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Clear Usb Drive Mac

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  1. Mac Usb Drive
  2. Initialize Usb Drive Mac
  3. Format Usb Drive Mac

Back up any data you want to preserve that's on on the external Flash drive or SSD. Select it in the Finder, right-click, and select Encrypt Write down the password. Launch Disk Utility, select. To wipe your disk completely clean. It's ok if sometimes DiskPart report encountered an error: The system cannot find the file specified. See the System Event Log for more information. As long as the Disk Management showing all unallocated data for the USB drive you have successfully wiped out the USB drive.

I have a PNY 128gb flash drive that I can no longer modify (can't delete files). I've tried to reformat it using Disk Utility but I get the following message and my usb is unmounted: I've followed the solutions found from these two postings with no luck. Disk Utility cannot erase. Disk Utility won't erase. Mac os x version 10 9 download.

Disk Utility User Guide

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: How to sign word document on mac.

    • 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.

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.

See alsoPartition a physical disk in Disk Utility on MacFile system formats available in Disk Utility on MacPartition schemes available in Disk Utility on MacFormat a disk for Windows computers in Disk Utility on MacApple Support article: How to erase a disk for Mac

Summary: Don't know how to fix when USB flash drive is not mounting on Mac? Try these 4 solutions in this page and use iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to recover lost data necessarily.

Table of contents
1. Why the USB flash drive is not mounting on Mac?
2. How to fix/repair 'USB flash drive not mounting' issue on Mac?
3. How to recover lost data from unmounted/unrecognizable USB flash drives?

When I plugged in my USB flash drive on macOS High Sierra, I can't see it in Finder or on the Desktop. So, I went to Disk Utility, it was there. But the USB flash drive was grayed out in Disk Utility and I could not mount it. How can I fix/repair USB flash drive not mounting issue on Mac?

It is user-friendly that Mac will automatically mount the inserted USB flash drives. However, if the USB flash drive is not mounted on Mac, you will lose access to the USB flash drive as well as to the data stored on it. But don't worry, this page talks about the reasons for this issue, and how to fix 'USB flash drive not mounting on Mac' without data loss even if external hard drive is not showing up on Mac.

Why the USB flash drive is not mounting on Mac?

What makes the hard drive not working problems like USB flash drive unmounted on Mac can be various. This is because that this external drive is connected to the Mac computer through USB cable, USB port and many other components. The possible reasons for this issue include:

  • Faulty connections like broken cable and wobbly USB port
  • File system errors, volume header corruptions, etc. in the USB flash drive
  • Disk Utility failure, log file corruption, OS malfunction on this Mac
  • Physical damage and other factors

How to fix/repair USB flash drive not mounting issue on Mac?

No matter what results in unmountable USB flash drive, it's urgent to fix/repair USB flash drive not mounting issue on Mac. Here are 4 solutions to this unmounted USB flash drive issue according to different causes, you can check them one by one.

Solution 1: Check the USB flash drive in System Information

If you plug this USB flash drive into your Mac computer but get no sign that this drive is mounting on Mac, you can check System Information to see if this USB flash drive is showing up.

  1. Step 1: Go to Utilities and choose System Information.
  2. Step 2: Double-click on its icon to open it and choose USB in the left sidebar.
  3. Step 3: Check if your USB flash drive is detected by the system in the right box.

If your USB flash drive is not showing up in the right box, you can try to re-plug it, or change another USB port and cable to connect it.

Solution 2: Check the Finder Preferences

Sometimes, you just can't find the USB flash drive in Finder and on the desktop, but actually, it is mounted on your Mac and just not showing up. Check the Finder Preferences and see if it will appear.

  1. Step 1: Click Finder and choose Preferences in the top menu bar.
  2. Step 2: Check External Disks in General tab so that the USB flash drive can be shown on the desktop.
  3. Step 3: Go to Sidebar and check External disks so that they can be located in Finder.

Solution 3: Check and repair this USB flash drive with Disk Utility

If you still can't access your USB flash drive thereafter, you can go to Disk Utility which is a built-in utility to fix disk problems. If it is greyed out in Disk Utility, you can manually mount this USB flash drive.

Bootable usb drive mac
  1. Step 1: Go > Utilities > Disk Utility.
  2. Step 2: Click on View option and choose 'Show all devices'.
  3. Step 3: Click on the name of your USB flash drive.
  4. Step 4: Select Mount in the upper menu bar.

If the Mount button is greyed out and you can't mount this USB flash drive manually, then there could be some disk errors. Fortunately, you can use First Aid in Disk Utility to repair this unmountable USB flash drive.

  1. Step 1: Launch Disk Utility.
  2. Step 2: Choose the grayed-out USB flash drive.
  3. Step 3: Select First Aid in the top center and click Run.

Solution 4: Fix the unmountable USB flash drive by reformatting

However, if Disk Utility fails to repair this external drive because of serious file system corruption, you can only fix this by reformatting. The thing you need to keep in mind is that reformatting will erase all files on this USB flash drive, which means, you need to make sure an existing file backup. Or you can recover lost data from the unmountable USB flash drive before you fix the USB flash drive not mounting issue on Mac by reformatting.

How to recover lost data from unmounted/unrecognizable USB flash drives?

Can't open the unmountable USB flash drive but don't want to lose data? You can still get your files back with USB flash drive data recovery software before you reformat this drive.

As one of the most professional USB data recovery software, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is highly recommended. It can recover lost data from unmountable, unreadable, and corrupted USB flash drive, recover deleted/lost files from emptied Mac trash. Moreover, this software performs well in recovering data from hard drives, external hard drives, flash drives, USB sticks, SD cards, and other storage devices. Data recovery is allowed on macOS 10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7.

Step 1: Recover lost data from unmountable USB flash drive with Mac data recovery software

Mac Usb Drive

  1. Step 1: Download and install iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac on your Mac.
  2. Step 2: Connect your USB flash drive to the Mac and launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac.
  3. Step 3: Select the unmountable USB flash drive and click 'Next' button to scan all lost files.
  4. Step 4: Preview the scanning results by double-clicking, choose files that you want to recover, and click 'Recover' button to get lost data back.

Note: In case you lose the recovered files again in the next reformatting step, you'd better save these files to another reliable drive.

Step 2: Reformatting this USB flash drive without data loss

After recovering data from this unmountable USB flash drive, you can reformat this USB flash drive without worrying about losing anything important.

  1. Step 1: Go > Utilities > Disk Utility.
  2. Step 2: Click the icon of unmountable USB flash drive on the left part of the window.
  3. Step 3: Click the Erase button on the top of the Disk Utility window.
  4. Step 4: Complete the related information(name, format, scheme), then click Erase button.

Initialize Usb Drive Mac

When the process finished successfully, your USB flash drive will be mountable on the Mac computer again. But the case is, no matter how powerful USB flash drive data recovery software is, the best way to recover files from external drives is to recover them from backups. So, remember to duplicate your files this time.

You may also want to know:

Format Usb Drive Mac

HSD not mounting or seen in Disk Utility? Tutorial to fix SD card not mounting on Mac and recover lost data from unmountable SD card on macOS.





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