A Complete Guide to Using a Flash Drive on a Mac (UTF-8)

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For moving around small to medium-sized files, it is hard to beat the convenience of a USB flash drive. They are tiny, come in all shapes, colors, and casings, and can be used with any computer or Mac with a USB port.

A USB flash drive goes by several aliases, including memory stick, thumb drive, or pen drive. Primarily, it is a portable storage device and one of the most widely used and recognizable tech gadgets. These tiny devices efficiently and simply transfer data to and from your laptop or desktop computer.

There are two types of computer hardware consumers in the world: PC users and Mac users. In this guide, we'll focus on how to use a USB flash drive on a Mac computer.

How to Find a Flash Drive on a Mac

In most cases, a USB flash drive will be detected and start working when you plug it into your Mac's USB port. Another common portable storage device is an SD memory card. Older MacBook models have an SD card slot that allows you to read the card and transfer data between it and your computer.

Plug the USB flash drive directly into your Mac laptop's USB port. If your MacBook model doesn't have a memory card slot, you can connect a USB Type-C adapter to your MacBook to read the memory card.

If, in some cases, the USB flash drive does not automatically mount, you can use the “Finder” application on the MacBook to configure and display externally connected storage devices.

Step 1. Plug the USB flash drive into one of your Mac's USB ports.

When you insert the flash drive, it should be recognized automatically and an icon for it will appear on your desktop.

If not, open the Finder app. You should now be able to select your USB flash drive.

How to Install a Flash Drive on a Mac

In some cases, a USB flash drive might not get detected automatically by macOS and the device fails to mount. This usually happens when the flash drive is incompatible with macOS or has issues of its own, such as being corrupted.

Signs of a corrupted USB flash drive include:

Your macOS system might not recognize the device if:
• The device isn't appearing in the Finder.
• The drive appears in the Finder, but you can't access its content.
• The drive appears grayed out in Disk Utility.
• You see a macOS error message when you try to use the flash drive.

Common causes of USB flash drive corruption include:

• Removing the flash drive without safely ejecting or unmounting it.
• Sudden power loss while the flash drive is in use.
• Issues with device drivers or installation of incorrect drivers.
• Wear and tear on the memory modules inside the device due to prolonged usage.
• Software or operating system crashes.

The most common solution to a mounting problem with a flash drive is to restart the system and then reconnect the device to it. If the drive still won't mount after a restart, Disk Utility can help resolve the issue.

Step 1. Insert the USB flash drive into an available USB port on your Mac.

Step 2. Open the Finder app.

Step 3: Select the “Applications” option from the sidebar.

Step 4. All available apps will be displayed on the right side of Finder. Double-click the Utilities folder.

Double-click to open the Utilities folder.

Step 5: Double-click on “Disk Utility” to launch the application. We'll use this to mount the flash drive.

Double-click on Disk Utility:

Step 6: Your flash drive should appear in the Disk Utility sidebar. Click on the name of your USB drive to select it.

Click on the name of your USB drive

Step 7. If you don't see the USB flash drive in Disk Utility, click the File menu and choose Refresh.

How to Erase a Flash Drive on a Mac

As you frequently use your USB drive, you'll eventually run out of space to store new data. You can delete unnecessary files at any time to make room for new ones. If you've backed up all the files on your flash drive and need to clear out a large number of files at once, Disk Utility can make this process easy. Follow these steps:

Step 1: Plug the USB flash drive into one of your Mac's USB ports.

Step 2: In the Finder app, click on “Applications,” then “Utilities,” and open “Disk Utility.”

Step 3: Select your flash drive from the list on the left in Disk Utility.

Step 4. Tap on the “Erase” option that appears at the top.

Click on the “Erase” option

Step 5: A dialog box will appear asking you to confirm. Click "Erase."

Click the Erase button.

Before clicking “Erase,” you can give the flash drive a new name and choose a different operating system file system from the dropdown list.

How to Format a Flash Drive on a Mac

You may need to format the USB flash drive to be compatible with a new file system. Formatting the flash drive will completely erase everything on it and prepare it for new use. You can choose a different file system to format the drive with, which will make the drive usable on a Mac, or both macOS and Windows. The following steps will help you format your flash drive:

Step 1: Insert the USB flash drive into an available USB port on your Mac.

Step 2. Launch Disk Utility from the Applications folder.

Step 3. In the sidebar on the left, under External Devices, select your USB drive.

Select your USB flash drive:

Step 4: From the tab at the top, select the “Erase” option.

Step 5: Give your flash drive a new “Name.”

Step 6: Select the file system from the Format menu as needed.

Select a file system according to your requirements:

Step 7: Choose a partitioning scheme from the Scheme menu.

Step 8: Click the "Erase" button to format the flash drive.

What can First Aid do for a flash drive?

The First Aid feature helps you check the status of your Mac's hard drive, volumes, and any connected external devices. It includes a variety of checks that can find and fix problems on your Mac's disks. First Aid scans the drive you select and tells you if it finds any damage that can be repaired.

Step 1: Insert the USB flash drive into one of your Mac's USB ports.

Step 2: Open Disk Utility, and then choose View > Show All Devices.

Step 3: Now select your USB flash drive. It should be listed in the left sidebar.

Step 4: Select the "First Aid" option from the list displayed at the top.

5. Click the “Run” button in the First Aid dialog.

Click on the “Run” button

Step 6: When the scan is complete, click on the “Finish” button.

Click the “Done” button.

Additional Tip: How to Recover Data from a Flash Drive

In most cases, you can use a dedicated Mac USB data recovery program to get your files back. These programs scan the drive for recoverable data and report back to you. They're capable of recovering many different file types.

One of the leading Mac recovery software is the Data Recovery for Mac tool. It is a third-party Mac data recovery software and one of the best data recovery tools available today.

Innovative features include:

• Supports recovery of over 1000 file formats.
• Supported file systems include FAT12/16/32, ex-FAT, NTFS, NTFS-5, ext2/3, HFS+, and ReFS.
• Filter options for customized file scanning.
• File preview for easy selection.
• The free trial version allows you to recover up to 2GB of data.
• Offers monthly, annual, and lifetime subscriptions.

Step 1: Connect the USB drive to your Mac

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

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

Step 2. Look for Lost Data on the USB Drive

Once the scan is over, all the found files will be displayed in the left pane of the scan results.

Step 3: Recover data from the flash drive

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

Conclusions

USB flash drives provide unparalleled convenience for transferring small to medium-sized files between computers, both PC and Mac, that have USB ports.

"Mac Data Recovery Tool" is one of the best utilities for retrieving data from a Mac disk or an external flash drive used with a Mac. It offers super-fast and reliable data recovery services. Its user-friendly interface and innovative features, coupled with its powerful data recovery capabilities, make it one of the top-tier data recovery applications available currently.