Believe it or not, I came up with this one all by myself!
Nearly all Mac users, notorious for storing and transporting files using thumb drives are, at some point, interrupted by corrupt files. The problem is, that once files on your thumb drive start corrupting, the only way around it is to reformat the drive. If this happens to you, make a set of backups and follow these steps:
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- Start the Disk Utility, which you can find in the Applications – Utilities folder. The Disk Utility window will open to display a list of disks in the left-hand column.
- Plug your corrupting thumb drive, and it should immediately show up in the list of drives.
- Click the thumb drive in the list to select it.
[CAUTION! When you reformat a drive it completely erases everything that’s on it. Make sure you’ve selected the correct disk! Now would be a good time to double-check to make sure that you have everything you want to keep backed up.]
- After selecting the thumb drive in the list click on the Erase tab on the right hand side of the window.
- Choose a Volume Format from the pop-up — we recommend Mac OS extended (Journaled) for Mac-only users and MS-DOS(FAT) for those who want to use the drive cross-platform — from here, you’ll be allowed to name the drive.
- An alert will appear to remind you that all data will be erased and asking you to confirm that you wish to erase the drive.
- Click Erase again to clear out the drive, and after a few moments the disk will be reformatted.
Most users find that re-formatting a drive will resolve numerous issues, including corrupted files. However, it’s a good idea to hold onto the backup you’ve created, just in case the problem isn’t fixed by the reformatting. In this case, many retailers will offer a suitable replacement for less than $30 – which we highly recommend as well.
