YOU WILL SEE THIS SELECTED ON THE LEFT SIDE. A confirmation window will pop up. Click on the Erase Button.. Step 12: The formatting process is pretty quick depending on how old your Mac is. Unfortunately there is no confirmation that the computer is done formatting your USB flash drive.
How do I format or convert my USB stick to FAT32 on Mac?
'Hello, I have a 64 GB USB flash drive, storing with 20GB of files. Some programs on my computer only accept FAT32 file system for saving files to an external storage device.
And I want to save those files to the USB flash drive. So here comes the problem that I must format or convert the USB disk first. How to format or convert my USB flash drive to FAT32 on my Mac computer? Does anyone know a solution to this problem?'
According to most solutions provided online, the way to format USB flash drive to FAT32 on Mac computer always results in data loss issue. If you prefer a safe and reliable way to convert your USB flash drive or external hard drive/SD card to FAT32, follow steps on this page to accomplish this task on your own now:
And I want to save those files to the USB flash drive. So here comes the problem that I must format or convert the USB disk first. How to format or convert my USB flash drive to FAT32 on my Mac computer? Does anyone know a solution to this problem?'
According to most solutions provided online, the way to format USB flash drive to FAT32 on Mac computer always results in data loss issue. If you prefer a safe and reliable way to convert your USB flash drive or external hard drive/SD card to FAT32, follow steps on this page to accomplish this task on your own now:
- Step 1. Extract/Backup USB data before formatting
- Option 1. Drag USB data to another device on Mac
- Option 2. Scan and extract all data from USB with Mac data recovery freeware [recommended]
- Step 2. Format/Convert USB to FAT32
- Method 1. Format USB to FAT32 with Disk Utility (Erase all data)
- Method 2. Convert/format USB flash drive to FAT32 by using Mac Command Line
Step 1. Extract/Backup USB data before formatting
The best solution to this problem that you may try is to backup or extract existing data from your USB flash drive to another safe storage device in advance.
Here you can try these recommended options to extract USB data:
Here you can try these recommended options to extract USB data:
Option 1. Drag USB data to another device on Mac
- Connect USB and another storage device to your Mac computer.
- Open both USB and another storage device on Mac.
- Drag files and data from USB to another storage device.
Option 2. Scan and extract all data from USB with Mac data recovery freeware [recommended]
If you prefer a thorough way to extracting all existing and even lost files from your USB to a safe location on Mac, professional Mac data recovery freeware - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free for Mac is available to help.
This software supports to full scan and find all existing files and lost data on your USB flash drive. You can directly extract all USB data to another location or storage device on Mac in 3 simple steps:
Note: If your USB flash drive has more than 2GB files, please activate this free data recovery software into a Pro version so to restore and extract unlimited data from USB drive.
Note: If your USB flash drive has more than 2GB files, please activate this free data recovery software into a Pro version so to restore and extract unlimited data from USB drive.
1. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Free and select the location of your USB drive. Click Next to continue.
2. Let the program scan and find your USB files, including lost data with two scanning modes - Quick Scan/Deep Scan.
3. Preview and choose all found USB files, click Recover to extract and save in a safe device/location on Mac.
Step 2. Format/Convert USB to FAT32
After extracting or backing up USB data to a safety device, you can now try methods in the below to convert USB to FAT32 now:
Method 1. Format USB to FAT32 with Disk Utility (Erase all data)
To format USB to FAT32 with Disk Utility will erase all data on the flash drive, so before you doing so, please do remember to check whether you have saved useful data to another secure device in advance.
Here are the detail tips to format USB to FAT32 now:
1. Connect the USB flash drive to your Mac computer.
Here are the detail tips to format USB to FAT32 now:
1. Connect the USB flash drive to your Mac computer.
2.Go to Applications > Utilities > Double click and open Disk Utility.
3. Select your USB flash drive on the sidebar, choose Erase.
4. Rename the USB flash drive, choose the format as MS-DOS (FAT) for Format, Master Boot Record for Scheme.
Then click Erase.
4. Rename the USB flash drive, choose the format as MS-DOS (FAT) for Format, Master Boot Record for Scheme.
Then click Erase.
Wait for the process to complete, then you’ll get an empty new USB flash drive with FAT32 as the file system. You can reuse it for saving data again.
Method 2. Convert/format USB flash drive to FAT32 by using Mac Command Line
1. Connect your USB flash drive to your Mac computer.
2. Hit cmd + space to run Spotlight, type: terminal and hit Enter.
2. Hit cmd + space to run Spotlight, type: terminal and hit Enter.
3. Type:diskutil list and find out which disk is your USB drive.
In the below picture, you can see that /dev/disk2 is the USB drive.
4. Type: sudo diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 MBRFormat /dev/disk2.
In the below picture, you can see that /dev/disk2 is the USB drive.
