Reformatting USB?

Question

I've been too nervous to attempt this blindly, so I thought I would come here and ask.  How do I use Disk Utility to reformat a USB?

Answer 1

Hi c,
I think you mean a USB flash drive?
1. Connect the FD to the MBP.
2. Open Disk Utility on the MBP.
3. Select the FD in the left pane.
4. Click on the Erase tab.
5. Choose the Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled) (or MS-DOS if you want Windows to be able to read it too).
NOTE: if you want to zero the FD (which I always think is a good idea, but does take time), click on Security Options, click the button for Zero Out Data, click OK. The larger the FD, the longer this will take.
6. Click on Erase and wait for the entire process to finish.
7. Click the Partition tab.
8. Click on Volume Scheme: and choose the number of partitions (normally just one).
9. Click on the Options button (located underneath the Volume Scheme pane) and select GUID.
10. Click Apply.
11. Quit Disk Utility.