Disk Utility can be used to format external drives as well. It’s easy to reformat your hard drive using Disk Utility in macOS or OS X. If your Mac doesn’t work, you can do this using a second Mac and an external hard drive caddy. Mar 12, 2020 If you would like to give it a go to recover your data, the following shows how to recover data from dead MacBook Air using Mac Data Recovery. Download the software on a spare Mac and install it. Plug-in a blank USB drive to your Mac, open the software, select the option that says Recover Data from Crashed System, and click on Start. How to format an SD card on your Mac; Use Finder to encrypt USB drives on MacBook. As of macOS Mojave, you can easily encrypt and decrypt generic mass storage devices on-the-go using Finder. This uses XTS-AES encryption, which is the same type of encryption that the macOS FileVault 2 system uses. (If you have a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro Retina, you need an external drive to read audio CD.) The process of converting audio files to different formats is called ripping. (Audiophiles with technical teeth also call this process digital extraction, but the popular crowd usually ignores them at parties.). Why to format hard drive on MacBook Air/Pro/iMac. There may be occasions when you need to format Mac hard drive. For example, you plan to backup DVDs to Mac hard drive or store other files and need to format an external hard drive for macOS to extend storage space.
- How To Format Usb On Macbook Air
- How To Format Usb To Fat32 On Macbook Air
- How To Format Macbook Air
- How To Format Macbook Pro
- How To Reformat Macbook Pro
- How To Format Mac
Not every USB drive can be used with a Mac out of the box, you'll need to format the drive to compatible with the MacOS extended file system. If you want to ensure full Mac compatibility on your USB drive or flash disk, just read this article. And you will find two ways which will teach you how to format a USB drive to FAT32 on Mac, including Disk Utility and Terminal command. And if you lost your important data because of formatting, you can use data recovery tool to recover data from a formatted USB drive on Mac.
What You Should Do First Before Formatting USB Drive on Mac
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The only way to be sure of the content you are formatting is to first remove the USB drive from Mac, know the title of other storage disks, insert the USB disk again and note the name of the disk. Now you are sure not to be formatting a wrong disk this way. Next, drag the USB data to a safe location for backup/recovery measures before formatting it. Then you are set to get it done!
Which File Format to Choose When Formatting USB Drive on Mac
For PCs operating on macOS High Sierra or newer version, you can select from two options of file formats: Mac OS Extended and APFS. Here is the difference, APFS format is not compatible with macOS versions older than High Sierra. Therefore, if you are sure to still insert your USB driver on older versions of macOS, then you should consider formatting as Mac OS Extended.
Also, if you are to use the USB drive as a destination for Time Machine, you should consider reformatting to Mac OS Extended as Time Machine cannot back up an APFS disk.
How to Format a USB Drive to FAT32 on Mac
As earlier stated, you need to first back up your USB drive before formatting the drive as you may not be able to recover the contents again. Now, you can follow the steps to be highlighted below to get it successfully formatted.
1Format a USB Drive to FAT32 in Mac OS with Disk Utility
Step 1. Insert the USB to be formatted to a Mac PC.
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 the MS-DOS(FAT) for format.
How To Format Usb On Macbook Air
Step 5. Then select Master Boot Record for scheme, hit Erase.
Step 6. Once the process is done, you are ready to reuse the drive with FAT32 file system to save data again.
2Convert/Format USB Drive to FAT32
Step 1. Connect the USB drive to your Mac PC.
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 UB 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 to format.
- 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.
After the process completes, type diskutil list in command once more to check if the USB drive has been formatted successfully.
If succeeded, you can use the USB drive with FAT32 file system to store data again.
How to Recover Lost Data after Formatting a USB Drive to FAT32 on Mac
Users perhaps format a USB drive by mistake. Only after formatting it, they would realize that they had lost important data. If you don' t have a backup for data, then you can recover lost data from formatted USB drive on Mac with this trusted data recovery software - iMyFone AnyRecover. You can now recover all kinds of data from formatted USB drive on Mac with only 3 simple steps.
Features of iMyFone AnyRecover:
- Your Comprehensive Mac Data Recovery Solution
You can get back your lost photos, videos, documents, compressed files, and numerous kinds of data from formatted USB drive easily.
