quickly format the USB flash drive and permanently erase all data information on the USB flash drive. It is strongly to use AweEraser for Mac to format the USB flash drive before you sell, donate, give away, dispose or abandon your USB flash drive.
NO.2 USB flash drive formatter for Mac - Disk Utility.
Disk Utility is a built-in disk utility in Mac OS. You can run this application to format the USB flash drive in quick and easy way. But, the formatted data which is erased by Disk Utility still can be recovered by data recovery software such as Magoshare free Mac data recovery software. If there is no security issue of your data, you can use Disk Utility to format your USB flash drive on Mac.
NO.3 USB flash drive formatter for Mac - DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac.
This software is very similar with AweEraser for Mac. Yes, it can help Mac users format USB flash drive and permanently erase all data from the USB flash drive. But, it can't deeply reformat a damaged USB flash drive on Mac. You also can download this software for Windows, it also can help in formatting USB flash drive on Windows PC.
NO.4 USB flash drive formatter for Mac - AweCleaner for Mac.
AweCleaner for Mac is a disk cleaning software and management software for Mac. It offers formatting tool to help you format USB flash drive or external hard drive on Mac. The same as Disk Utility, it can't permanently erase the formatted data. After formatting the USB flash drive, the lost data on the USB flash drive still can be recovered by data recovery software.
NO.5 USB flash drive formatter for Mac - Stellar Disk Wipe for Mac.
This USB flash drive formatter for Mac has powerful features of data erasure. So, it can help you format the USB flash drive and permanently remove the formatted data from the USB flash drive. But it seems un-easy-to-use. So, we still recommend you to try AweEraser for Mac if you don't have much of experience in data erasure.
With top USB flash drive formatter for Mac, you can easily and securely format USB flash drive on Mac. Some of them even can permanently erase data on the USB flash drive to avoid data recovery. Now, just choose one of them for USB flash drive formatting on Mac.
Related Articles
Not every USB drive can be used on Mac out of the box -- you need to format the drive to make sure it's compatible with the MacOS extended file system. And here in this article, we'll offer you a full guide on how to format a USB Drive on Mac. Besides, in case you lose important data due to formatting, we have a professional data recovery tool to help you recover data from a formatted USB drive on Mac.
Bonus: How to Recover Lost Data After Formatting USB Drive
Part 1. What You Should Do First Before Formatting USB Drive on Mac
Make sure that уоu know clearly whаt уоu are doing whеn you begin the whole formatting process, which will еrаѕе your еntirе hаrd drivе.
To avoid formatting the wrong disk, firstly remove the USB drive from Mac, check the title of other storage disks, then insert the USB disk again and note the name of the disk. Next, drag the USB data to a safe location for backup/recovery measures before formatting it. Then you are set to get it done!
Part 2. What Is the Best Format for USB Drive on Mac?
You'll be given several format options when you try to format a USB drive on Mac, including Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), Mac OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled), Mac OS X Extended (Journaled, Encrypted), Mac OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted), MS-DOS (FAT) and ExFAT. If you are using macOS 10.13 or later, you'll also see an option named APFS, which is the default file system of macOS 10.13 and later.
1APFS (Apple File System)
APFS is a new file system for macOS. It's the most appropriate format for SSD. However, you need the latest macOS to write to this file system. If you're sure that you don't need to use it on a Mac running old version in the future, then you can format your USB drive to APFS.
2Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) & Mac OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
Mac OS X Extended, aka HFS+, is the default file system before APFS for macOS 10.12 and earlier. It doesn't put a limit on the size of files you can save on the drive, which is the greatest advantage. Windows-running computers can read the files formatted to Mac OS X Extended but can't write to them. And this file system is necessary if you plan on using the drive for Time Machine backups.
The biggest difference between Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) and Mac OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) is the latter one is case-sensitive to folder names. For example, 'file' is different from 'File'. Therefore, if you do not have special needs, just ignore this option.
3Mac OS X Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) & Mac OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted)
These two are basically the same with the previous two but with encryption, which means you have to provide the password whenever you connect the drive to your Mac.
4MS-DOS (FAT)
This is Disk Utility's name for FAT32 file system. As the most widely compatible file system, it suits both Windows operating system and macOS. Therefore one can easily transfer data between PC and Mac using a USB drive formatted this way. However, a USB drive formatted to FAT32 doesn't support long file names and an individual file cannot be larger than 4GB.
