reformat a flash drive on mac for pc and mac

Reformat a flash drive on mac for pc and mac how to#
Reformat a flash drive on mac for pc and mac mac os#
Reformat a flash drive on mac for pc and mac software#
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is the name and location of your pen drive, which usually looks like “/dev/disk2” or “/dev/disk3”.Īs we use the “sudo” command, you will be asked to enter your login password the “sudo” command means that you are executing a command as an Admin. is the name you want to give to your pen drive.

Reformat a flash drive on mac for pc and mac mac os#

JHFS+ refers to the Mac OS Extended Journaled format, which is proprietary to Apple and can only be used on macOS. For reference purposes, exFAT and FAT32 are compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux. For a complete description and compatibility list (as not all formats are compatible with all operating systems), see this article. There are many file types available when you format a USB drive on Mac, such as exFAT, FAT32, JHFS+, etc. is where you choose which format you want to use when erasing and formatting your pen drive. To format your USB drive on Mac, enter the following command: As for the location, it is usually /dev/, or in this case /dev/disk2. The one that we want to remember is the first identifier, in this case, “disk2” (and not “disk2s2”, which is a partition). That is unless you had previously partitioned it, in which case it might have more than two.

You will notice that your pen drive has two identifiers. Now that you know the disc allocated to your USB key, you will need to take note of its identifier and location. Otherwise, look for the particularities of the pen drive you wish to use. It will be easier if you have a single flash drive inserted when wanting to format a USB drive using your Mac. If you see the words “internal,” “synthesized,” or “disk image,” it is not a pen drive. When it says “(external, physical),” it means that it is an external drive such as a pen drive or external hard drive. You can identify your pen drive by the following: You will find a list of disks in the example above, you can see that my USB key is the external drive located on disk 2. Make sure that you have inserted a USB drive before continuing. The first thing we will want to do is to identify the computer drive linked to your USB key.

Reformat a flash drive on mac for pc and mac how to#

How to format a USB drive on MacĪccess the Terminal by doing a spotlight search for “Terminal.” Just as with the Disk Utility method, macOS Mojave offers a simple, efficient formatting procedure through the use of its command line.

Reformat a flash drive on mac for pc and mac software#

Its use allows you to execute commands that provide the same result without having to rely on software applications. Even though using the Disk Utility tool to format your USB drive on Mac is a straightforward procedure, sometimes you might want to use the Terminal. WARNING:Formatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting.This article explains how to format a USB drive on Mac using the command-line. Set Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Check step 2 to confirm Disk Utility is Showing All Devices. NOTE: If you don’t see Scheme, then make sure that all devices are showing and the non-indented entry is selected.

Select the non-indented entry, you will see Media in the nameĬlick the button labelled Erase in the menu which will bring up this window.

Click View in the upper left and select Show All Devices.

To open Disk Utility - Open Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility IMPORTANT: Reformatting the drive will erase all data on the drive, so you should copy any data you want off the drive prior to formatting. If you need to go between macOS and Windows then format your drive ExFAT on macOS

Mac OS Extended (Journaled) does not work natively with Windows.

Starting with Big Sur, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) is no longer the default when using Time Machine.

It is important to keep the following in mind when formatting Mac OS Extended (Journaled): Not sure what version you are using? Click here to determine your version of macOS IMPORTANT: This article applies to the following macOS versions: