Disk Utility User Guide

1. Format Flash Drive On Mac To Fat32
2. Cannot Format Flash Drive On Mac

In Disk Utility on Mac, you can erase and reformat storage devices to use with your Mac. Erasing a storage device deletes everything on it.

1. If you have any files you want to save, copy them to another storage device.

2. Open the Disk Utility app on your Mac using one of the following methods, depending on the type of disk or volume you want to erase:

   • If you want to erase your startup disk: Start up from macOS Recovery, then choose Disk Utility from the Recovery window.

   • If you want to erase any other type of storage device: Double-click Disk Utility in the /Applications/Utilities folder.

3. Choose View > Show All Devices.

4. In the sidebar, select the storage device you want to erase, then click the Erase button .

5. Click the Scheme pop-up menu, then choose GUID Partition Map.

6. Click the Format pop-up menu, then choose a file system format.

7. Enter a name.

8. (Optional) If available, click Security Options, use the slider to choose how many times to write over the erased data, then click OK.

   Secure erase options are available only for some types of storage devices. If the Security Options button is not available, Disk Utility cannot perform a secure erase on the storage device.

9. Click Erase, then click Done.

Format Flash Drive On Mac To Fat32

Note: With a solid-state drive (SSD), secure erase options are not available in Disk Utility. For more security, consider turning on FileVault encryption when you start using your SSD drive.

Cannot Format Flash Drive On Mac

Erase the USB disk using exFAT. ExFAT is compatible with Mac OS X 10.6.5 or newer, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. To erase the disk, open Disk Utility (Applications Utilities folder), select the USB drive in the sidebar, go to Erase tab and select exFAT on Format. Attach the drive to your Mac. Launch Disk Utility (from Applications Utilities Disk Utility). Select the drive in the left-hand sidebar. Why to format a flash USB drive on Mac? There are various reasons why you should format the USB flash drive on a Mac. Here are the three most common ones: Make sure the flash drive is fully compatible with Mac. Most flash drives are formatted for use with Windows. The difference between macOS and Windows is that they use different file systems.