From then on, that drive should work fantastically between Mac and Windows machines. It won't work with Linux unless you install Linux's exFAT drivers, but for most people, exFAT is just about. Some flash drives have to be formatted first before you can store files on them. In this article, we are taking a closer look at the Disk Utility, which comes with all recent versions of the Mac OS X operating system and how you can use it to format USB drive on Mac. Format Flash Drive Mac with Disk Utility. Your Mac computer comes with a handy.
Why an USB flash drive gets corrupted? Actually, there are so many causes could result in corruption on USB flash drive. Formatting is the easiest way to fix a corrupted USB flash drive, whether the file systems gets corrupted or files are infected by virus on your USB flash drive. For instance, there are two methods to help you format a corrupted USB flash drive to exFAT on Mac. Of course, you also can rescue your data with a reliable data recovery solution.
Two methods to format corrupted USB flash drive to exFAT on Mac
To fix the corrupted USB flash drive, you may choose to format the USB flash drive. When the corrupted USB flash drive is not working on your Mac, just follow the guide below to format your corrupted USB flash drive.
1. Format corrupted USB flash drive to exFAT with Disk Utility
Plug your corrupted USB flash drive into your Mac, then open disk utility. You will see the USB flash drive on the left sidebar. Click to choose the corrupted USB flash drive. Then click on Erase button.
It will show a windows to let you rename the USB flash drive and choose the file system. Just choose ExFAT. Then click on Erase button. Disk utility will quickly format the corrupted USB flash drive to exFAT.
Some of the users also want to restore the data on the corrupted USB flash drive, whether it is formatted or not. Here is a data recovery solution to help you recover lost data. The data on the hard drive which is formatted by Disk Utility also can be recovered by data recovery software. Do Your Data Recovery for Mac is one of the best data recovery software, it is able to completely recover lost data from an USB flash drive, whether it is corrupted or erased by Disk Utility.
Step 1. Download Do Your Data Recovery for Mac on your Mac computer. Then run it from Launchpad.
Step 2. Do Your Data Recovery shows all hard drives and devices on your Mac computer. Click to choose the USB flash drive to start data recovery.
Step 3. Just click on Scan button to scan the USB flash drive. It offers quick scan and deep scan. If the quick scan can’t find all lost files, then try advanced recovery mode to find much more lost files.
Step 4. Once the scan is completed, you can preview all recoverable files. Then select the wanted files and save them to a safe location.
2. Format corrupted USB flash drive to exFAT with Mac Data Eraser
Third-party Mac disk formatting tool also can help you format corrupted USB flash drive to exFAT. Before you sell, donate or discard an old corrupted USB flash drive, you’d better format it and permanently remove all your private data. DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac is a reliable data eraser. It can help you securely format corrupted USB flash drive to exFAT and permanently wipe all data on the corrupted USB flash drive. Follow the steps below.
Step 1. Download and install DoYourData Super Eraser for Mac on your Mac.
Step 2. Choose mode Wipe Hard Drive, click to select the USB flash drive.
Step 3. Click on Wipe Now button to format the corrupted USB flash drive and permanently wipe all data on the USB flash drive.
Once the process gets finished, the corrupted USB flash drive will be formatted to exFAT, all data on the USB flash drive is gone forever, just like you get a brand new USB flash drive. There is no way to recover the erased data. After erasure, you can sell, donate or give away the USB flash drive without any worry.
The two methods above can help you securely repair corrupted USB flash drive, format it to exFAT on Mac. You also can format the corrupted USB flash drive to FAT 32 or APFS, HFS file systems.
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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.
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.
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.
Format Thumb Drive Exfat Mac Os
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.
Final Words
Format Thumb Drive Mac Os
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.