Note: Formatting your flash drive will remove all files or folders onthe drive, so make sure you back up your files before formatting yourdrive.

Windows:

Part 1: How to Format a USB Flash Drive on Mac. Connect the USB drive; Switch on your Mac and connect the USB drive using one of the USB ports. Ensure that the USB is connected correctly. Choose Utilities; Now launch the application program and click on the Utility option on the right side window. How to format a usb flash drive on a windows 10 pc for mac os x & windows pc compatibility If you need to transfer files larger than 4 GB between macs and wi. Recover data from formatted USB flash drive? Pro version: Free version: Sometimes we find it neces.

1. Connect the USB flash drive to your computer.

2. Click “This PC”.

3. Right-click the flash drive’s icon. It’s beneath the “Devices and drives” heading in the middle of the page.

4. Click Format. This option is near the middle of the drop-down menu. Doing so opens the Format window.

5. Click the “File System” box. It’s below the “File System” heading near the top of the page. A drop-down menu will appear with the following options:

NTFS - The default Windows operating system format. If you’re using your drive as a secondary Windows drive, you’ll need to choose this option.

FAT32 - The most widely compatible format. Works with most computers and gaming consoles.

Note: exFAT format USB flash drives do not work with ClonerAlliance products.

6. Click a format option (FAT32 or NTFS). If you’ve formatted your drive before and you’re positive that it isn’t broken, you can also check the Quick Format box.

7. Click Start, and then click OK. Doing this will cause Windows to begin formatting your flash drive for you.

8. Click “OK” when prompted. Your flash drive has successfully been formatted.

Mac:

1. Connect the USB flash drive to your Mac.

Note: Some Macs don’t have USB ports, so you’ll need to purchase an adapter.

2. Click “Go”. It’s a menu item in the top-left side of the menu bar.

Reformat Thumb Drive Mac

If you don’t see Go, first click the Finder icon, which resembles a blue face in your Mac’s dock.

3. Click “Utilities”. This option is in the Go drop-down menu.

4. Double-click “Disk Utility”. You’ll likely find this option in the middle of the Utilities page.

5. Click your flash drive’s name. It’s on the far-left side of the Disk Utility window.

6. Click the “Erase” tab. This option is at the top of the Disk Utility window.

7. Click a format option.

Note: exFAT format USB flash drives do not work with ClonerAlliance products.

8. Click Erase, then click Erase when prompted. This will begin the formatting process. Once the formatting is complete, you’ll see an icon for your flash drive appear on your Mac’s desktop.

Flash Drive Will Not Format

For Apple Mac users, there are two ways to format USB flash drive to FAT32, including Disk Utility and Terminal command line. Refer to detailed steps of using both tools for FAT32 format. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. Otherwise, you can only use data recovery software to recover data from a formatted USB drive.

Are you looking for a secure way to format USB flash drive to FAT32 on Mac? You are at the right place. Follow here, you will find two methods that will assist you in doing so on your storage device and if you lost data due formatting, reliable Mac file recovery software is ready to help anytime:

How to Format a USB Flash Drive with Mac to FAT32

Many computer users who use a removable flash drive have the demand for formatting it to the FAT32 file system. Compare with the other commonly used NTFS file system on a flash drive, FAT32 has a compatibility advantage across many operating systems.

It's a universal format that is compatible with Mac OS X/macOS, Windows, Linux and DOS systems. So, if users anticipate using the flash drive with more than one operating system, they will definitely benefit from the FAT32 file system. For Apple Mac users, there are two ways to format a USB flash drive to FAT32, including Disk Utility and Terminal command line. Refer to detailed steps of using both tools for FAT32 format.

Method 1. Format FAT32 on Mac [Disk Utility]

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.

To format the USB drive to FAT32, follow the next steps:

Step 1. Connect the USB flash drive to your Mac computer.

Step 2.Go to Applications > Utilities > Double click and open Disk Utility.

Step 3. Select your USB flash drive on the sidebar, choose Erase.

Step 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. Format FAT32 on Mac [Terminal Command Line]

The command-line behavior does the same way to erase data with the Disk Utility. Again, create a backup before taking this action.

To format FAT32 with Terminal, follow the next steps:

Step 1. Connect your USB flash drive to your Mac computer.

Step 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.

• 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. After this, you can type: diskutil list in command again to check if the formatting has been successful.

Complementary Data Recovery Tip

Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. Otherwise, you can only use data recovery software to recover data from a formatted USB drive.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard has both Windows and Mac versions, so it's the optimal choice for data recovery, no matter you're using a PC or Mac. If you're a Mac user, for example, it takes only a few clicks for the software to scan and display your formatted data. To guarantee an effective data recovery without spending money to no avail, you can install the Mac data recovery free version for the first trial. You can preview all the found data before the final recovery.

To recover data from a formatted FAT32 USB flash drive on Mac, follow the next steps:

Usb Flash Drive Format Utility

Step 1. Correctly connect your USB flash drive to your Mac. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac. Start selecting the flash drive and click 'Scan' to let the software search lost files on it.

Step 2. After a quick scan and deep scan, all files will be presented in the left panel in the scan results.

What Format For Flash Drive Mac

Step 3. Select files you want to recover and click the 'Recover Now' button. Don't save the recoverable files to the USB drive itself in case of data overwriting.