Jan 25, 2016 Mac Secret Trick - How to Clone Mac Hard Drive with Disk Utility HDD SDD MacBook Pro iMac 2010-2019 - Duration: 10:09. Gunner Tierno x Yeezy God 358,387 views 10:09. Aug 29, 2014 Other than the thumb drive, all you need is a Yosemite compatible Mac (2007 iMac, 2008/9 MacBook, 2007 MacBook Pro, 2008 MacBook Air, 2009 Mac Mini, or 2008 Mac Pro or later models).
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This 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.
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.
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.
![Drive Drive](/uploads/1/2/6/3/126303041/693229299.jpeg)
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.
Partition Usb Flash Drive Mac Os X
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.
Clear app mac os x. How to Clear System and App Cache on MacSystem and app caches are hidden files that are usually created by apps stored on your Mac.
OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted)
Same as filesystem just mentioned above but of course with encryption.
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
![Usb Flash Drive Mac Os X Usb Flash Drive Mac Os X](/uploads/1/2/6/3/126303041/596350132.jpg)
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.
Usb Flash Drive Mac Os X
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”.
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![Solid state drive for mac os 10.5](/uploads/1/2/6/3/126303041/673180054.jpg)
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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Apple Mac OS X Lion is now available to general public. The Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is available for installation only from the Mac App Store. This guide will teach you how to create a bootable USB Flash drive of Mac OS X Lion 10.7 and install Lion from USB, rather than downloading it from Mac App Store on each and every Mac computer you own.
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Despite of numerous great and awesome features, Mac OSX Lion 10.7 has a big flaw that it is not available in bootable USB or DVD right now. Every time you you want to install OSX Lion on a Mac you will need to download it from Mac App Store all over again. Thanks to the bootable USB method which eliminates the downloading of Mac OS X Lion for each and every device and lets you install Mac OS X Lion on any Mac.
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Note: An official bootable USB of Mac OSX ion 10.7 will be available in August 2011 for $69. This method not only eliminates the wait for the official, it also saves you $40 (Mac App Store version costs $29).
Creating a bootable Mac OS X Lion 10.7 USB Flash drives requires medium level Mac knowledge, however, by following these simple instructions even a beginner should be able to install Mac OS X Lion via USB Flash Drive.
Why make a bootable Lion USB drive?
- You can perform a clean OS X Lion installation with the bootable USB drive
- The bootable Lion USB drive becomes a recovery disk with Disk Utility access, access to Time Machine backups, re-installation, and all other Recovery HD partition features
- You will have external media to recover and reinstall Lion in the event of total drive failure or some other catastrophe
Required Stuff
- Purchase and Download Mac OS X Lion from the App Store
- 4GB USB Flash drive (8GB recommended)
If you have arranged the above mentioned items, simply follow the detailed guide below to create a bootable Mac OS X Lion 10.7 USB Flash Drive…
Step 1 – Locate the Lion InstallESD.dmg file
Once the Lion downloading is complete, go to the Applications folder and find the Install Mac OS X Lion.app file you just downloaded;
Right click on the Install Mac OS X Lion.app file and select Show Package Contents;
Right click on the Install Mac OS X Lion.app file and select Show Package Contents;
Now go to Contents > SharedSupport directory. Locate the file named: InstallESD.dmg and copy it on your desktop.
Step 2 – Format The USB
- Before formatting, If you have any data on your USB drive then save it;
- Plug the USB flash drive into your Mac;
- Launch Disk Utility from Applications;
- Select the plugged USB from the Left pane on the Disk Utility and click on Partition tab;
- Select 1 Partition from the Volume Scheme dropdown menu;
- Input a name for the USB and Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled);
- Now click on Options button at the bottom. Select GUID Partition Table and click OK. Now click on Apply at the bottom right to start formatting.
Step 3 – Make Mac OS X Lion Bootable USB
- Double-click on InstallESD.dmg (that you copied onto your Mac desktop) to mount the Lion disk image (mounted InstallESD.dmg should appear on Disk Utility application and desktop);
- Select the plugged USB from the Left pane on the Disk Utility and then go to Restore tab;
- Click and drag the IMac OS X Install ESD from the left pane and drop it in the Source field;
- Then Click and Drag the USB drive from the left pane and drop it in the Destination field;
- Make sure you have chosen the right USB drive, you don’t want to format the wrong drive and then click on Restore button;
- This will restore the Lion 10.7 image to the USB Flash drive. Wait for the process to complete.
Usb Flash Drive Mac Os X 10 13 Download
Step 4 – Boot Mac OS X Lion from USB
Best Flash Drives For Macs
- Reboot your Mac with the USB drive plugged in.
- Hold down the alt/Option key on your keyboard when you hear the OS X start-up sound.
- Choose the USB Flash Drive from there to boot.
- Now follow the on screen instructions to install OS X Lion.
Mac Os X Usb Install
You can follow the Step 4 to install Lion on other Macs with the bootable USB you just created.
[via Lifehacker]