Not every flash drive out there can be used with a Mac computer right out of the box. This article aims to help you understand how to format a USB Flash Drive on Mac. Some flash drives have to be formatted first before you can store files on them. In this article, we are taking a closer look at the Disk Utility, which comes with all recent versions of the Mac OS X operating system and how you can use it to format USB drive on Mac.

Format Flash Drive Mac with Disk Utility

Your Mac computer comes with a handy utility appropriately called Disk Utility, which can be used to format any storage device. To use it:

1. Connect the flash drive that you want to format.
2. Go to Applications and Utilities and launch Disk Utility. The application will appear on the screen, and you will see the main window, with a list of available storage devices on the left and various disk management options on the right. At the bottom of the main window are storage device details, including disk description, connection type, USB serial number, total capacity, write status, S.M.A.R.T. status, and partition map scheme.
3. Select your storage device from the list on the left and click on the Erase tab. Before you can click on the Erase button located in the Erase tab, you must select which file system you would like to use and give it a name. If you’re not sure which option you should choose, continue reading this article to find out more information about the main file systems used by macOS and Windows.
4. With everything set, you may click on the Erase button to start the formatting process. Depending on the size and speed of your flash drive, it may take a minute or two. Once the formatting process is finished, you should be able to transfer files to the newly formatted flash drive.

Understanding File Systems

macOS and Windows support different file systems. The main file system of macOS is HFS Plus. It was developed by Apple and first introduced in 1998 as an improved version of HFS, supporting much larger files and using the Unicode encoding.

Microsoft has also developed their file system for Windows, NTFS. This proprietary file system was introduced in 1993, and it supports metadata and advanced data structures to improve performance, additional extensions for improved security, and file system journaling.

Unfortunately, these two file systems are not suitable for flash drives because of their limited support. The best file system for modern flash drives is FAT32. Even though FAT32 doesn’t support long file names and only stores files up to 4 GB in size, the fact that it’s almost universally supported across all operating systems makes it perfect for flash drives.

Source: Cleverfiles.com

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What is flash media?

Flash memory is computer storage memory that can be electrically erased and re-written. Flash is used as storage in a number of devices, including cellular phones, digital cameras and MP3 players, in addition to USB flash drives.

There are three major types of flash chip types:

• Single Layer Cell (SLC) – can hold only one bit per cell. The most expensive type of flash media, the SLC flash uses less power, has faster write speeds and is a good fit for both industrial applications and holding critical data.
• Multi Layer Cell (MLC) – holds two bits per cell, and stores two times more information. MLC flash is typically used in consumer products. It is generally cheaper than SLC media, but has a lower endurance limit and fewer program/erase cycles per cell.
• Triple Layer Cell (TLC) – holds three bits per cell. TLC is the cheapest type of flash media and has higher density. However it has slower read and write speeds and a much lower endurance. Typically only low-end products contain TLC media and it is not recommended for the storage of critical data.

How flash media works

Flash media has no moving parts, operates silently and quickly and is smaller in size than most other types of storage media. Flash drives consist of printed circuit boards covered in plastic or rubber casing. They plug into computers via USB ports or a special adapter. On modern computer systems, there is no need to install drivers or reboot the system in order to access data on a flash drive. They also do not require an additional power supply to operate.

USB flash drives  are generally preferred over other types of storage media when transferring files due to their small size, fast speed and large capacity compared to other portable media.

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