Do you know that you can hide your personal data in the form of files on all Operating Systems? Some people do not even realize that there is a huge range of hidden files, and folders, in the hard drive or USB. Many of us don’t know this and we crack our heads to hide some of our personal data. There are few methods to hide the files and once hidden, it can be difficult to view by others.
- Nov 18, 2017 1. Use Disk Utility to Format USB Flash Drive on Mac. The simplest way to format a disk in Mac OS is to simply use the Disk Utility since it is the Mac’s built in disk maintenance tool. To format USB drive on Mac using this method, all you need to do is plug in the USB device into your Mac and select it from the Disk Utility’s sidebar menu.
- Mar 12, 2020 Connect the USB flash drive or other volume that you're using for the bootable installer. Make sure that it has at least 12GB of available storage and is formatted as Mac OS Extended. Open Terminal, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
- Sep 06, 2019 Use a Mac OS X installation Disc. If you’re unable to use Internet Recovery Mode or create a bootable USB installer, you can still use a Mac OS X installation disc. These discs are available for OS X Snow Leopard, OS X Lion, and OS X Mountain Lion. If your Mac is from 2012 or earlier, there was an installation disc in the original box.
Operating systems also come with sensitive hidden files by default to keep things simple, and you can’t access these files unless you unhide them. We might hide accidentally hide files and folders and want to see them on our devices. There can be many apps that will let you hide files and folders, but there are built-in OS file-hiding features of different platforms which many don’t know. Let us discuss hiding files and folders in popular platforms such as Windows and Mac.
Jun 24, 2020 Otherwise, you can format a USB drive for Time Machine by opening Disk Utility, selecting the drive you want to format, clicking Erase, and choosing the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. Once formatted, open System Preferences, click Time Machine, click Select Disk, and choose your USB drive from the available options. Jan 09, 2020 Failure to eject a USB drive before pulling it out of the port can cause the OS to view the port’s status incorrectly and may impact its ability to be identified and accessed. 4 Update Your Mac’s OS and Firmware. Checking for updates may be one of the easiest ways to open USB ports on your Mac. Format: Select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or APFS for formatting. Disk Utility displays a compatible format by default. Scheme: (if this option appears): select GUID Partition Map. Click Clear to start the operation. Finally, quit GUID after the operation is complete.
All operating systems allow you to toggle whether hidden files are displayed or not, and toggling this option is relatively straight-forward. If you’re using Windows, a virus or other malware could be causing your hidden files to not display. Fixing it requires opening the Windows Registry, but should only take a couple of minutes.
How To View Hidden Files On A USB Or External Hard Drive In Windows OS:
There are two ways to view hidden files in Windows OS. It is very simple to view hidden files in Windows OS as compared to other OS platforms. The best part is you don’t need any specific commands or tools to access hidden files.
Method-1 (My Computer):
1. First, click on ‘My Computer’.
2. Now click on ‘Organize’ button present in the top left corner. A drop down appears.
3. From the drop down, click on ‘Folder And Search Options’.
4. A new window “Folder options” will open, there click on “View” tab.
5. There, in the ‘Advanced settings’ section, click on ‘Show Hidden Files, Folders or Drives’.
Usb Drive On Mac
6. Then, click on the OK. Now you can view the hidden files and folders. You can hide them again through the same process.
Method-2 (Control Panel):
1. Go to ‘Control Panel’.
2. Click on “Appearance and Personalization”.
3. A new window “Folder options” will open, there click on “View” tab.
4. There, in the ‘Advanced settings’ section, click on ‘Show Hidden Files, Folders or Drives’.
5. Then, click on the OK. Now you can view the hidden files and folders. You can hide them again through the same process.
Mac How To View Usb Devices
How To View Hidden Files On A USB Or External Hard Drive In Mac:
In Mac OS, you have to take advantage of the Terminal application to reveal or view the hidden files or folders in the device. A Terminal is the native command-line tool that comes with all Mac computers. It enables you to change the permissions on files and folders.
