How to a flash drive on mac
Mac Tips - Using a USB drive on a Mac – DIY in 5 Ep 99
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Uhh, it’s not showing up!
Why won’t this fit?
Whoa! I thought I deleted these!
If any of these situations seem familiar to you, not to worry, I’ve got you covered.
Welcome to DIY in 5.
Hello, everyone and welcome to DIY in 5, the show where we make tech tasks easy enough
that you can tackle them yourself.
My name is Trisha Hershberger and today, we’ll go over how to use a USB drive, thumb drive,
or flash drive, etc, on a Mac computer.
If you find the tips in today’s video useful, give us a like and subscribe so you don’t
miss out on any future tips.
A flash drive is a small, portable drive that plugs into a USB port on your computer.
It's an inexpensive and a great way to transfer or backup files quickly and easily.
They come in a wide variety of designs and capacities ranging from this cute little guy
to the oh-so-professional and beefy Kingston DataTraveler Elite G2.
To begin using a flash drive with your Mac,
simply insert it into a USB port on your computer.
Modern MacBooks, like the newer MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro may not have a full-sized
USB A port at all, only offering the tinier USB C alternative.
While this may seem frustrating at first, USB-C offers many advantages,
like faster speeds and the ability to plug in upside down or right side up.
If you have a computer that only works with USB-C, you can either get a USB-A to USB-C adapter or dock
or you can purchase a USB-C flash drive, like the Kingston Data Traveler Duo 3C.
Good news here is these are both relatively inexpensive and pretty commonly available,
now that USB-C is quickly becoming the new standard.
Once you are able to insert the drive for the first time, your Mac should install the
necessary driver software automatically and a USB icon should appear on your Mac display.
If the icon does not display, try unplugging and replugging it in
or using a different USB port on your computer.
You should also double-check that your Mac is set to show external drives on the desktop.
You can do this by going to Finder -> Preferences -> General
and making sure that there is a checkmark next to External Drives.
Another way to access your drive is by going to Finder and clicking the flash drive
from the sidebar on the left side of the window.
Once you’ve gotten your USB drive connected to your computer,
you can use it the same way you’d use any other folder on your computer.
Copy files by dragging them from one location to another and a copy will be saved in both locations.
To select more than one file at a time, click and drag the cursor over the files you want to select.
Remove a file by dragging it to the Trash, then click and hold the Trash icon
and choose empty trash to fully delete the file.
Once you’re finished using your USB drive, you need to eject the device before unplugging it.
You can do this by clicking the USB icon on the desktop and selecting Eject from the file menu.
You can also click Finder and click the upward-pointing arrow to eject your flash drive.
Or you can drag the USB drive icon from the desktop to the trashcan.
And drag it to the trash can…
As a Windows person, this always freaks me out, but I assure you, it will not erase the
contents of your drive, just help you to safely eject it.
Once the drive is ejected, you can safely remove the flash drive and stow it away for future use.
And there we have it.
There are tons of simple tasks like this that can be confusing if you aren’t sure
what to look for or encounter a bump you weren’t expecting.
Where do you find yourself getting tripped up?
Let us know in the comments below and we’ll do our best to walk you through it either
in a comment or we may even make a full video just for you.
Thank you so much for watching, everyone, and I’ll see you next time with more DIY in 5!
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