But, unless you set up your mac properly, it just takes a reboot and a few seconds to bypass your password or wipe your hard drive. Back in the days before mac os x lion launched in 2011 there wasnt a recovery partition, instead you needed to have a physical disc with the software on it and an optical drive to insert it into. How to delete files from flash drive on mac keepthetech. The last chance for you to rescue data is to send the broken usb drive to a specialized data recovery service center nearby, and let the professionals try their best. You want to do this before creating the bootable media because there is a good chance that the drive was formatted using a windows device. I use the omars lightning flash drive mostly to transfer movies i own to our ipads for travel. Cant open usb flash drive in windows 10 microsoft community. Some usb devices, such as a flash drive or a memory card connected with a usb card reader, must first be ejected before they can be removed from your computer or shut off. I was unable to disable the write protection on my flash drive. If the padlock is locked then click it, enter your password if you have one and click ok. In this video i show you how to reinstall mac os x on your apple computer.
Eject stop use of your flash drive when you have finished using it. Feb 27, 2020 learn about connecting usb devices to your mac. Generally when you want to delete files and folders from your flash drive on computer it was big issue. Here we list some conditions and solutions to help you delete unwanted files permanently and speed up your mac. But there are some situations that you cant delete the file, and you need extra solution to delete. If you see a warning says the device is only being mounted in readonly mode while connecting, your hard disk is diagnosed to have formatting errors that prevent you from writing files to it. Pny pro elite comes with a speed up to 400 mbsec and 250 mbsec, read and write speed respectively. For example, if you install macos or microsoft windows on a usb drive, your mac can recognize that drive as a startup disk.
To back up your data, insert the usb drive into the computer you used with the drive and copy the contents of the drive to the desktop or a. The other thing to check, especially for any of 8 gb or more, is if it was formatted exfat at the factory. Click the drop down to change partition type to 1 partition, give it a name, if you like, and click the apply button. Find your home folder and right click it, then select get info. Sep 14, 2015 how to start up your mac from an external usb storage device. Once disk utility has opened on your display, youll see a list of your computers installed disks on the left side of the disk utility panel. Solving read only external drive problems on your mac.
Each time you finish using your flash drive and want to unplug it from your computer to take it with you, it should be ejected. Although the mac operating system allows you to read the files on external hard drive, you cant write files to it because the way that ntfs writes data to the device is. Its impossible to completely protect any device from an attacker with physical access. Aug 05, 20 how to format external hard drive on mac compatible with windows, mac, time machine duration. How do i safely remove a usb device from my computer. Uninstall the device drivers from program list in control panel. Jun 30, 2012 so, to reset that partition and fix that locked issue click on the hard drive the line with manufacturers info, then click the partition tab. One high quality usb flash drive with 16gb of storage. How can i unlock my mac book air if i dont remember the 6. This will open the mount point for all drives connected to the mac computer. In the screenshot below, the drive is formatted with the exfat file system.
To back up your data, insert the usb drive into the computer you used with the drive and copy the contents of the drive to the desktop or a folder on the computer. How to break into a mac and prevent it from happening to you. This method should work on all apple computers and with all recent versions of mac os. If your mac is from before 2009 or never had os x lion, click here to jump to the next section. Xinber usb flash drive 256gb, iphone flash drive usb 3.
Help stuck in disk utility, no os, hardrive locked. Rightclick your flash drive and then select format. Before you dive into this guide, youll need a few things. How to quickly create a macos bootable usb on windows 10. Usb is an industry standard for connecting computers and other devices. More and more people are finding themselves using both macs and windows based pcs.
So, to reset that partition and fix that locked issue click on the hard drive the line with manufacturers info, then click the partition tab. Select the check box delete the driver software for this device. Reboot the computer after uninstall process has finished. By default, mac starts from its builtin hard disk, but a startup disk can be any storage device that contains bootable contents that compatible with your mac. Cannot delete a file on a windows usb flash drive on a mac. Dec 08, 2016 in this video i show you how to reinstall mac os x on your apple computer.
