The best way to reset an USB flash drive to factory status or fix logical error is formatting the USB flash drive. Do you know how to format USB flash drive? For most of us, it is very simple. But, are you sure you have selected the right method to format the USB flash drive? Maybe, you are wrong. In this article, we will show you two methods to format USB flash drive on PC/Mac. You can select the right one to format your USB flash drive.
1. Format USB flash drive with system utility
If you are a Windows user, you can connect the USB flash drive with your PC. Then open "My Computer", find the USB flash drive, right-click the icon of the USB flash drive, you can see the format option. Then you can easily format the USB flash drive with this tool.
If you are a Mac user, you just need to open Mac Disk Utility. Then connect the USB flash drive with your Mac. You also can quickly format the USB flash drive with this system utility.
This is the easiest way to format an USB flash drive on PC or Mac. But, the data which is formatted in the USB flash drive still can be recovered by free data recovery software. It means you or anyone else can easily recover the formatted or lost data from the USB flash drive which has been formatted by system utility. It is not safe if you are going to sell, donate or lend your USB device to other people.
2. Format USB flash drive with DoYourData Super Eraser
DoYourData Super Eraser is a super data erasure & disk formatting tool for both Windows OS and Mac OS. It can help you quickly format USB flash drive and permanently erase data on the USB flash drive. It means once the USB flash drive is formatted by DoYourData Super Eraser, all data information on the USB flash drive will be permanently erased, can’t be recovered by any data recovery method.
Download DoYourData Super Eraser here:
How to use DoYourData Super Eraser to format USB flash drive on PC or Mac? Actually, it is pretty simple. First of all, just run this data erasure software from Launchpad (if you are a Mac user). Then follow the steps below to format your USB flash drive and permanently erase all data on the USB flash drive.
Step 1: Connect the USB flash drive with your computer. Then run DoYourData Super Eraser on your computer.
Step 2: Choose mode "Wipe Hard Drive".
Step 3: Select the USB flash drive and click on "Wipe Now" button to format and erase the USB flash drive.
Once the process gets finished, the USB flash drive will be formatted and all data information on the USB flash drive will be permanently erased. Pease back up your important data before you use DoYourData Super Eraser to format your USB flash drive.
The two methods above can help you easily format USB flash drive. We strongly recommend you to use the second method to format the USB flash drive before you sell, donate, give away or dispose it. It is the safe way to format the USB flash drive and permanently erase private data.
Written & Updated by Shirly Chen
Shirly Chen has been writing data recovery, data erasure articles for DoYourData over 4 years. She has been working as a professional website content writer & editor for quite a long time. She also writes articles about disk clone, Mac optimization, disk backup, etc.