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Home > IT Support Center > Community Resources > General Tech Help > How to format a USB Flash Drive in MacOS
How to format a USB Flash Drive in MacOS
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It's important to make sure that your USB Flash drive is configured into a file system format that is usable across multiple computer operating systems. In order to copy files to a USB Flash drive on a Mac computer, and then open them on an APU Classroom or Lab computer, (or vice versa) the Flash drive must be formatted in either exFAT, or FAT32(MS-DOS FAT).

**WARNING** THE PROCESS OF FORMATTING A USB DRIVE WILL PERMANENTLY ERASE ALL DATA ON THE ENTIRE USB FLASH DRIVE. PLEASE BACKUP IMPORTANT DATA ELSEWHERE BEFORE PROCEEDING. (Google Drive works well to easily back up data)

 

Instructions on how to format a USB Flash Drive into exFAT in MacOS:

  1. Insert USB Flash drive into one of the USB ports on your Mac computer.
  2. Open up the Application named "Disk Utility", by going to your Applications Folder -> and select Disk Utility, or simply press command+space and type "Disk Utility", then press the enter key.
  3. You should see the USB Flash Drive listed as an external drive, on the left hand side of the window. Select that drive by clicking on it.
  4. Click the button on the top middle of the window called, "Erase".
  5. Type in what you would like the drive to be called in the "Name" field.
  6. Click the drop down box for for format, and select "exFAT".
  7. Click the "Erase" button on the right-bottom of the window.
  8. Done!

The USB Flash Drive will now begin formatting, which may take up to a minute or so. Once it finishes, you are all done!

See Video for visual instructions:

 

 

Instructions on how to format a USB Flash Drive into FAT32(MS-DOS FAT) in MacOS:

  1. Insert USB Flash drive into one of the USB ports on your Mac computer.
  2. Open up the Application named "Disk Utility", by going to your Applications Folder -> and select Disk Utility, or simply press command+space and type "Disk Utility", then press the enter key.
  3. You should see the USB Flash Drive listed as an external drive, on the left hand side of the window. There may be other drives listed, depending on how many drives are installed in your computer, or if you have other drives plugged into it. An easy way to make sure you are selecting the correct drive and not formatting and deleting on the wrong drive, is to unplug and then re-insert the USB Flash into the computer when "Disk Utility" is open, and watching for which drive disappears and then reappears, and selecting that one.
  4. Click the button on the top middle of the window called, "Erase".
  5. Type in what you would like the drive to be called in the "Name" field.
  6. Click the drop down box for for format, and select "MS-DOS (FAT)".
  7. Click the "Erase" button on the right-bottom of the window.
  8. Done!

The USB Flash Drive will now begin formatting, which may take up to a minute or so. Once it finishes, you are all done!

See Video for visual instructions:

 

 

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