Retrieve data from MacBook, any internal or external storage media: memory card, USB drive, virtual disk, HDD, SSD, and so on.
Resolve all data loss situations: formatted drive, trash emptied, partition lost, accidental deletion, virus attack, hardware failure and other cases.
It allows you to preview scanned files before recovery and select what you want to restore.
It supports data recovery on all types of USB drives. It also supports file formats like NTFS, HFS, FAT, exFAT, etc.
Follow the next steps to recover data after formatting USB flash drive on mac:
Step 1: Make sure you have connected your USB drive to your Mac successfully. Launch AnyRecover software on your system and select the formatted USB drive you are trying to recover from. And press the “Start” button to start the scanning. Best free audio recording software windows 10.
Step 2: The software will automatically begin the scanning process. This can help you recover your lost data from your formatted USB drive.
Step 3: Immediately after the scanning process is complete, the software will list all the files in their respective file formats and folders. Tick on and confirm what you are going to recover, then click on “Recover” button. Best software to open pdf files.
Conclusion
USB storage devices have become very popular these days because they are a very convenient way to store and transfer data. However, there could be times when you formatted disk, accidentally deleted files, your storage device could become damaged, or you could end up with data corruption due to operating system failures, viruses, software malfunctions or other problems that cause damage to your data stored on your USB storage device. If it is the case, do not panic, Just download iMyFone AnyRecover to get your lost data back quickly and easily.
After you upgrade your Mac to macOS Catalina, you may need to format a hard drive, memory card or USB flash drive for some reasons. Such as:
- Format hard drive/memory card/USB drive to fix logical errors.
- Format hard drive/memory card/USB drive to empty all data.
- Format hard drive/memory card/USB drive to permanently erase all data before selling or donating old hard drive/memory card/USB drive.
- Format hard drive/memory card/USB drive to new file system.
But, how to format hard drive/memory card/USB drive on macOS Catalina? Don't worry. We will introduce three easy and simple methods to help you format hard drive/memory card/USB drive on macOS Catalina.
Three methods to format hard drive/memory card/USB drive on macOS Catalina
When you are going to format a hard drive/memory card/USB drive on macOS Catalina, you can follow the guide below. We would like to give you three options to format a hard drive/memory card/USB drive after upgrading to macOS Catalina.
How To Format Usb To Fat32 On Macbook Air
Method 1: Format hard drive/memory card/USB drive on macOS Catalina with Disk Utility
Disk Utility is the easy and quick way to format a hard drive/memory card/USB drive on macOS Catalina. Just connect the hard drive/memory card/USB drive to your Mac, then open Disk Utility. Choose the targeted hard drive/memory card/USB drive, and click on 'Erase' button. Then you can securely format the hard drive/memory card/USB drive on macOS Catalina.
But, after format, the lost data on the hard drive/memory card/USB drive still can be recovered by Mac data recovery software.
Related article: How to Recover Files from Hard Drive Which Is Erased by Disk Utility on Mac?
Method 2: Format hard drive/memory card/USB drive on macOS Catalina with AweCleaner for Mac
AweCleaner for Mac is an all-in-one Mac cleaner/manager. It offers a tool named Disk Manager. This tool can help you quickly format a hard drive/memory card/USB drive after you click on 'Format' button. The formatted data also can be recovered by Mac data recovery software, such as Magoshare Data Recovery for Mac.
How To Format Macbook Air
Method 3: Format hard drive/memory card/USB drive on macOS Catalina with AweEraser for Mac
How To Format Macbook Pro
AweEraser for Mac is a powerful data erasure application for Mac OS. It can help you securely format hard drive/memory card/USB drive on macOS Catalina, and permanently erase all data from the hard drive/memory card/USB drive. Just choose mode 'Erase Hard Drive' to format and wipe hard drive/memory card/USB drive on macOS Catalina.
How To Reformat Macbook Pro
It means once the hard drive/memory card/USB drive is formatted by AweEraser for Mac, all the data information on the hard drive/memory card/USB drive will be gone forever, can't be recovered by any data recovery software. If you are going to sell, donate or dispose your hard drive/memory card/USB drive, you can use AweEraser for Mac to format/wipe the hard drive/memory card/USB drive to avoid data recovery.
Just free download AweEraser for Mac here: