How to permanently wipe usb flash drive on mac or windows. Writer and blogger at macpaw, curious just about everything. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. How to format a flash drive on macos erase usb macmetric.
Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. Looking for a way to install and run os x on an external hard drive. You can easily format erase any usb drive in mac os x with the disk utility app, well demonstrate this with a flash drive that will format as. Three modes to permanently erase data from usb stick. Thinking of giving an old hard drive to a friend, or taking it to be recycled. We will show you how to use this feature as your advantage to make sure everything is deleted permanently. Your mac computer comes with a handy utility appropriately called disk utility, which can be used to.
Once youve managed to open up the recovery mode in some fashion, we can move on to wiping your drive securely. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Doyourdata super eraser for mac is a fairly simple software to use. You neednt throw out the baby with the bathwater and wipe your old macs hard drive clean before trying it out. Bootable optical media cd or dvd on macs equipped with apples super drive or a usb thumb drive formatted with a guid partition type and containing an os x installer or a usable operating. If youre wiping a mechanical drive, click security options in the window that pops up. How to fixrepair the unreadablecorrupted usb flash drive on mac. Cant erase or reformat a drive in macos disk utility.
Do this before you erase the hard drive or follow any other steps. Youll also be asked to choose between a partition scheme. One hub adds an extra usbc, two usbas, sd, and microsd to your mac. When your usb flash drive is not showing up on your mac, the reasons might be the usb port, or usb contains errors that make the drive undetectable. Im brand new to mac book pro and have used pcs for years. Got this to retrieve some data off of the hard drive of my computer that wouldnt boot up anymore. Remember that this method can only be used to erase the hard disk drive which does not have the mac os installed on it. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive or other. How to start up your mac from a bootable cddvd, usb thumb.
Some mac users may require the ability to erase a disk or erase a hard drive from the command line on mac os, a task which is typically performed through the disk utility application from the gui. If i want to send a flash driveflashstick to someone who has a macbook with video files from a msbased laptop already on the drive, will that. If another mac is available, try connecting the flash drive to it in order to verify. If your usb drive is seriously broken by hitting, dropping, shaking, etc.
Yosemite osx, macbook pro, imac, macbook air, laptop mac, desktop. Whether you want to format a flash drive on your mac or convert a. Buy products related to macbook flash drive products and see what customers say about macbook flash drive products on free delivery possible on eligible purchases. In the screenshot below, the drive is formatted with the exfat file system.
How to wipe your mac and reinstall macos from scratch. This guide will be suitable for both beginners as well as. How to force a hard drive to unmount for formatting in mac os x disk utility. If you have any files you want to save, copy them to another storage device. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution. This method uses the utilities which can be run only on the mac os. In the lefthand side inside of disk utility you will see a list of all the connected hard drives. The drive should appear on your desktop and in the devices section on the left side of. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or instore pickup. So you can permanently and safely delete all the data youve previously stored. How to repairfix unreadable usb flash drives on mac. How to boot a mac from usb drive with pictures wikihow. If your mac has a solid state drive, you can skip this part.
Some mac users may require the ability to erase a disk or erase a hard drive from the command line on mac os, a task which is typically performed through the disk utility application from. With mac os extended journaled format, you can setup os x startup drive. How do i eject a flash drive from my macb apple community. If your integral usb has a security or zip software preloaded integral splash, secure. Before you sell, give away, or trade in your mac, you should back up your computer, disable some features and services, and restore to factory settings by erasing the hard drive and reinstalling. Master boot record is appropriate for external drives used with a pc or boot camp. How to format usb flash drive on mac stepbystep tutorial. When you delete a file on a mechanical drive, its not really goneat least, not physically. How to force a hard drive to unmount for formatting in mac. The command line approach to disk erasure in macos is a bit different and it requires precise syntax to insure that you are erasing the proper disk, making this method of erasing any disk only. Guid partition map, master boot record, or apple partition map.
Disk utility wont erase my usb flash drive couldnt. This might happen for a variety of reasons, all of which keep you from erasing or reformatting the drives connected to your mac. Refer to detailed steps of using both tools for fat32 format. Wipe usb flash drive by using inbuilt format option. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos. I am willing to dualboot my macbook pro inch, early 2011 macos sierra to install ubuntu. Open the disk utility app on your mac using one of the following methods, depending on the type of disk or volume you want to erase. I am having some trouble with my usb flash drive when i try to erase it using disk utility. Data recovery from usb is a critical need if it contains valuable documents, photos, videos, etc. Before you sell, give away, or trade in your mac, you should back up your computer, disable some features and services, and restore to factory settings by erasing the hard drive and reinstalling macos. By default, its the disk built into your mac, named macintosh hd. To back up your data, insert the usb drive into the computer you used with the drive and copy the contents of the drive to the desktop or a folder on the computer. For apple mac users, there are two ways to format usb flash drive to fat32, including disk utility and terminal command line.
Looking to add storage, or for a smart way to back up your mac. If you want to use a different file system on your usb drive, youll need to format it. How to transfer files from a mac onto a usb 2019 youtube. Cddvd drives are disappearing from computers, leaving usb storage as the only option when reinstalling an operating system.
In disk utility on mac, you can erase and reformat storage devices to use with your mac. You can reformat a hard drive on mac os x by using disk utility. How to securely erase external drives with disk utility on. Erase and reformat a storage device in disk utility on mac. Just to let you know, if you buy something featured here, mashable might earn an affiliate commission. How to erase everything on macbook pro hard drive befre. Firstly, it allows you to run another copy of os x without needing any additional mac. This video shows you how to transfer files such as. The drive was spinning windows was trying to repair itself but couldnt. You cant reformat a drive in macos disk utility when the erase button is grayed out. Select the disk that you want to erase, such as apple ssd. So when you want to get rid of your system or drive, you should permanently erase your storage device drives before you get rid of. However, if the drive doesnt work in any of your usb interfaces you need to look further to determine the problem. Then you can use your usb flash drive to back up your important files, as follows.
This format will allow you to use your flash drive on mac without any limitations. What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your mac. Please back up all your data before you format the usb drive. How to erase and format a usb drive on your mac techlila. In this article, we have a quitedetailed guide on how to erase and format a usb drive and keep it accessible on the devices you like. How to delete files documents from usb flash drive on mac. Check the information shown on the right side of the window to find out which partition map is currently in use. Most external hard drives and usb drives are compatible for use on mac computers as long as you format the devices for use with mac os x.
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