Flash Drive For Mac
Posted : admin On 11/19/2019This simple guide will teach you How to Format a Flash Drive on Mac. Not only this, we will help you pick the best file system for your usb flash drive that you are planning to use on a Mac.
If you have an old flash drive or one that was formatted to work with Windows or another operating system, you can still format your flash drive to work on a Mac. Volume Format Most manufacturers use the FAT 32 or MS-DOS (FAT) volume format. Attach the USB flash drive to your Mac and locate its disk icon on your desktop, in a Finder window, or in the Finder sidebar, then right-click (or Ctrl-click) it and select Encrypt 'USB stick. 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. So your first move is to make USB can be recognized again, and then you can use Mac hard drive data recovery software to recover files if the USB becomes inaccessible. How to make a USB flash drive installer for macOS STEP 1: Downloading macOS. STEP 2: Formatting the USB Drive. STEP 3: Creating the Installer.
Majority of 49.4% of desktop and laptop computer users in the world use Windows operating system. In contrast, only 27.4% of users use MacOS, obviously for their apple computer. That’s the reason why most of the flash drives in the market are available in Fat32 or NTFS formats which are the most preferred format for windows. Although the first one, Fat32 is completely compatible with both MacOS as well as Windows, it has some limitations. Fat32 can store files only up to 4 GB of size. The latter one, NTFS is mostly used on the Windows operating system and not an optimal option for MacOS. Extra work is needed to use NTFS on MacOS. If you want to use your flash drive solely for MacOS, it is highly recommended to format your flash drive.
- To see the size of a specific file or folder, click it once and then press Command-I. To see storage information about your Mac, click the Apple menu in the top-left of your screen. Choose About This Mac and click the Storage tab. For Time Machine backups, it's good to use a drive that has at least twice the storage capacity of your Mac.
- Connect the USB flash drive to your Mac and find its disk icon on the desktop or Finder sidebar, then right-click and select Encrypt “USB stick name” from the context menu. Note: If you do not see the “Encryption” option in the drop-down menu, your USB flash drive has not been formatted using the GUID partition map.
- Instead of using the system installer disc that came with your Mac, create a system installer flash drive, like the one that comes with the MacBook Air. It's smaller than an optical disc, more.
Here, pop-ups the question: How to format a flash drive on a mac?
Contents
- 1 Before you format a flash drive
- 1.1 Check flash Drive’s File System
- 2 How to format a flash drive on Mac?
Before you format a flash drive
MacOS supports HFS plus file system. HFS stands for Hierarchical File System.
Apple introduced this file system in 1985 to replace the existing Macintosh File System or MFS. HFS filesystem is modified into HFS plus (Modernly called as MacOS Extended). Before you format a flash drive it is suggested to know what file system your flash drive is in.
Check flash Drive’s File System
You don’t need to do anything special to know your flash drive’s file system. There are 2 ways you can do this.
Method 1: Using Finder
Plug in your flash drive. Now open the Finder and look for your USB device. Then right-click on the drive’s name. Select “Get Info” from the list of options opened.
A new window will open. Just to the right of “Format” is your drive’s file system.
Method 2: Using Disk utility app
Open the Disk Utility app from the utility folder available in the application. Your drive will be on the left column of the window. Click on the partition. Here you can check the current format of your flash drive.
If your flash drive’s file system is MS-DOS or ExFAT you can use it as it is without further formatting. But if it is NTFS, format your flash drive to make it completely compatible with MacOS.
How to format a flash drive on Mac?
Disk Utility application in MacOS is the best option to format a flash drive on MacOS. You can launch this app in two ways.
Step 1: Press Space while holding your command button. A search box will open. Type Disk Utility in the search box and press enter. Alternatively, Open the Finder window and select applications on the left sidebar. Navigate to Utilities and then Disk Utilities.
Step 2: Search for your flash drive on the sidebar of the Disk Utility app and select it by clicking on its name.
Step 3: Now Click the “Erase” button which is located just below the title bar of the window which says “Disk Utility”. This will erase your whole drive and make it a single partition.
Here you can change the name of your USB drive if you wish. This name will be visible on other devices as well if you plug your flash drive into them. Just below the Name section, you can see a section called “Format”.
You will need to choose a format option to change your flash drive’s file system. But which format to choose is the big question now! No need to worry. Read the description of each format given below and choose the format of your choice.
Types of filesystems
Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
This format is considered as default file system format of the Mac OS X drives. It also supports OS X Lion, like Versions. This format will allow you to use your flash drive on Mac without any limitations.
With Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format, you can setup OS X startup drive. Make sure you have right files and know how to do it. If you have any issues with a built-in drive you can boot from the external disk. This file system format is highly recommended for MacOS. But you cannot write this flash drive from windows PC once you have formatted it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). You can read files though.
OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
Go for this type of filesystem if you really need it for some reason. For OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled), the word “File” is different than “file”. It means it’s case sensitive as the name suggests.
OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted)
Same as filesystem just mentioned above but of course with encryption.
Macbook Air Flash Drive
OS X Extended (Journaled, Encrypted)
To use a flash drive with this filesystem you will have to set up a password & enter it whenever you plug in your drive into any device.
MS-DOS (FAT)
This is just a name for the FAT32 filesystem in Disk Utility application. FAT32 supports to almost all of the operating systems in the world. This allows you to transfer files from one operating system to other. The best thing about this filesystem is its support to video game systems which include Xbox 360 and PlayStation. This filesystem can be called a universal system. The limitation about FAT32 filesystem is it doesn’t allow files which are bigger than 4 GB in size and also you cannot create a startup drive unlike Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
ExFAT
This is a new type of filesystem and it supports MacOS X 10.6.5 and later. It is same as FAT32 but it supports files larger than 4 GB. As this filesystem is relatively new, it does not on relatively older versions of Mac OS X. If you don’t use any older version of the operating system, you can use this type of filesystem.
Use ExFAT for this tutorial if you wish to use your flash drive on windows as well on MacOS.
Step 4: For this tutorial, you can ignore the Scheme option which we use if you wish to boot from your flash drive. Click on erase button to format your flash drive.
Voila! You have formatted your flash drive now. You can eject drive by right-clicking on its name in the left sidebar and click on “Eject”.
Suggested article: How to Reset SMC on Mac?
I hope this article has helped. If you are still facing problems or have doubts on how to format USB drive on Mac, then simply comment below.
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Article Summary
In this article, we have prepared the step by step guide, which will help you to encrypt your USB Flash Drive or folders whether it’s on Mac, Windows, Ubuntu & Linux.
All of these methods easy to use and free!
table of content:
Almost every computer user today has at least one USB flash drive. These handy storage devices are often found in pockets or used as keychains. Unfortunately, their small size makes them easy to misplace or lose.
When you lose your USB drive, there’s always a risk of someone finding it and going through your personal files. So, to truly protect your data, make sure your USB flash drive is secure.
Flash Player For Mac
You can easily do this with your Mac computer, which allows you to put a protective password on your data. To do so, you can use your Mac to create an encrypted disk image of your USB drive; the disk image becomes a container for your data and only authorized users who know the password can open it.
Tutorial: How To Encrypt A Flash Drive In Mac:
There are many ways to encrypt USB Flash Drive in Mac, also you can use many tools to encrypt your files or full disk, but in this tutorial, we are going to use Mac Internal Encryption program which is highly recommended.
Another method: We are creating another folder inside your USB drive which is encrypted and contain your sensitive data in it. This is the best way because you don’t need to enter the passcode each time when you are accessing the files other than the Encrypted Folder.
- Insert your flash drive into a USB port on your Mac. Copy all files on the drive and paste them into your Desktop. The USB drive has to be empty during the encryption process. All files can simply be copied back onto it after the completion of the encryption process.
- Once the flash drive is empty, open Disk Utility, which is found under Applications in your Finder menu.
- You will see a window with a list of devices towards the left portion of it. Choose your flash drive from the list.
- Go to the Erase tab and click on Format to open the corresponding menu. From the choices, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled). You will be asked for a name, which you can freely choose.
Next:
- Click on the Erase button at the bottom of the window to delete all data on the drive. Wait for the process to be completed.
- After the process, open the File menu and click on New, then tap on Blank Disk Image.
- Save Location should be your USB Drive Name.
- Choose the size closest to the full capacity of your USB drive; make sure the size is smaller. As for the Encryption menu, choose either 128-bit or 256-bit AES encryption. As for the Partitions, choose Single Partition.
- Go to Image Format and click on Read/write disk image. Finally, click Create.
- A small window will appear where you will be asked to provide a password. Don’t lose your password as you will not be able to access your data without password.
- Paste all your old files onto the drive; place them on the DMG disk image file. If you don’t save them in that file, they will not be password protected.
Tutorial: How To Encrypt A Flash Drive In Windows:
Windows 7 and above versions have an internal feature called BitLocker, which is used to encrypt internal and external drives. Unfortunately, Password protection is not available as a built-in feature in Windows XP, 7, 8 or even in 10. But there are few third-party tools available for password protection.
There is another tool called “TrueCrypt” which is now moved to BitLocker, was previously used for the same purposes.
In this section we’ll show you:
- How to Encrypt Folders & Texts Files in Windows
- How to encrypt Full USB Drive in Windows by using BitLocker.
