Buzz
An effortless tutorial to clear your USB flash drive
This guide demonstrates how to delete all files from a flash drive on both Windows and macOS.
Steps
Windows
Insert the flash drive into your PC. Connect your flash drive to any functional USB port on your computer.
Double-click This PC. This is 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.
Right-click your flash drive. You’ll find it under the “Devices and drives” section in the right panel. A drop-down menu will appear.
Click Format…. This will open the Format window.
Click Start. This option is located at the bottom of the window. A confirmation message will appear, informing you that all data on the drive will be erased.
Click OK. Windows will now erase all data from your flash drive. You’ll see a message that says “Format Complete” once the drive is cleared.
Click OK. This action closes the window.
macOS
Open the Applications folder. Click on Applications in the left sidebar, or double-click Applications in the right panel.
Double-click the Utilities folder.
Double-click Disk Utility.
Select your flash drive. It’s located in the left panel.
Click the Erase tab. It’s located at the top of the right panel.
Select a format. The default format option, OS X Extended (Journaled), should suffice for most users.
- If you intend to erase all files and use the drive on a Windows PC, choose MS-DOS (Fat) instead.
Click Erase…. It’s located at the bottom-right corner of the window. A confirmation message will appear.
Click Erase. This action deletes all files from your flash drive.