Recover deleted or lost data from usb flash drives of kingston, toshiba, sandisk, pny, sony, etc. This guide provides 2 ways to boot a mac from a usb flash drive. Highlight the physical drive you wish to reformat and on the menu at the top to the right select erase. If your mac starts up to a question mark apple support. If you have a newer mac and a usb drive that supports usb 3. Assuming you dont need any data off the drive, try opening disk utility form the recovery screen and go to the erase tab then format macintosh hd to mac os extended journaled. Install, boot, and run mac os x from an external hard drive. How to open an external drive thats not showing on mac. On the left side of the window are the drives connected to the computer. To factory reset your device, however, click disk utility at the bottom of the list.
Ntfs is a file system that is optimal for windowsbased computer. Once you get the similar messages like the following ones when using the sandisk flash drive, it means the pen drive becomes readonly and write protected. For all the talk about security vulnerabilities, the ability for anyone to quickly change a macs password is rarely. Select the capacity of the drive respective to the one containing the device you wish to format then click the erase tab. Every computer user dream is to have a usb flash drive with the fastest read and write speed. Choose system preferences from the apple menu, then click startup disk. I cant copy to my flash drive or another hard drive because its lockedhelp. If this is the case, chances are that its using a mbr partition, and the usb drive needs a gpt partition to. Then with the drive back inside his mac he was able to reformat the drive using either a os install dvd the system came with grey disk or the retail version. In fact, the external usb drive is not formatted for use with your mac.
Someone could still rip the hard drive out of your mac and access its files on another device if you just use a firmware password without encryption, however. The simplest way to install macos or os x on a new hard drive is by using internet recovery mode. Click the icon of the disk you normally use to start up your computer. A usb flash drive or other removable data storage medium is widely used for storing and transferring data from an imac, macbook or mac mini.
If you see flash drive listed under the usb hub the usb flash drive is detected properly. Anyone with your mac can bypass your password unless you do this. The size of some of these files can exceed the 4 gb file size limit, so we are unable to copy such files to the omars. Use the following steps, you can easily set mac boot from an external drive in startup manager, so itll only boot from usb that one time. Usb flash drive memory card not detected on mac usb port. Jul 31, 2018 by default, mac starts from its builtin hard disk, but a startup disk can be any storage device that contains bootable contents that compatible with your mac. Mac wont recognize a badly damaged flash drive or external hard drive since there is no way to show it up, even temporarily, which makes the data recovery difficult. Use this feature to control whether your mac can start up from an external hard drive, thumb drive, or other external media. Locked as you can only read in the finder macos osxyosemite. Use the arrow keys to select which drive to boot from and then simply press enter. So im stuck, i wanted to start my mac from scratch with a fresh install of ei capitan but now my hard drive is locked. How to start up your mac from a bootable cddvd, usb thumb. How to start up your mac from an external usb storage device. Generally, when you insert in a usb flash drive, it will be mounted in disk utility and on desktop.
The device is ejected to ensure that nothing is being written to the memory card when its removed. How to boot a mac from usb drive with pictures wikihow. A broken mac computer with mac os x or macos version 10. Mar 30, 2020 on the left, rightclick the usb flash drive, select the format disk for mac option. The other way would be using an external bootable osx drive usb, firewire or thunderbolt. Jul 05, 2017 rightclick or controlclick the drives icon in the finders sidebar or on your desktop and select get info. You will get a notice said the item folder name could not be moved because usbhdd cannot be modified. Format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows youtube. Try using the partition button and select 1 partition. You can reformat a hard drive on mac os x by using disk utility. In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in a volume label. If your usb thumb drive, usbbased external disk or flash storage contains a usable operating system or an os x installer, you can select it at boot time using os xs builtin feature called startup manager, which can be invoked via a simple keystroke.
If the drive is called no name, directly above that, you should see the drive capacity of xxxx. In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. Now click on programs and select programs and features. If your mac displays a flashing question mark for a few moments but then continues to start up, you might need to reselect your startup disk in system preferences. If you have already saved anything on the drive, back up the data before you format the flash drive. If the drive is called no name, directly above that, you should see. If that wont work, run the command below in terminal and tell me what it says. Turn on your mac or restart your mac if its already on. The reasons behind the problem of a usb device not showing up are various, including the usb port is not working, usb drive corruption, virus infection, macos faulty, etc.