- Method to encrypt particular folder inside your USB
How to Encrypt Full USB Encryption With BitLocker:
STEP #1:
Plug the USB drive and move your data from it. Once it’s done! format the USB by NTFS Format.
STEP #2:
Right Click on your Flash Drive and Click on ” Turn On BitLocker”.
STEP #3:
Check mark the first option, that enables the password Fields, Enter your desire password and hit next.
STEP #4:
In this step you need to save your “private key” in somewhere safe location. Just in case you forgot your password, it is recommended to save your password to your cloud or online drive. After that, Click on Next. It will take a little time to process, depending on your Flash Drive Storage as well as your PC Performance. Usually It takes about 1 minute per 1 GB.
STEP #5:
Once it’s done! Unplugged the Flash Drive and Plug it again, when you reconnect your USB Flash Drive it will ask you for the password to get in there.
Note: In this method, you will only encrypt full USB flash drive.
How To Encrypt A Folder In Flash Drive:
Usb Flash Drive For Imac
In this tutorial, you will see how you can encrypt particular folder inside your Flash drive. This is the best way to encrypt and protect your Folder data, it’s also best because; you don’t need to insert the password each time you want to access other files on your USB.
Unfortunately, there is no built-in feature available for Windows users for that specific task. But you can use third party tools like Lacie Free Encrypted Tool to Encrypt your Folder.
Here Are The Simple Steps to Encrypt Folder In Flash Drive:
STEP #1:
You need to download ZIP Files From Lacie website. Download and extract the files.
STEP #2:
Copy All Extracted Folders and paste into your USB Flash Drive.
Remember“this folder should be copied and pasted into root, it shouldn’t be inside any subfolder, otherwise it won’t work”
STEP #3:
Paste all the Extracted Folder inside your USB Flash Drive.
STEP #4:
Go to the extracted Folder and find the private-public.exe file and run it.
STEP #5:
This is where you can give a size to your folder, in my case i’m just using 500mb for demonstration. After giving the size of your folder simply click on “Next”
STEP #6:
Now Create a password for that folder: choose the password and click next.
STEP #7:
Hit Next and process will start in few seconds, it also depends on your data and PC performance, usually it takes 1 minute per 1 GB transfer.
STEP #8:
When it’s done, it will take you to disk mounting process. Here, you just need to put your created password in the fields.
STEP #9:
It’s almost completed, if you go to “my computer” you can see there are some other drive pop-ups! which you have created. Put all the sensitive data in it and it will automatically save into encrypted folder inside Flash Drive.
Now all of your data in that encrypted drive is protected through encryption and once you disconnect the USB Flash drive, the encrypted drive will go away from sidebar or in “My Computer”.
When you reconnect your Flash Drive, it will not going show you the encrypted folder which you have created, because it’s hidden. In order to retrieve that you need to go to your USB storage and again run the private-public.exe, and this time it will just ask for a password.
Once you provide the password, that will drive show again and you can check your data inside.
Tutorial: How To Encrypt A Flash Drive In Ubuntu Or Linux Operating System:
As like other operating systems, there are encrypted tools available, which is called third party tools which are perfectly compatible with both Linux & Ubuntu.
In this Tutorial we will see how you can encrypt Flash Drive by using Disk Utility.
STEP #1
The first step is to plug in your USB Flash Drive and Copy All the data Somewhere else.
STEP #2
Go to the dashboard Home and type Disk Utility
STEP #3
Find your Flash drive and click on it
STEP #4
Click on unmount the Volume so you can format the disk before encryption
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STEP #5
Now Hit Format Drive and be patient
STEP #6
Now here you can encrypt full disk or create a partition of encrypted storage.
STEP #7
Check the “Encrypt underlying device” and create the drive
STEP #8
Now Create New password for your encrypted folder and hit “Create”
STEP #9
Now when you disconnect your USB and Reconnect Your USB you will see the dialog box asking for the password.
Finally, the encryption of your folder or drive is complete. Here is the Video Tutorial if you want.
Are There Any Risks Of Encrypting Flash Drive?
When we think about encryption, it always seems beneficial which is mostly true. However, in encrypting a flash drive, there are some issues to which a user is still prone.
The password could be the greatest issue as the whole encryption process depends on keeping a strong password. If your password is easy to guess or doesn’t contain strong characters then there are chances that it could be revealed.
Most people write down the password to remember it which produces the chances of losing it. Also, if the encrypted flash drive is entered into a compromised device with key logging software then you may lose the password while entering it.
However, the most probable risk is the loss of the password if you forget it and there is no chance to decrypt USB data without password. But, there are the ways to recover password such as BitLocker’s recovery key or a clue or to store it securely.