Choose tool “Disk Manager”, then you will see the NTFS USB flash drive. Just format the NTFS USB flash drive for Mac by click on “Format” button. Step 2: Permanently wipe data on NTFS USB flash drive.
- To enable NTFS on your USB Flash Drive drive (USB Flash Memory) click on My Computer (This PC) and select Manage. Open the Device Manager and find your USB drive under the Disk Drives heading. Right-click the drive and select Properties. Here’s what we are looking for.
- 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.
Use Disk Utility to Format USB Flash Drive on Mac. The simplest way to format a disk in Mac OS is to simply use the Disk Utility since it is the Mac’s built in disk maintenance tool. To format USB drive on Mac using this method, all you need to do is plug in the USB device into your Mac and select it from the Disk Utility’s sidebar menu. Ntfs Format free download - Paragon NTFS for Mac, HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, Active NTFS Reader for DOS, and many more programs.
Dec 16, 2020 • Filed to: USB Recovery • Proven solutions
Will formatting a USB completely loses all of its data? Interesting question right? Many of your answers will be yes. But interestingly it won't. In this world of technology, nothing becomes impossible. Even after completely formatting all the files from an exFAT or FAT32 USB flash drive we can completely recover it or even we can repair the damaged data.
Here we explain it in such a way that each one of you can format USB drive without losing data.
Part 1: What Does Format Flash Drive Mean
When we buy a new USB drive, we all make sure that the complete space available in the flash drive is empty. So what happens when we start adding files to the same? We know space starts to get occupied by the files.
But what happens if it is filled and we want to use it again in a fresh manner. There we use the technique called formatting which means we completely erase all the data and files inside the flash drive. So let us see how this works:
When we add data to a USB flash drive it creates a filing system that organizes the data while allowing you to store the most files possible. This virtual filing cupboard organizes your files in a way that makes your USB flash drive perform at its best.
Part 2: Will Formatting Flash Drive Erase Data
The answer to this question is a simple yes. Let us have a quick look at how it happens. Here we talked about organizing files. Files are allocated by certain systems that determine how and where your files are digitally stored. There are mainly 4 types of file systems for storage devices: FAT, FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS.
NTFS uses less fragmentation and therefore manages space more effectively. It also excels at transferring files larger than 4GB. However, this system is not always optimal for USB flash drives unless you need to transfer extra-large files.
FAT and FAT32 are supported by nearly every operating system, use less memory, and work faster. The file system exFAT combines the best of both NTFS and FAT for flash drives by reading and writing larger files at a faster speed.
Ntfs Format Hard Drive
Formatting is not complex either. If you have your flash drive and computer system, you already have all the tools you need.
Step 1: Right-click on your flash drive under My Computer and select Format.
Step 2: Choose from the drop-down menu for the File System to change it to its desired format. The default is generally FAT 32.
Step 3: Uncheck Quick Format if needed.
Step 4: Then, click Start and click OK to bypass the deletion warning.
Part 3: Is It Possible To Format USB Flash Drive Without Losing Data?
Yes, it is possible to format the removable disk without losing data. Let us see how this can be done.
Step 1: Backup data first before formatting
Step 2: Format USB flash drive
These steps don't need many explanations. Before doing the process of formatting you should create a backup of all the files and data of your drive. This can be done by any backup methods of your choice. Simply you can connect it to a computer and copy all the files to it and then do formatting drive.
Part 4: How to Recover Lost Data After Formatting
If you didn't make a backup before formatting or you find some files lost after formatting, are you worried about losing your data? No more worries because Recoverit Data Recovery is going to help you.
Recoverit Data Recovery - The Best File Recovery Software
- Ability to recover all files like photos, videos, documents, etc.
- Can retrieve data from all data loss scenarios.
- Ability to restore data from all storage devices (internal and external) and crashed windows system.
- Video repair tool that can repair corrupted videos under different scenarios.
How to Recover Lost Data From Your Storage Device Using Recoverit
To recover files, first, you have to launch Recoverit on your computer. To make Recoverit Data Recovery run on a Windows computer, you have to double click the 'Wondershare Recoverit' icon on the Desktop. If it is not available on the Desktop, you can enter 'Recoverit' in the search box on your Windows computer. And then click on the App or Choose to 'Open' it.
Step 1: Connect the external device
Before getting Recoverit started, you need to connect the external device to your computer. Make sure that it can be recognized or detected.
Step 2: Select the external device
To recover lost or deleted files from the removable storage media, please select the device as the target location. And then hit on the 'Start' button. Even though the partition on the device has got lost, you can still use Recoverit to bring the lost data back.
Step 3: Scan the external device
An all-around scan will be launched on the external storage media. Wait a few minutes to finish the scanning. During the process, you can locate the targeted files, as well as pause or stop it.
Step 4: Preview and recover files
Once the scanning ends, you can preview the files from the scanning result. To get the files back, click 'Recover' and save them into another safe location.
Conclusion
When you have lost files, the primary thing you would like to see is whether or not you've got a backup on your computer or other storage media. Just attend the backup and restore all of your files. Regularly creating a backup is extremely important and useful, it can assist you to save longer to recover files from USB drive when data got lost, and otherwise you should get the Recoverit USB Data Recovery software to recover your data back.
