Dec 16, 2020 • Filed to: USB Recovery • Proven solutions
The file system exFAT combines the best of both NTFS and FAT for flash drives by reading and writing larger files at a faster speed. Formatting is not complex either. If you have your flash drive and computer system, you already have all the tools you need. Step 1: Right-click on your flash drive under My Computer and select Format.
Connect the drive you wish to format for dual compatibility to the Mac Click the drive name on the left side list in Disk Utility, and then click the “Erase” tab Click the pulldown menu alongside “Format” and select “MS-DOS (FAT)” Optionally, give the drive a name. It is very simple to format Samsung USB flash drive and erase Samsung USB flash drive under Mac OS with AweEraser for Mac. Once the Samsung USB flash drive is formatted or erased by AweEraser for Mac, all the data on the Samsung USB flash drive will be lost forever. Just like you get a brand new Samsung USB flash drive. On the left side of the window are the drives connected to the computer. Select the capacity of the drive respective to the one containing the device you wish to format then click the Erase tab. Example: If the drive is called 'NO NAME', directly above that, you should see the drive capacity of 'XXXX'. Select this capacity.
How Can I Fix my Flash Drive Not Recognized?
Question: 'My USB flash drive is not recognized when I plug it to the computer. What causes such a problem to happen? Is my USB drive got broken? How to fix the flash drive not recognized issue? Also, can I recover data from the USB flash drive not recognized?'
Solved: USB not recognized is the common problem reported many users, it could be broken or other reason caused the drive error. But don't worry, you can follow the next guide to fix the flash drive not recognized error on Windows and Mac, then recover files from flash drive with Recoverit Data Recovery program.
What Caused the Flash Drive Not Recognized on Computer?
Several root causes would result in the not recognized flash drive issue. They should be addressed so that you will not need to deal with the issue(s) for a long period.
Port Related Issues:: To determine if this is a port problem, test every USB port that you have with different flash drives. This could be either hardware or software issues or both. In this case, you would need a professional to help you correct this.
USB Formatting Issue: This is the most probable reason your computer could not detect your flash drive. The inability to format flash drive properly before the first use could cause problems later on.
Driver Issue: The drivers may not be available, corrupted, or outdated which would make the flash drive not Recognized.
Hard Drive Related Issues: A glitch in your machine's hard drive will not allow anything on it to work in a good and perfect way. This hardware issue should be addressed because it will affect more than your computer's ability to recognize a flash drive.
Operating System Related Issues: Sometimes, if your OS is not updated with the necessary updates as often as possible, it would cause the system to not recognize the flash drive. This could be simply rectified by updating the necessary components.
4 Ways to Fix the USB Flash Drive Not Recognized Problems on Windows
Depending on what is the root cause of the problem, you may only need to do one of these four steps or all of them. Follow these solutions step-by-step to resolve your problem.
Way 1: Scan Flash Drive to Find the Issue
- Plug the flash drive into your USB port.
- Go to My Computer and right-click on the flash drive. Open the Properties
- Open the Tools tab and click Check now'¦
- It may take some time to complete the scan. Once finished, it will tell you what the flash drive's problem is.
Way 2: Reformat the Flash Drive
- Right-click on the flash drive and click on Format'¦, the Format window will pop up.
- Under the File system toggle it between NTFS and FAT32. Click Start.
Way 3: Perform driver updates
- Open the Run command and type in msc in the field. Click OK.
- This will open the Device Manager. Find the Universal Serial Bus controllers.
- Expand the menu and right-click on the Generic USB Hub. Click on Update Driver Software'¦
Way 4: Operating System Updates
- Go to Control Panel, then System and security.
- Under the Windows Update section, click on Check for Updates.
- If it is not updated (the notification is not green in color), update it accordingly as indicated by the system.
- Follow the updating wizard and restart your computer accordingly.