1. Open Terminal found in Finder > Applications > Utilities
2. In Terminal, paste the following:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
3. Press return
4. Hold the ‘Option or Alt’ key, then right click on the Finder icon in the dock and click Relaunch.
5. Click your external hard drive under the Devices heading in the Finder to show all hidden files. To hide them again, follow the same steps but replace the Terminal command with:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO
It’s not the longest set of instructions or the biggest command to commit to memory but if you’re doing this a lot, it’s worth spending a few minutes now to save yourself a lot more time in the future.
If you find any problem or have any queries, please let us know in the comments section below.
Which method do you use to view hidden files in USB or Hard drive in Windows and Mac?
By default, Mac starts from its built-in hard disk, but a startup disk can be any storage device that contains bootable contents that compatible with your Mac. For example, if you install macOS or Microsoft Windows on a USB drive, your Mac can recognize that drive as a startup disk. This guide provides 2 ways to boot a Mac from a USB flash drive.
Requirement
Starting up your Mac from an external disk requires the following:
- Intel-based Mac.
- Bootable USB thumb drive formatted with a GUID partition type and containing an OS X installer or a usable operating system.
Let’s see how to boot a Mac from a bootable USB drive and what to do if your Mac doesn’t start up from it.
Way 1: Boot Mac from USB Drive using Startup Manager
Getting your Mac to load from a USB drive is fairly straightforward. Use the following steps, you can easily set Mac boot from an external drive in Startup Manager, so it’ll only boot from USB that one time.
Step 1: Insert the USB boot media into a USB slot.
Step 2: Turn on your Mac (or Restart your Mac if it’s already on).
Step 3: Press and hold the Option key immediately after you see the Apple logo. Holding that key gives you access to OS X’s Startup Manager. Once the Startup Manager screen appears, release the Option key. The utility will look for any available drives that include bootable content.
Step 4: Using either the pointer or arrow keys on the keyboard, select the USB drive you wish to boot from. Once selected, either hit the Return key or double-click your selection. The machine will start to boot from the USB drive.
Way 2: Set a Mac Boot from USB Drive using Startup Disk
When you use Startup Disk preferences to set Mac boot from an external drive, so it’ll boot from that disk until you choose a different one. Here is how:
Step 1: Go to Apple menu > System Preference, then click Startup Disk.
Step 2: Click the locked icon and then enter your administrator password.
Step 3: Select External drive as the startup disk, then restart your Mac.
What to do if your Mac does not boot from the selected drive
If you see a message prompts that your security settings do not allow this Mac to use an external startup disk, check the External Boot setting in Startup Security Utility, and then allow your Mac to use an external startup disk.
Step 1: Open Startup Security Utility.
Turn on your Mac, then press and hold Command (⌘) + R immediately after you see the Apple logo. Your Mac starts up from macOS Recovery. When you see the macOS utility window, choose Utilities > Startup Security Utility from the menu bar. When you’re asked to authenticate, click Enter macOS Password, then choose an administrator account and enter its password.
Step 2: Select “Allow booting from external media“.
If you want to select an external startup disk before restarting your Mac, quit Startup Security Utility, then choose Apple menu > Startup Disk.
Note: If you’re using Boot Camp in a dual-boot Windows/OS X environment, you may be unable to boot negatively into supported versions of Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 10 operating systems installed on external USB hard drive.
Make sure disk has been formatted with a GUID partition type
Intel-based Macs support starting from an external USB storage device’s volume that has been formatted with a GUID partition type. If you wish to boot from the drive, it’s important to format the partition as “GUID Partition Table” rather than either of the other two ahead of time when you use that drive as a bootable drive.
Make sure your disk is bootable
Volumes that aren’t bootable and don’t contain a copy of a valid operating system aren’t listed in Startup Disk or Startup Manager. Make sure the external drive you’re trying to start from contains a usable operating system.