If you need to erase your data from a USB drive, or configure a drive to work on a Mac instead of a PC, this video can show you how to format a USB drive. You can prep it to organize your data and maximize space for your files.

Windows users
Windows users should insert a USB drive into the USB port on their PC, open File Explorer, click on ‘This PC’ from the left panel, then under ‘Devices and Drives’, right-click the flash drive and select the format option.

File systems
There will be multiple formatting options under the File System dropdown. FAT32 is what most USB drives initially use. It’s the Windows default for smaller (＜32GB) USB drives, recognized by both Mac and Windows, but caps files at 4GB in size and offers no security.

exFAT is an alternative with no file size limit that’s compatible with both Windows and Mac, though older systems may need an update to read and write to this format. NTFS is Windows’ default for internal drives running the operating system or in use as a secondary drive, with a much larger max file size. However, it’s read-only on macOS without a third-party utility. macOS Extended is Mac’s native solution and includes features like cloning and file-level encryption. However, it won’t work with a PC without a third-party tool. Choose the file format that’s best for you, then carry on!

In the ‘Allocation unit size’ dropdown menu, use the default selection. In the Volume Label field, confirm a drive name that will appear in File Explorer (e.g. KingstonUSB). Under the ‘Format options’ section, select either Quick format or Full format. Quick format will delete the file system table and root folder: efficient, but not the most secure. Full format scans for bad sectors and write zeroes in all sectors, which deletes all data permanently, but takes a little longer depending on the drive’s capacity. When ready, click the Start button, then Yes, and you’re ready to go.

Mac users
Mac users should insert a USB drive into their USB port, and launch ‘Disk Utility’ from Applications ＞ Utilities ＞ Disk Utility. Select the USB drive from the list on the left, then select ‘Erase’ at the top. Select the file system or format you’d like (refer back to those mentioned earlier). If you’re using macOS 10.13 High Sierra or newer and you don’t see APFS on the list of options, click Cancel, go to the View menu, and select “Show all devices”. Select the new device that will appear higher in the logical device tree (it should be named something with both upper and lowercase letters), then click Erase again. From the Scheme dropdown menu, select GUID Partition Map. Then click on the Format dropdown and APFS should be available for you to select.

With your chosen format selected, enter a name for the drive. Select “Erase” then select Done once complete, and you’re good to go.

If this video helped you successfully format your USB drive, please Like and Subscribe to the channel to get our future tech tips. If you hit a snag along the way, let us know in the comments and hopefully we can all help each other out!

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Timecodes:
0:00 Intro
0:39 Windows users
1:04 File systems
2:49 Mac users
3:55 Outro

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