How to Clear a Flash Drive on PC or Mac
Release time：2023-04-30 05:01:10 oRead0
Method 1
Method 1 of 2:
Windows
- 1 Plug the flash drive into your PC. You can connect your flash drive to any working USB port on your computer.
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2
Double-click This PC. It’s the computer icon on your desktop.
- If you don’t see this icon, press ⊞ Win+E to open the File Explorer, then double-click This PC in the left sidebar.
- 3 Right-click your flash drive. It’s under the “Devices and drives” header in the right panel. A drop-down menu will appear.
- 4 Click Format…. The Format window will appear.
- 5 Click Start. It’s at the bottom of the window. A confirmation message will appear, letting you know that all data on the drive will be erased.
- 6 Click OK. Windows will now remove all of the data from your flash drive. You’ll see a message that says “Format Complete” once the drive is cleared.
- 7 Click OK. This closes the window.
- 1 Plug the flash drive into your Mac. You can connect your flash drive to any working USB port on your computer.
- 2 Open Finder . It’s on the Dock.
- 3 Open the Applications folder. Click Applications in the left sidebar, or double-click Applications in the right panel.
- 4 Double-click the Utilities folder.
- 5 Double-click Disk Utility.
- 6 Select your flash drive. It’s in the left panel.
- 7 Click the Erase tab. It’s at the top of the right panel.
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8
Select a format. The default formatting option is OS X Extended (Journaled) should work for most people.
- If you want to erase all of the files and use the drive on a Windows PC, select MS-DOS (Fat) instead.
- 9 Click Erase…. It’s at the bottom-right corner of the window. A confirmation message will appear.
- 10 Click Erase. This removes all of the files from your flash drive.