Format Flash Drive Mac Terminal

  • Format using FAT32. In the Terminal on an Mac, type: 'diskutil list' to find the disk# for your flash drive 4. Type: diskutil partitionDisk disk# 2 MBR MS-DOS TESLACAM 16G MS-DOS MUSIC R (Replace disk# with the disk number from step 3).
  • Follow the outlined steps given below to burn ISO to USB Mac. Step 1: On your Mac system, insert a USB flash drive. Step 2: Launch Terminal by selecting Applications Utilities Terminal. Step 3: Here, enter 'diskutil list' and hit the Enter key. Step 4: All the drives will be listed out so that it becomes easier for you to locate the correct.

Question: Q: Brute force format drive w/ Terminal? I have an Intel iMac. I have two drives I want to erase, but Disk Utility won't let me erase them (one is a Windows NT volume, the other is 1/2 of an old RAID volume). This USB flash drive formatter for Mac will quickly format the USB flash drive and permanently erase all data information on the USB flash drive. It is strongly to use AweEraser for Mac to format the USB flash drive before you sell, donate, give away, dispose or abandon your USB flash drive.

Dec 16, 2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions

If your USB flash drive is not recognized by your Apple Mac computer because it has a different format it is kind of difficult to format it. You may not know how to format your USB flash drive to make it compatible with your Mac system but we do and will show you how to do it in this article.

Overview of Formatting USB Drive on Mac

Mac Systems have a different OS to Windows and this is where most of the problems like. Most USB flash drives on sale are designed to work with Windows operating systems that run on Fat32. Mac devices on the other hand run on either Mac OS Extended or APFS. If your drive is an APFS format or a Mac OS format you can format your drive easily but if it is a FAT32 format this may be a problem. If you have made the mistake of buying a flash drive they run on a FAT32 file format you don't have to discard it altogether. There are ways to format a flash drive that runs in a different format and we will show you steps to take to remedy the situation.

Related: Further, read and know more complete details on formatting external hard drive for Mac.

Step to Format a USB Drive to FAT32 on Your Mac

  • Plug the drive into the Mac system
  • Choose Applications- Utilities then Disk Utility
  • From the sidebar pick USB drive
  • From the toolbar select Erase
  • Name the formatted disk and choose either ExFat or MS-DOS(FAT32) from the menu
  • Select erase to format your drive depending on the selection you have picked (FAT32 or ExFAT)

Convert/Format USB Flash drive to FAT32 using Command Line

  • Connect Flash drive to Mac
  • Tap CMD and space bar to open Spotlight. Type 'terminal' and press Enter
  • Type in :diskutill land locate your USB drive
  • Type in sudo.diskutilerasediskFAT32MBRFormat/Dev/disk2
  • Sudo will give you the user right
  • Diskutill will call in the utility program
  • Erasedisk commands will format
  • FAT32 will set the file system
  • MBRFormat will tell the disk to format with Master Boot
  • /Dev/disk2 will be the USB drive location

You will have to wait a while for the format to be completed. Type in : diskutill to check if the process was successful.

If you follow these steps religiously you should be able to resolve the issue quickly. If you're searching for a way that helps you recover formatted USB drive on Mac, download Recoverit Data Recovery software and go to the page telling you how to restore the formatted hard drive.

Video Tutorial on How to Format a USB Flash Drive on Mac

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USB Flash drives are one of luminous and disparate invention to store thousands of files in one convenient location. There are myriad of reasons to use USB flash drives over CD and DVDs. They are portable, fast and easy to use and carry. But after using it for few times, you might need to erase data from USB flash drive to make some more room to store new data or sell it.

A simple deletion will not really erase everything from the USB flash drive securely since any advanced computer user can easily recover them in no time using any data recovery software. You will be amused to see how easy it is to get back all the deleted data in no time. So, if you have any sensitive information stored from company or client information then you must erase them using some third party software to make sure all data are securely deleted and can never be restored using any data recovery software whatsoever. So most people choose to wipe data on computer or wipe Mac clean before selling.