5ExFAT
ExFAT is the improved version of the older FAT32, which offers larger storage space and supports files larger than 4GB. Of course it also supports transferring files between PC and Mac as a cross-platform file system.
To arrive at a conclusion, if you need to transfer smaller files between operating systems, choose MS-DOS (FAT) or FAT32. And with no doubt, ExFAT will be the best format for USB drive on Mac for larger files.
Format A Disk
Part 3. How to Format USB to FAT32/ExFAT on Mac
As earlier stated, you need to first back up your USB drive before formatting it as the formatting operation will wipe all the data. Now, you can follow the steps highlighted below to get the USB successfully formatted.
Method 1: Format a USB Drive on Mac OS with Disk Utility
Step 1: Insert the USB waiting to be formatted to a Mac computer.
Step 2: Navigate to Applications > Utilities, and click it twice to open it.
Step 3: Select the drive you want to format and click on Erase.
Step 4: Rename the USB drive (optional), and choose one file system from the options.
Step 5: Then select Master Boot Record for scheme, hit Erase.
Step 6: Once the process is done, you are ready to use the drive with new file system to store data again.
Method 2: Convert/Format USB Drive to FAT32/ExFAT
Step 1: Connect the USB drive to your Mac computer.
Step 2: Click on cmd + space to run Spotlight, input terminal then tap Enter key.
Step 3: Type diskutil list to find the location of your USB drive (eg: dev/disk2 is the USB drive in the below picture).
Step 4: Type sudo diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 MBRFormat /dev/disk2.
sudo gives you user right.
Diskutil calls disk utility program.
eraseDisk commands the formatting.
FAT32 sets the file system.
MBRFormat tells disk utility to format with a Master Boot Record.
/dev/disk2 is the location of the USB drive.
Note: You can replace FAT32 with ExFAT in the command, and your USB drive will be formatted in that way.
After the process completes, type diskutil list in command once more to check if the USB drive has been formatted successfully.
Bonus: How to Recover Lost Data After Formatting USB Drive
Formatting a USB drive is never an easy task and problems tend to arise from time to time, among which data loss is perhaps the most common one. Users format a USB drive by mistake or directly format it without doing any backup job and both mistakes will cause data loss disaster. This issue will worry us even more when there are important files we cannot offord to lose. If this is the case, you'll need a professional data recovery software to help you get back lost files, and AnyRecover is what you need exactly. With this software, anyone can recover all kinds of data from formatted USB drive on Mac with only 3 simple steps.
As a comprehensive Mac data recovery solution, it handles all data loss scenarios, including formatting USB drive, hard drive failure, and Mac crash.
All-round and deep scan ensures high recovery rate, and sophisticated algorithms contribute to quick scanning speed.
Format Usb Flash Disk Mac
Supports data recovery on all types of USB drives in various file formats like NTFS, HFS+, FAT32, and ExFAT.
Brings back the lost photos, videos, documents, compressed files, etc. - numerous kinds of data from formatted USB drive easily.
Provides preview before recovery and enables selective recovery.
NoteAnyRecover offers free trial for every user, with which one can scan, preview and recover 3 files for free. Just download and have a try! The more time for hesitation, the less possibility for your lost data to get back!
Follow the simple steps below to recover data after formatting USB drive on mac:
Step 1: Make sure you have connected your USB drive to your Mac successfully. Download, install and launch AnyRecover. Then select the formatted USB drive you are trying to recover data from as the location to find data. Press the 'Start' button to initiate the scanning.
Step 2: The software will immediately begin the scanning process. You can pause the process at any time and resume from that point later.
Step 3: Immediately after the scanning process is complete, all the files will be listed in their respective file formats and folders. Freely preview and choose what to recover by clicking on 'Recover' button.
Format Disk Mac Terminal
Final Words
Format Mac Disk In Windows
Formatting is a complicated process indeed but by clearing your mind and then follow the steps as listed out in the article, you can successfully format a USB drive on Mac without much difficulty or errors. Loss of data may come as a nightmare but AnyRecover is powerful enough to help you out. In fact, not just after you format a USB drive, it can work wonders whenever you lose data. Try it and you won't be disappointed.