Many mac computers have usba ports sometimes referred to as usb 3 ports, which look like this. Choosing the best format to work between macs and pcs with a flash drive. Youll see the drives file system displayed to the right of format under the general heading. Once you have created the bootable recovery usb drive. In the screenshot below, the drive is formatted with. Also, are you using a thumb drive or directly from the mac.
Formatting a flash drive erases all data currently stored on it. If you set a firmware password, youll need to enter it before booting into recovery mode or holding the option key to boot from a different device. In the lefthand side inside of disk utility you will see a list of all the connected hard drives. Ive created a bootable usb thumb drive just for doing this. Because lot of time when you connect your flash drive to another computer its receive some virus that effect your flash drive. Mac system is not support this format, os x cant write ntfs out of the box at least not without some tweaks. Be prepared for harddrive failure, now is the time to use it. If you previously created an emergency drive see mac troubleshooting. If your integral usb has a security or zip software preloaded integral splash, secure. Hello all, i got a message reading the disk is write protected whenever i inserted my sandisk pen drive to my computer. Most flash drives have a slider that lets you change its locked state while it is not connected to anything. Please back up all your data before you format the usb drive. So, to figure out the effective solutions for your own case, you need to take time to have some basic check, exclude the irrelevant issues, identify the potential risk, and finally.
Macbook hard drive was wiped installed macos base system and when trying to reinstall macos sierra hard disk is now locked, how do i unlock the hard disk to reinstall macos sierra. Each physical drive is shown with the partitions of that drive nested below. How to create a gpt partition on a usb flash drive. Cant reinstall macos because disk is locked 2nd hand macbook. How to reinstall macos if recovery wont work macworld uk. I am able to open the drive and can even copy files from the. If the format of the omars usb drive could be ntfs, larger files would transfer with the appropriate software, on a mac. Works with my pc and my mac this was a great price for a great flash drive which i was able to download and mac os to allow me to image my macbook pro when i swapped the hard drive for a ssd drive and worked flawless. You can verify is the drive is mounted by selecting go go to folder from the file menu and typing volumes note. Password protected flash drive for mac free downloads.
Mar 24, 2020 if your mac displays a flashing question mark for a few moments but then continues to start up, you might need to reselect your startup disk in system preferences. In disk utility should be an unlock option in the file menu. Make sure to run fix permissions first a few times until. How to install os x after formatting your hard drive. Over the years pny pro has been recognized as one of the best flash drive in terms of speed. Use the option key during the restart to then select this drive as the boot drive. Ok, how your ready to use disk utility from the usb thumb drive to fix your disk.
If you still cant boot from the usb flash drive, verify that you created the mac os installer on the usb flash. Mac compatibility mac compatibility macbook air retina, inch, 2020 macbook air retina, inch, 2018 2019. Its quite easy to do on a mac, and learning how to do it can help you keep. Is there a way i can get the password or log in without this step or even reinstall the system. The problem is that your drive is windows ntfs formatted by default. How to format external hard drive on mac compatible with windows, mac, time machine duration. Usually, you can delete files and empty trash on mac by following above steps. Even if you arent a sinister evildoer, there could be times when you need to get into a computer without the password. Anyone with your mac can bypass your password unless you.
I have a usb drive that i purchased and use with various pcs at work and school. How to repairfix unreadable usb flash drives on mac. Another common cause for the external hard drive read only problem on mac is the formatting errors of the storage device itself. This mode is only available on apple computers made after 2009 that were running os x lion or later. When trying to access a hard drive you notice that its icon has a locked padlock on it. Rightclick or controlclick the drives icon in the finders sidebar or on your desktop and select get info. Right clicking the drive and selecting get info displays the permissions as custom.
Feb 21, 2020 the incompatibility of the file system is the main cause of the errorexternal hard drive read only on mac. Mac files wont copy to external hard drive how to fix. Remote unlock service unlock macbook pro air imac efi. Mac using a usb flash drive to back up your data files.
693 910 664 1326 422 543 168 305 762 1583 269 674 459 1144 168 950 413 79 624 35 983 613 842 120 1274 1517 1072 735 457 1240 436 370 800 134 440 257 122 993