4. Type: sudo diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 MBRFormat /dev/disk2.
- sudo gives you user right.
- Diskutil calls disk utility program.
- eraseDisk commands to format.
- 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.
Wait for the process to complete and after this, you can type: diskutil list in command again to check if the formatting has been successful.
After this, you should be able to use USB with FAT32 file system to save files again.
After this, you should be able to use USB with FAT32 file system to save files again.
Question: How to restore lost files after formatting USB to FAT32 on Mac?
Some of you may have the same question that if you’ve forgotten to extract files before formatting USB, how can you restore the lost files by formatting USB flash drive?
The reason why formatted/erased data on USB or other storage devices on Mac computer can be still restored is that those formatted data are still on the storage devices. Only the entries got removed, being marked as empty on devices.
You can refer to this page: Recover lost files from USB flash drive on Mac as a guide with the help of EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard now.
The reason why formatted/erased data on USB or other storage devices on Mac computer can be still restored is that those formatted data are still on the storage devices. Only the entries got removed, being marked as empty on devices.
You can refer to this page: Recover lost files from USB flash drive on Mac as a guide with the help of EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard now.
USB flash drives are very useful devices that help in storing data and adding mobility to them. You can load your files on your USB drive or use it to store backups for restoring. You can even load songs and movies on it and share it with your friends or family. But at times we find it necessary to erase or format USB Mac. If you own a Mac and are thinking to delete your USB drive so that it works perfectly, you would want to do it the easy way. For instance, if your USB device has got corrupted, it might not be as easy to get your USB drive formatted.
So, how can USB format on Mac help? How would it help you to get more data when you need and help you keep your USB as good as ever? Here are some of the ways how a USB format can help you format your USB drive.
- Flash drives are formatted for Windows by default. It is required to format the USB drive to Mac OS file system to make it fully compatible with the platform.
- USB drives have limited space and it becomes essential to format it for getting free space.
- USB drives can get corrupted or infected by virus. The only way to remove those issues is by formatting the flash drive.
How to Format a USB Flash Drive on Mac
You can easily format Mac USB drive by following the steps mentioned below. You just need your Mac computer or laptop and the USB drive. Then you can learn how to format USB on Mac.
Switch on your Mac and connect the USB drive using one of the USB ports. Ensure that the USB is properly connected.
Now launch the application program and click on the Utilities option on the right side window.
From the many tabs, select the Disk Utility. This will open the Disk Utility interface.
On the left side, you will find a menu with your USB drive displayed in the list. Click on your USB drive name and select it.
Now choose the Erase tab on top of the right side Disk Utility window.
Now click on the drop down menu beside Format to choose the formatting options. You can select any format you wish to. But to make your USB drive fully compatible with Mac, you need to format it in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) option.
You can set a name for your USB drive before the format begins. Click on the field beside Name and input any name you want.
After everything is set, now is the time to begin the formatting. To activate it just click on the Erase tab at the lower right part of the interface.
The program will display another confirmation message before the format starts. Select the Erase option one more time to begin formatting the USB drive. After this your flash drive can be used with Mac or other computers.
How to Format a USB Drive to FAT32 on a Mac
The mian reason for formatting a USB drive to FAT 32, the external hard drive can be used on both Windows and macOS. The FAT32 format USB drive can be read from and written to on both Mac and Windows. Follow the next steps to format USB drive to FAT32 on Mac:
Step 1 Connect your USB flash drive to the Mac computer. Go to the Disk Utility and open it.
Step 2 Select the USB drive and click on Erase option.
Step 3 You can type the dormatted disk name and choose MS-DOS (FAT32) or ExFAT on the format menu.
Step 4 Click Erase and the operation might take some time depends on the USB drive size.
Now we are ready to use the USB Flash Drive on Windows and Mac
USB format on Mac can sometimes go wrong or you may accidentally delete some data. Many times we do not mean to erase something but do it mistakenly. Then we wreck our brains looking for ways to get back the lost data due to USB format on Mac. Fortunately help is on the way as there are some programs that enable you to recover deleted data from USB drives.
Recoverit - The Best USB Drive Data Recovery Software
Recoverit Data Recovery program for Mac can be used to recover data lost due to deletion, partition errors, formatting, virus attacks, system failures and a variety of other reasons. It can trace multiple types of files from different locations including the Mac platform and even external sources. The flash drive recovery software comes with thoughtful essential functions which retrieves data efficiently in different scenarios.
Recoverit - The Best USB Drive Data Recovery Software
- Recover lost or deleted files, photos, audio, music, emails from any storage device effectively, safely and completely.
- Supports data recovery from recycle bin, hard drive, memory card, flash drive, digital camera and camcorders.
- Supports to recover data for sudden deletion, formatting, lost partition, virus attack, system crash under different situations.