In this guide, we will introduce you to two methods that helps to erase data on USB flash drive permanently. Both are free to implement and can get the job done as quickly as possible to give you the best user experience.

Method #1: Wipe USB Flash Drive by Using In-built Format Option

All Windows and Mac computers comes with an in-built format disk option to erase everything from a USB flash drive. We will show you how to use this feature as your advantage to make sure everything is deleted permanently.

Step 1. Insert the USB flash drive to the computer and let the PC detect it.

Step 2. Open 'My Computer' and right-click on the flash drive disk name.

Step 3. Find 'Format' from the option and make a left click on it with the help of your mouse.

Step 4. You will be able to see a window with the following option.

It will show you the storage capacity and file system. By default, it can be either NTFS or FAT32 and the volume label just indicates the name of the flash drive. Just leave it to the default settings and click on 'Start'.

Step 5. Wait for few minutes until the formatting process is finished. It may take several minutes depending on the size of the USB Flash drive. Make sure to keep it connected while the process is taking place.

Step 6. After you see the 'Format Successful' pop up messages, you can eject the flash drive.

Format Flash Drive Mac Terminal Download

Warning: This should delete all the files from the flash drive. But as we mentioned earlier, a simple deletion and formatting doesn't really permanently delete everything from the USB drive, they're still be easily recovered by some data recovery softweare. . If the files are not important then you can use this simple deletion option but if you do have confidential company and client information stored in it then you might have to use a professional external tool to erase everything permanently.

Method #2: How to Completely Wipe USB Flash Drive with SafeWiper for Disk

To reduce the risk that someone might recover sensitive data from your USB flash drive, you need to use eraser software to securely erase data from removable USB disk.

SafeWiper for Disk is a professional data deletion tool that erases everything from a drive disk permanently. This little tool deletes data from a disk drive as it never existed on the first place. So, if you are erasing confidential and sensitive data from your USB flash drive then it is assured that the data deletion is beyond recovery. No data recovery has succeeded to recover data from any drive after being deleted using SafeWiper. It is easy to use but to use advanced deletion techniques, you will have to pay a small fee to enjoy the full benefits of this software.

Safewiper for Disk - Permanently Wipe Your USB Drive

  • Wipe data and hard drives permanently beyond recovery.
  • Permanently wipes data on partitions and disk volumes with advanced wiping algorithm which overwrites your data up to 35 times.
  • Uses advanced algorithms (Dod 5220-22.M, US Army, Peter Guttman) to 100% completely wipe data.
  • Supports all popular Windows file systems, NTFS, Fat, Fat32.

Format Usb Flash Drive Windows

Access flash drive on mac
Step 1 Download and Install Program, Insert Your USB Drive to PC

Download SafeWiper for Disk on your computer, install and run it. SafeWiper for Disk offers to complete hard drives or logical hard drives. So you either completely remove everything from a hard disk or only the hierarchical partitions created from the hard disk. Choose the USB flash drive disk and click on 'Next'.

Step 4 Choose Wiping Algorithm

Click the Setting on the proram, you will see four wiping method in the list. You can use the featured high level deletion techniques including Peter Guttmann Secure Deletion, North Atlantic Treaty Organization_NATO standard, Guttmann Method and so on. The more advnaced wiping algorithm you choose, the more time it will take.

Step 5 Start Deleting Files from Computer (Mac/Windows)

After choosing the wiping method, simply click on 'Wipe' and the program will automatically start erasing everything from the USB flash drive. Wait for few minutes until the data are securely removed from the disk drive.

Now, you can audit the USB flash drive and everything will be permanently erased.

Using Flash Drive On Mac

Note: Realize that the data deleted using this software is permanent and there's no going back after this. So, make sure to generate a full back up before using this software.

Summary:

It is recommended to use professional external software like SafeWiper Data Wiper to permanently delete everything from a USB flash drive if it contains any classified and private data to make sure nobody can steal it. Any computer genius can easily recover deleted data from your USB flash drive if you use the simple deletion technique. You must take a step further to maintain the safety and privacy of the data. Hopefully, you guys enjoyed and found this article useful.