How to Format a USB Flash Drive on Mac Without Losing Data [3 Verified Methods for 2024]

How to Format USB Flash Drive on Mac Without Losing Data? A USB flash drive is a common portable storage device, but files on the USB flash drive can get lost due to various reasons, especially when the flash drive reports errors or turns into RAW format.

When these problems occur, users are most concerned about the loss of data stored on the USB drive. As we all know, an abnormally formatted or unreadable hard drive can be reformatted for normal use, but formatting will lead to data loss.

So, is it possible to format USB flash drive on Mac without losing data? This post will introduce 3 methods that have been proven to work:

1. ✅Method 1: Backup USB Data with a Backup Tool First
2. ?Method 2: Use Professional Data Recovery Software
3. ✨Method 3: Seek Help from Data Recovery Services

How to Format a USB Flash Drive on a Mac Without Losing Data

When your USB flash drive is faulty and you can't access it on your Mac, hence unable to read the data stored on it, the best fix is to format the USB flash drive, for instance, format USB flash drive to FAT32 on Mac. Alternatively, you can choose other file systems compatible with macOS (APFS or Mac OS Extended).

Due to the possibility of losing files and data stored on the USB flash drive, many users hesitate to format it. However, with the following 3 methods, you don't need to worry about data loss after formatting your USB flash drive on a Mac. Let's check them out!

Method 1: Back Up Your USB Flash Drive Before Formatting

Your USB flash drive has become corrupt and is no longer usable. When you plug it into your Mac, you receive a message prompting you to format the drive. It appears that you must format it before you can use it normally again.

But don't worry, to prevent data loss, you can back up the data on your disk. Apart from iCloud and Time Machine, we would also like to recommend you an all-in-one backup and recovery software – Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Pro.

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Backup Your Mac and Never Lose Data Again

Back up and restore your MacBook/iMac without Time Machine, iCloud, or an external hard drive.

With a Mac data recovery tool, you can quickly back up your data in just 3 steps; let's take a look:

Step 1: Click “Disk Backup” > “Create Backup” > “Next.” This will create an image file of your hard drive in case data gets overwritten.

Step 2: Choose the internal drive you want to back up, then click “Backup Now.” If you're backing up to or restoring from an external hard drive, USB flash drive, or SD card, make sure it's connected to your Mac first.

Select the backup disk and click Next.

Step 3: Choose a location to save the backup file, and rename the backup file if desired, then click “Save.” It is not recommended that you save the backup on the same storage device from which you will be restoring data.

You can easily recover formatted hard drive on Mac using a backup. After backing up your USB flash drive, you can format it with peace of mind, without worrying about data loss!

To format the problematic USB flash drive without losing data, follow these steps:

Step 1: Launch Disk Utility from Applications > Utilities.

Step 2: Select your USB flash drive from the list on the left, and then click “Erase” from the top menu.

Step 3: Choose a new format, rename your USB flash drive, and tap “Erase” again to confirm.

If you have enough storage space on your Mac or an external hard drive, you can also recover the data from the problematic flash drive to your Mac or external hard drive before formatting it.

Read the next method to learn how to recover data from a corrupted or RAW USB flash drive on a Mac.

Method 2: Recover Data from a Damaged or RAW USB Flash Drive

To recover data from a damaged or RAW USB flash drive, you should use a professional Mac RAW recovery tool like Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Pro. Apart from allowing quick data backup, the most important feature of this tool is its powerful and effective data recovery capability.

The Data Recovery Wizard for Mac can help you recover data from a RAW SD card on Mac, external hard drives, USB flash drives, and more. It can also retrieve lost files from a formatted USB drive.

If the data on your USB drive is of utmost importance and cannot afford any risk of loss, we still recommend backing it up before attempting data recovery with a USB recovery tool. Here's how:

Step 1: Connect the USB drive to your Mac

Plug the USB flash drive into your Mac correctly. Launch the Data Recovery Wizard for Mac tool. Select the flash drive and click “Search Lost Files” to have the software scan for lost files on it.