USB Topic
- Recover USB Drive
- Format USB Drive
- Fix/Repair USB Drive
- Know USB Drive
Nowadays, when you buy a USB drive, you can use it right out of the box with your Mac. However, unless it’s been designed for use with a Mac, it won’t be formatted using macOS’ preferred file system (either Mac OS Extended or APFS, depending on which version of macOS you’re running).
That’s because most of the computers in the world run Windows, and Windows uses a different file system, usually one known as Fat32. Drives formatted as Fat32 can be read from and written to by macOS, but it’s not optimal and you’re more likely to run into problems than if you use macOS’ native format. So, if you’ve bought a USB drive that’s formatted as Fat32, or any other format other than Mac OS Extended (also known as HFS+) or APFS, here’s how to format a USB drive on Mac. It’s exactly the same procedure if you need to reformat a flash drive on a Mac.
How to format a USB drive on a Mac
1. Plug the drive into a USB socket (if you have a recent MacBook or MacBook Pro that only has USB-C connectors, you’ll need a USB-C to USB-A adaptor).
2. Open a new Finder window and click on the drive. Make sure it has no files on it that you need. The process of reformatting it will wipe all the data from it.
3. Once you’ve copied any files you need from the USB drive to your Mac, go to Applications>Utilities and double-click on Disk Utility.
4. Click on the USB drive in the sidebar and then choose Erase from the toolbar at the top of the window.
5. In the window that drops down type a name for the formatted drive in the box next to Name.
6. Choose a format from the dropdown menu.
7. If you have previously stored sensitive data on the drive, click the Security tab.
8. Choose a security level using the slider. The further to the right you move the slider, the more ‘passes’ the erase tool will make and the more securely files will be deleted. However, it also increases the time it takes to format the drive quite considerably.
9. Click Ok then click Erase.
Tip: You don’t need to erase a whole drive to delete files securely. If you have confidential files or sensitive data you need to remove from your Mac completely, you should use CleanMyMac’s File Shredder. It’s specifically designed to securely delete sensitive data and will render it unrecoverable. You can download CleanMyMac X for free here.
Which format to choose?
If your Mac is running macOS High Sierra or later, you have two options for file formats: APFS and Mac OS Extended. Which should you choose? The key point is that disks formatted as APFS won’t be recognized by Macs running versions of macOS older than High Sierra. So if you think you might need to plug the USB drive into a Mac running an older version of macOS, format it as Mac OS Extended.
Format Usb Flash Drive For Mac
APFS is optimized for SSD (solid state drive) such as flash drives, so if you reformat a flash drive on a Mac, you should definitely choose APFS (unless you plan to use it with a pre-High Sierra Mac, of course). Even on hard drives, however, APFS is faster and more reliable than Mac OS Extended.
Finally, if you plan to use the USB drive as a destination for Time Machine backups, choose Mac OS Extended. Time Machine can’t currently back up to an APFS disk and if you select one for use with Time Machine, it will offer to reformat it as Mac OS Extended. You can, however, backup an APFS formatted disk to a Mac OS Extended Time Machine drive.
How to format a USB drive to FAT32 on a Mac
The main reason for formatting a USB drive as Fat32 on a Mac is that you want to be able to use the drive on a Windows PC, as well as a Mac — perhaps to transfer files between the two machines. You may also be preparing the drive for use as, say, a storage device for a media player or to record TV programmes on a TV with a USB port.
The fact that Fat32 can be read from and written to on both Mac and Windows makes it very versatile. However, there is a significant limitation — individual files have a maximum size of 4GB. So, if you’re using the USB drive to store large video files, you may run into trouble. There is a solution, however, exFAT. Unlike FAT32, exFAT doesn’t have a maximum file limit. Better still, it can be read from and written to on any Mac running Mac OS X Snow Leopard or later and on Windows.
To format a USB drive in FAT32 or exFAT:
1. Plug the USB drive into your Mac.
2. Go to Applications>Utilities and launch Disk Utility.
3. Click on the USB drive in the sidebar in Disk Utility.
4. Click Erase in the Disk Utility toolbar.
5. Type in a name for the formatted disk.
6. Click on the Format menu and choose either MS-DOS (FAT32) or ExFAT.
7. Click Erase.
Your USB drive will now be erased and re-formatted as either FAT32 or ExFAT, depending on the format you chose in step 6.
How to manage your drives easily
If you look for a quick and easy way to manage your drives, try using CleanMyDrive 2. With its help, you can drag-and-drop files directly to any drive, clean hidden junk from external drives, and check disk stats. It works for all drives, including USB drives, SSD, SD cards, external hard drives. All the drives will be at hand in the menu bar, so you can get to see types of drives you have and manage them easily. CleanMyDrive is absolutely free to use, so download it on the Mac App Store and enjoy!
It’s very easy to format a USB drive on a Mac using Disk Utility. There are a couple of things you should keep in mind, however. The first is that when you format and disk, you will erase all the data currently on it. So if you need that data, make sure you copy it onto another disk before you start. Secondly, there are several formats to choose from, each with advantages and disadvantage. Use the guide above to help you decide which is right for you.