Formatting a USB Flash Drive on macOS

Owned by Peter Baughman (Deactivated)
Last updated: Oct 23, 2024 by Ashley Mattingly
1 min read

Students, faculty, and staff can format or completely erase the contents of a USB Flash Drive.

Using the Disk Utility App

You can use macOS' Disk Utility app to format the drive.

  1. Ensure that your USB flash drive is connected to your computer.

  2. Use Spotlight (i.e., the magnifying glass in the upper right-hand corner) to search for Disk Utility.

  3. Open Disk Utility.  

    Screenshot of Disk Utility app settings on macOS.

  4. The drive will be listed on the sidebar under External. Select the flash drive.

  5. Click Erase.  

  6. Enter a new name for your flash drive partition.

  7. Select ExFAT. 

  8. Click Erase.

    Erasing a flashdrive in Disk Utility ios.

  9. When the process is complete, click Done. You will then be able to use your flash drive.

DO NOT disconnect the Flash Drive from the computer until this process is complete. Always EJECT the drive before removing it. Failure to do so may lead to data corruption and/or render the drive unusable.

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