Note: Before you recover data, it's better to click “Disk Backup” from the left sidebar and create a backup of your USB drive to prevent further data loss. After backing up the USB drive, the software can restore data from the USB drive backup, and you can then remove the USB flash drive and use it again.

Step 2: Look for Lost Data on the USB Drive

Upon completion of the scan, all files will be displayed in the left pane of the scan results.

Step 3: Recover data from the flash drive

Select the files you want to recover, then click the “Restore” button. To prevent overwriting your data, do not save the recovered files back onto the USB drive itself.

Once the recovered data is securely saved at your storage location, you can format the drive using Disk Utility on your Mac.

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Method 3: Format the USB Flash Drive with Data Recovery Services Without Losing Data

There is also a solution to format a USB flash drive without losing data. If you don't want to format your USB drive due to data security, you can turn to a Data Recovery Service tool.

A professional technician can fix your USB flash drive without formatting it, ensuring that the repaired partition is an exact replica of the original drive with no data loss. If you encounter complex data loss issues, don't hesitate to contact professional data recovery experts for assistance.

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Tool Data Recovery Services

Contact our experts for a free assessment.

Consult with Tool Data Recovery specialists for one-on-one manual recovery services. After a free diagnosis, we offer the following:

• Repair of damaged RAID structures, unbootable macOS, and corrupted virtual disk files
• Recovery/repair of lost partitions and repartitioned drives
• Unformat hard drives and fix RAW SD cards and HDDs

Conclusions

You can format a USB flash drive on your Mac without losing data through three verified methods: backing up the USB flash drive with the Data Recovery Wizard for Mac Pro tool before formatting, recovering data from the USB flash drive with a Mac data recovery software tool, and using a data recovery service tool to format the USB flash drive.

How to Format a USB Flash Drive on a Mac Without Losing Data – FAQ

Here are some common questions people ask when searching how to format a USB flash drive on Mac without losing data:

< strong > 1. Can I change the format of USB on Mac without losing data? < / strong >

Yes, you can change the format of a USB flash drive on your Mac without losing data. Follow these steps to do so:

Step 1: Install the Mac Data Recovery Wizard

Step 2: Plug the USB drive into your Mac and run the utility.

Step 3: Run the software to scan your USB flash drive and locate the lost files you want to recover.

Step 4: Click “Recover” to save the retrieved data to a secure location.

Step 5. Open Disk Utility and use its “Erase” function to format the USB flash drive.

2. Can I format FAT32 on Mac?

Sure, here are the steps to format an external hard drive to FAT32 in American English: 1. **Connect the external hard drive**: First, plug in the external hard drive to your computer using a USB cable. 2. **Open "Disk Management"**: On Windows, right-click the Start button on the taskbar and select "Disk Management." On macOS, open "Disk Utility." 3. **Identify the drive**: In "Disk Management" or "Disk Utility," locate the external hard drive you just connected. It should show up as unallocated or formatted space. 4. **Initialize the drive**: If the drive isn't initialized, do this first. In "Disk Management," right-click the drive, and choose "Initialize Disk." Make sure you select the correct drive and choose the "MBR partition scheme," then click "OK." 5. **Format the drive**: Right-click the newly initialized partition and select "Format." From the "File System" dropdown, choose "FAT32." Note that if your drive is larger than 32GB, Windows might not offer FAT32 as an option since it doesn't support single files larger than 32GB. In that case, you might need a third-party tool. 6. **Assign a volume label**: You can give your hard drive a name (volume label) which will help identify it later. 7. **Confirm the action**: Finally, click "OK" or "Apply" to start the formatting process. Warning: This will erase all data on the drive, so make sure to back up important files. 8. **Wait for completion**: Formatting may take some time depending on the size of the drive. Once done, your external hard drive will be formatted to FAT32. Hope these steps help! Let me know if you have any questions.

Step one: Open Disk Utility, select the external drive you want to format, and click “Erase.”

Step 2: Choose the “FAT32” format and give your external drive a name.

Step 3. Tap “Erase” again to confirm.