Found an old USB thumb drive or flash drive and want to erase it on your Mac? Here's the fast way and the secure way, and an explanation of the difference. How do I erase or wipe an old Flash Drive? I use Windows 7 Ultimate operating system. Regards, Peter. Most users use Disk Utility to erase a disk or hard drive. But some Mac users might need to erase them from the command line on Mac OS. To do that, the only thing you need is a bit of precise syntax to make sure that you are erasing the proper disk.
How to create a bootable Windows 10 USB on Mac 09 June 2017 on, The last release of Mac OS doesn't have the option to create a bootable USB from Bootcamp like previous versions, and it is a problem because that require uses other tools. I am updating this post today Dec 12, 2018.
The reason is that I was only using to create the bootable USB, I will leave guide as a second method since it still working, and I will explain to you how you can create the bootable Windows USB without extra software. The first step for both methods requires to format your USB device to ExFAT. Format USB to ExFAT In order to boot from the USB, you need to format the USB to ExFAT, you can do it using Disk Utility (it comes with MacOS).
This step is the same for both methods. You need to show all the devices in Disk Utility' before to start the process. Select your USB device in the list (not the partition), right click and then click on the Erase option: In the next screen make sure you select these two options:. Format: ExFAT. Scheme: Master Boot Record Click the Erase button. If for some reason it fails, probably is because MacOS still using the USB, just repeat the steps, but if you see a screen similar to above screen is because the operation is successful.
Format USB with the terminal You also can format the USB from the terminal, but you have to take care to use the correct device because, if you use the wrong name you will lose everything. With this command you can list the device on MacOS: diskutil list This is an example, my USB is the disk2: This command is to format the USB, the last parameter is the the USB: diskutil eraseDisk ExFAT 'WINDOWS10' MBRFormat disk2 Copy Windows files to USB - Method 1 This process is very easy doesn't require to install other software, and they are just a few steps: Open Windows ISO Just double click on the ISO image, MacOS mount the image automatically.
Copy files Now you only need to copy the files and paste them to the USB. Command + A Select all files. Command + C Copy files.
Go to your USB Command + V paste the files. This process could fail if you are using a USB with FAT32 because the file install.win is over 4GB, if this is the case try to open the terminal and copy paste the files from there (no always works. Try to follow the instructions to format the USB in ExFAT, NTFS works for some BIOS).
This is the command to copy the files from the ISO to the USB: cp -rp /Volumes/CCCOMAX64FREEN-USDV9/. /Volumes/WINDOWS10/ And that is all, now you can try boot from the USB. UNetbootin - Method 2 I will show you how you can use to create a bootable USB, it can be used no only for Mac but for Windows and Linux distributions too. Is free software and it is also available for Windows and Linux.
Check the path name of your USB Disk. Always in Disk Utility, select the new partition that we created in the previous step, and click on the information button, it will give you the information about the new partition. You also can use the terminal and the command diskutil to see the list of drives: diskutil list Download UNetbootin:. Download the dmg directly from the.
And copy the app to the /Application folder. I prefer to use homebrew to install applications, you can check this article for more information:: brew cask install -appdir='/Applications' unetbootin Makes the USB booteable Open UNetbootin and you only need select 3 options:. Diskimage and ISO. Now we need open the ISO Windows image that is on our computer. Select your USB device on UNetbootin. Click on the OK, button and wait to the process end it will take a time. NOTES:.
I tested other tools like dd and Etcher but they are not working because Windows requires extra steps, for the moment this is the only easy tool that I know that works if you are on Windows try. Some users reported that UNetbootin is not working, if after to format the USB drive and change the block size is not working for you try another Drive with enough space. Share this post.
RECOMMENDED: Installing Windows from a bootable USB flash drive is one the safest and fastest installation methods available to install Windows XP, Vista, and as well as. We already have a guide to, but the guide requires the basic knowledge of Command Prompt.
![How To Erase A Usb On A Mac For Windows Use How To Erase A Usb On A Mac For Windows Use](http://www.macyourself.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/031112-formatdrivemacpc-screen1.jpg)
As we already have a detailed guide to using Command Prompt method, we are going to use a third-party tool named WinToFlash (free) in this guide. This guide is for novice Windows users who are not familiar with Command Prompt. If you don’t want to use third-party tool to create a bootable USB, just follow our step-by-step and 100% working how to install Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 from USB flash drive guide to create a bootable drive using Command Prompt.
Required items: # Windows 8 DVD or ISO # A 4 GB+ USB flash drive # WinToFlash Procedure: Step 1: Start the procedure by connecting your USB flash drive to your Vista or Windows 7 machine and backup all data from the flash drive as the drive will be formatted in step 6. Step 2: Next step is to and run WinToFlash program. It’s a portable utility, which means that it doesn’t require an installation. The program is packed in a zip file. So extract the downloaded zip file to a folder to get WinToFlash.exe and other files. Step 3: Run WinToFlash.exe file to start the actual procedure.
On the first run, you will see First start wizard box. Click Next button, accept the program license agreement and then click Next button. Please note that a paid version of WinToFlash is also available with additional features. But the free version is more than enough to create Windows 8 bootable flash drive. Step 4: In the main screen, click the check button next to Windows Setup transfer wizard to start WinToFlash wizard. Click Next button to continue.
Step 5: In this step, you need to select Windows 8/8.1 installation files folder and USB drive which you want to make as bootable. Click on Select button next to Windows file path and browse to the folder containing Windows 8 installation files. Note: If you have Windows 8/8.1 ISO file, please use 7-Zip (free) software to extract the installation files to a folder. Then browse to the new folder to select it as Windows files path. Then click the Select button next to USB drive box to select the USB flash drive. Step 6: Once you have selected Windows 8 installation files path and USB drive letter, click Next button to begin transferring installation files on to USB.
Clicking the Next button will launch Windows License Agreement box. Select I accepted the terms of the license agreement and click Continue button. You will see the Format Warning message.
As we have mentioned in step 1, the software will erase all contents on your USB flash drive. So, move all data from USB drive to a safe location before starting the procedure. Click Ok button to begin transferring Windows 8.1 installation files onto USB drive. You can relax now as you won’t have to do anything for the next 25-30 minutes.
Once the moving process is done, you will see Finished message. Click Next button to complete the procedure. You have just created a bootable Windows 8/8.1 USB flash drive.
Reboot your machine, enable USB boot in BIOS, and start installing Windows 8 on your machine. I used a 8 GB pendrive (actually 7.43 GB available)to make a Windows 8 Bootable pendrive using wintoflash.Earlier I created windows XP,Vista,7 and it was fine.
But for win 8 it didn’t work. Wintoflash didn’t copy the install.wim file which is 4.25 GB. When I tried to copy the file manually it said there wasn’t enough space.
Even the file couldn’t be copied in the formatted poendrive which had no used space. It wasn’t because of virus ‘cos I tried copying in ubuntu OS as well but failed.What to do now!