Video Tutorial on How to Fix USB Device Not Recognized
3 Ways to Fix the Flash Drive Not Recognized Problem on Mac
Like in Windows, your resolution method will be determined by the root cause of the problem. These are the three ways that you can do to fix flash drive not Recognized issue.
Way 1: Manually Connect the Flash Drive
- Go to Application and click on Utilities.
- A pop-up window will appear and click on the highlighted commands as marked in the image below:
- Under Devices, click External Devices to manually connect the unrecognizable flash drive.
Way 2: Retune PRAM
- Shut down your Mac.
- Press the Power button and subsequently hold down the Command-Option-P-R This should be done before the grey screen appears.
- Your Mac should reboot itself. Let it go after the start-up chime.
Way 3: Format Mac's Drive
- Press the Command-Spacebar buttons simultaneously, plug in the flash drive and go to the Application Click on the Disk Utility option.
- You will be able to find the flash drives that need to be fixed in the left panel.
- Click on the Erase button to complete the process.
What's Next?
Now that the flash drive not Recognized problem is solved on your Windows or Mac computer, make sure you had back-up all important documents in the flash drive. This is to ensure that you will be able to access the files stored in the flash drive should it happens again.
You should also check if there is any accidental data loss from the drive. Should you find things missing, use a flash drive data recovery tool to help you recover loss documents do this immediately before it is overwritten by new data.
How to Recover Data from Flash Drive Not Recognized on Windows
When you fix the USB flash drive not recognized with format solution, all your data on the drive will be got formatted and lost. On this guide, we will show you how to recover data from flash drive not recognized on Windows. Recoverit Data Recovery software can easily help you recover lost files from flash drive, even the drive got damaged/corrupted, formatted, virus attack and the file system crashed.
Recoverit - The Best USB Flash Drive Recovery Software
- Undeleted files from flash drive which not recognized on Windows and Mac.
- Recover files from USB flash drive due to accidentally deleted, formatted and damaged/corrupted.
Steps to Recover Lost Data from Flash Drive
Download and install Recoverit Flash Drive Recovery on your computer, follow the next simple steps to perform flash drive data recovery on Windows computer.
Step 1. Launch Recoverit Data Recovery program, select the 'External Device Recovery' mode to get started.
Step 2. Make sure your flash drive detected on the computer, select it, and click 'Start' to proceed.
Step 3. The flash drive recovery software will start to scan the device to search and restore your data files.
Step 4. Finally, you can check all the recovered files. Select your data and recover back by clicking the 'Recover' button.
If you are a MAC user, you should download Recoverit Data Recovery for Mac or follow the guide to perform flash drive recovery on Mac.
USB Solution
- Recover USB Drive
- Format USB Drive
- Fix/Repair USB Drive
- Know USB Drive
Nowadays, when you buy a USB drive, you can use it right out of the box with your Mac. However, unless it’s been designed for use with a Mac, it won’t be formatted using macOS’ preferred file system (either Mac OS Extended or APFS, depending on which version of macOS you’re running).
That’s because most of the computers in the world run Windows, and Windows uses a different file system, usually one known as Fat32. Drives formatted as Fat32 can be read from and written to by macOS, but it’s not optimal and you’re more likely to run into problems than if you use macOS’ native format. So, if you’ve bought a USB drive that’s formatted as Fat32, or any other format other than Mac OS Extended (also known as HFS+) or APFS, here’s how to format a USB drive on Mac. It’s exactly the same procedure if you need to reformat a flash drive on a Mac.
Format Flash Drive For Mac And Pc 2017
How to format a USB drive on a Mac
1. Plug the drive into a USB socket (if you have a recent MacBook or MacBook Pro that only has USB-C connectors, you’ll need a USB-C to USB-A adaptor).
2. Open a new Finder window and click on the drive. Make sure it has no files on it that you need. The process of reformatting it will wipe all the data from it.
3. Once you’ve copied any files you need from the USB drive to your Mac, go to Applications>Utilities and double-click on Disk Utility.
