Connect the usb fash drive to the mac os x computer. Make a bootable windows 10 usb drive from a mac alex lubbock. How to erase a disk from command line in mac os x osxdaily. Some people may want to format a storage because they want to clean hard drive mac and others might want to install fresh os x. One important note about step 5, this will erase everything that is currently on your usb. And we can use it to format the usb on mac as well. Enter a name for the drive, in this example ubuntu mac. As a comprehensive data erasure tool, aweeraser for mac can help you securely and permanently format a hard drive or device under mac os. Learn how to format usb flash drive using cmd in windows 10, 8 and 7. Whilst the process of downloading and installing an os through the mac app store is straightforward enough, its painful for people with a slower internet connection, or if theyve multiple macs in their home. Make sure that it has at least 12gb of available storage and is formatted as mac os extended. These steps can be used for both internal and external drives.
How to format usb drive or external hard drive on mac recoverit. Go to applications utilities double click and open disk utility. Let us go through the exact steps in formatting your usb drive to fat32 on mac using the command line. Before the formatting, remember to back your drive data up. Just launch the disk utility, rightclick or controlclick the drive containing your apfs partition, and select erase. How to install macos or os x on a new hard drive for your mac. How to create a macos mojave installer on a usb drive.
Here are two outstanding mac hard drive format software tools you can rely on. Then you will see a list of available drives on the left. Yes, connecting an external hard drive or usb flash key to a mac will generally read and work fine as is because the mac can easily read other filesystem formats, including windows msdos, fat, fat32, exfat, and ntfs formats, but unless you intend on using the drive between a windows and mac machine, formatting it to be entirely mac compatible. Terminal is the easiest way to create your bootable usb drive. Change the format to mac os extended journaled click the options button. Some mac users may require the ability to erase a disk or erase a hard drive from the command line on mac os, a task which is typically performed through the disk utility application from the gui. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos. Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. You will receive a requirement of formatting the device.
Formatting a disk to msdos fat32 from the command line in mac os x. In this tutorial we look at formatting disks via the gui app called disk utility and its equivalent command line tool diskutil. He suggests formatting the usb disk on the command line and. Download the relevant macos or os x installer from apple, then use terminal to create a usb installer you can boot up from. The reasons for wanting to format your mac storage drive may vary depending on immediate need. How to create a bootable ubuntu usb drive for mac in os x.
Youll see the drive s file system displayed to the right of format under the general heading. In disk utility, from the left hand pane, select the usb drive to format. Instructions for how to format your external drive so that it will be fully usable in macos. Then you can choose one of the hard drive and format it by click on format button. How to burn iso to usb on mac best iso to usb burner. Step 1 download and install iso burner mac edition. Step 3 wait for a while, and recoverit will format your drive and start creating the bootable media. How to create a bootable installer for macos apple podpora. In the screenshot below, the drive is formatted with the exfat file system.
Rightclick on the drive you want to format, click on format. Or use the os x installation disc that came with your machine or buy a new one to boot up and install os x on your mac s hard drive. Refer to detailed steps of using both tools for fat32 format. Next format your usb drive to windows fat32 format. How to create a bootable usb drive for macos sierra. In this video, we are going to look at how to install macos sierra. We all make mistakes, and you wouldnt be the first person in the world to accidentally format a usb flash drive. How to make a windows 10 usb using your mac build a.
This method can be used when you are unable to format the usb device through disk utility. Possibly format a troublesome usb drive via terminal authored by. Plug usb into macbook and run disk utility select the usb drive in the left side click on erase choose mac os extended journaled format apply. However, it is not easy to format the usb flash drive under mac os. Your usb drive will be completely erased in the following steps. Today i am going to show you how to format usb drives using the terminal.
If i already have files on the external hard drive, will erasing it permanently erase the files or just erase them and then automatically redownload. To clean and format a usb thumb drive with command prompt, use these steps. This will work in all modern versions of apple mac osx including 10. If you havent already done so, youll need to download the windows 10 disk.
Otherwise, you can only use data recovery software to recover data from a formatted usb drive. This simple guide will teach you how to format a flash drive on mac. Click on the usb drive in the sidebar in disk utility. For apple mac users, there are two ways to format usb flash drive to fat32, including disk utility and terminal command line. Search for command prompt, rightclick the top result, and select the run as administrator option. When the files are transferred and the drive has been blessed it will be remounted on the desktop, as shown above, and terminal will read out as complete. 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. Most of the time, when you connect an external hard drive to your mac s usb port, you soon see it mount on the desktop. How to download full macos installer applications from terminal how to. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows. How to format a drive with the apfs file system on macos. Recover lost data on your mac, prevent accidental data loss. Launch the program and click on the burn module on the home screen. Make mavericks install usb with a simple terminal command.
As always, having a backup option will save you when plan a fails for some reason. This will completely wipe the drive, deleting all the files on it and converting it to whatever file system you choose. Starting with os x lion, apple did away with dvds and other media as a method of installing software and switched to a download model instead. Formatting or reformatting is the efficient and secure way to remove all data on the usb flash drive. How to create a bootable installer for macos apple support. Select the usb flash drive from the sidebar in disk utility. Disk drill, a premium data recovery solution for mac os x with support for all popular file formats and common storage devices, is here to help you recover deleted files from usb flash drive. To erase a disk from the command line on the mac, well use the familiar. Select the drive you want to format and click erase button. When the terminal window opens up, type diskutil list and youll find out which is your usb drive. How to install macos sierra using usb drive youtube. For most reasons to erase, including when reformatting a disk or selling, giving away, or trading in your mac, you should erase your entire disk.
Apple likes to ensure these are easy to find, so they also appear in the finder in the lefthand column under devices, since mac s treat them the same way as. I tried a lot of command from here but was not able to repair my 16gb flash drive. Under file system box, select exfat for this drive. Better still, it can be read from and written to on any mac running mac os x snow. Things needed for this tutorial to be useful is just a usb drive, the capacity doesnt matter. All external usb disks can be formatted to work on mac osx, but not always straight out of the box. The best thing to do is download it once and create a bootable install usb drive from the file for all of your macs. Download iso burner for mac and install it on your computer. Insert the usb drive into an available, active port and it will automatically be detected and displayed on the software interface. How to create a bootable usb drive ifixit repair guide. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps.
The 4 disk formatting software for mac above can help you easily format hard drive, usb flash drive, memory card, and other storage media under mac os. How to create a bootable ubuntu usb drive, for mac, in os x. However, when you format your hard drive with super eraser for mac, all your data will be permanently lost. Download and create usb installer for mac os x yosemite. But did you know that you can create a bootable usb drive to install macos from. To get the correct installer, download from a mac that is using. We will make a bootable usb drive that you can use to install macos sierra on different macs.
Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. The command line approach to disk erasure in macos is a bit different and it requires precise syntax to insure that you are erasing the proper disk, making this method of erasing any disk only. Whether you want to format a flash drive on your mac or convert a usb hard. Possibly format a troublesome usb drive via terminal mac. Terminal command line in mac can be used to format usb devices. It is better than os x recovery as you dont have to download the 5gb installer data, first, to reinstall the. It is very simple to format usb flash drive on windows pc. If you want to use a different file system on your usb drive, youll need to format it. Connect the usb flash drive or other volume that youre using for the bootable installer. How to format a usb external disk for mac osx using disk. Get a free addition to setapp the ultimate mac user book. Actually, if we want to format a usb flash drive under mac os, we should find usb flash drive formatting software at. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x. Open finder to find your usb or if your finder preferences have been set, you can find it on the desktop.
If you want to erase all unwanted files from your macos, download. The most recommendable way to create a bootable install usb drive for mac os is using createinstallmedia command with terminal application. The good news is the disk utility built into the os x comes in handy, like a visual assistant making the process easier. The first thing to do is to download the mac operating system that you need. How to format usb flash drive on mac stepbystep tutorial. Look for the usb drive you want to format, by running. Otherwise, you can only use data recovery software to recover data from a. To format usb on mac, the macos builtin disk utility application can help.
We also have a command line disk utility interface in mac. You will see output like this note your mac s terminal may be black text on a white background if you havent customized it. By using the command prompt, you can format any usb flash drive, pen drive or memory stick that is write protected, corrupted, damaged, unreadable, unrecognized by pc and mobile. Make sure the format is set to mac os extended journaled. Open terminal, which is in the utilities folder of your applications folder. Go to disk utility program from launchpad a rocket symboled icon in the bottom plank. Go to applications utilities, and open disk utility. But here, youll get to know how to format usb or flash drive on mac. You can download and install the software from the official website. Type or paste one of the following commands in terminal.
In the lefthand pane, click on the usb drive to select it. Choose another file system from the format box and click erase. Step 2 choose your connected external hard drive as the bootable media, and click start. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. Click on the format menu and choose either msdos fat32 or. How to create a bootable install usb drive of mac os x 10. Connect the usb flash drive or other volume that youre using for the.
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