4. Click on the USB drive in the sidebar and then choose Erase from the toolbar at the top of the window.
5. In the window that drops down type a name for the formatted drive in the box next to Name.
6. Choose a format from the dropdown menu.
7. If you have previously stored sensitive data on the drive, click the Security tab.
8. Choose a security level using the slider. The further to the right you move the slider, the more ‘passes’ the erase tool will make and the more securely files will be deleted. However, it also increases the time it takes to format the drive quite considerably.
9. Click Ok then click Erase.
Tip: You don’t need to erase a whole drive to delete files securely. If you have confidential files or sensitive data you need to remove from your Mac completely, you should use CleanMyMac’s File Shredder. It’s specifically designed to securely delete sensitive data and will render it unrecoverable. You can download CleanMyMac X for free here.
Which format to choose?
If your Mac is running macOS High Sierra or later, you have two options for file formats: APFS and Mac OS Extended. Which should you choose? The key point is that disks formatted as APFS won’t be recognized by Macs running versions of macOS older than High Sierra. So if you think you might need to plug the USB drive into a Mac running an older version of macOS, format it as Mac OS Extended.
APFS is optimized for SSD (solid state drive) such as flash drives, so if you reformat a flash drive on a Mac, you should definitely choose APFS (unless you plan to use it with a pre-High Sierra Mac, of course). Even on hard drives, however, APFS is faster and more reliable than Mac OS Extended.
Finally, if you plan to use the USB drive as a destination for Time Machine backups, choose Mac OS Extended. Time Machine can’t currently back up to an APFS disk and if you select one for use with Time Machine, it will offer to reformat it as Mac OS Extended. You can, however, backup an APFS formatted disk to a Mac OS Extended Time Machine drive.
How to format a USB drive to FAT32 on a Mac
The main reason for formatting a USB drive as Fat32 on a Mac is that you want to be able to use the drive on a Windows PC, as well as a Mac — perhaps to transfer files between the two machines. You may also be preparing the drive for use as, say, a storage device for a media player or to record TV programmes on a TV with a USB port.
Mac Flash Drive To Pc
The fact that Fat32 can be read from and written to on both Mac and Windows makes it very versatile. However, there is a significant limitation — individual files have a maximum size of 4GB. So, if you’re using the USB drive to store large video files, you may run into trouble. There is a solution, however, exFAT. Unlike FAT32, exFAT doesn’t have a maximum file limit. Better still, it can be read from and written to on any Mac running Mac OS X Snow Leopard or later and on Windows.
To format a USB drive in FAT32 or exFAT:
1. Plug the USB drive into your Mac.
2. Go to Applications>Utilities and launch Disk Utility.
3. Click on the USB drive in the sidebar in Disk Utility.
4. Click Erase in the Disk Utility toolbar.
5. Type in a name for the formatted disk.
6. Click on the Format menu and choose either MS-DOS (FAT32) or ExFAT.
7. Click Erase.
What Format Flash Drive For Mac And Pc Download
Your USB drive will now be erased and re-formatted as either FAT32 or ExFAT, depending on the format you chose in step 6.
Format Flash Drive For Mac
How to manage your drives easily
If you look for a quick and easy way to manage your drives, try using CleanMyDrive 2. With its help, you can drag-and-drop files directly to any drive, clean hidden junk from external drives, and check disk stats. It works for all drives, including USB drives, SSD, SD cards, external hard drives. All the drives will be at hand in the menu bar, so you can get to see types of drives you have and manage them easily. CleanMyDrive is absolutely free to use, so download it on the Mac App Store and enjoy!
Format Flash Drive For Mac And Windows
It’s very easy to format a USB drive on a Mac using Disk Utility. There are a couple of things you should keep in mind, however. The first is that when you format and disk, you will erase all the data currently on it. So if you need that data, make sure you copy it onto another disk before you start. Secondly, there are several formats to choose from, each with advantages and disadvantage. Use the guide above to help you decide which is right for you.