Formatting SD cards on a Mac mini

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Justmet Author

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Formatting SD cards on a Mac mini

I am curious if SD cards come formatted, or is there a method for formatting them on my Mac mini?

Posted on Aug 28, 2023 6:07 PM

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Answer 1

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Justmet Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 30, 2023 10:22 AM in response to Justmet

Hey, you put me on the right track to further investigate. The external drive has a two option input , one is the lightning connection and the other an USB. The lightning connection is faulty but the USB connection offers the connection to be witnessed within the “ drive utility “. Thanks for help steering me into this trouble shooting path.

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Answer 2

Aug 30, 2023 2:42 AM in response to Justmet

If you're going to use memory cards in a digital camera, it's best to format them in the camera. If you must format them in a computer, the SD Association recommends that you use their special formatting tool.

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/

"It is strongly recommended to use the SD Memory Card Formatter to format SD/SDHC/SDXC Cards rather than using formatting tools provided with individual operating systems. In general, formatting tools provided with operating systems can format various storage media including SD/SDHC/SDXC Cards, but it may not be optimized for SD/SDHC/SDXC Cards and it may result in lower performance."

I believe that FAT32 is the standard filesystem for SDHC cards, and exFAT is the standard filesystem for SDXC ones. If you format a card using HFS+ (Mac), APFS (Mac), or NTFS (Windows), most devices like cameras, digital picture frames, TVs, MP3 players, etc., are not going to be very happy.

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Answer 3

Justmet Author

Level 1

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Aug 30, 2023 9:21 AM in response to Matti Haveri

Yes, I plugged the external drive into my Mac laptop; the device illuminated and was recognized within the “disc utility “. When the external drive is inserted into my Mac mini, no visible activity (light indicator) is witnessed from the drive nor do the Mac mini “drive utility “ recognize it existence.

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Answer 4

Aug 28, 2023 10:01 PM in response to Justmet

Usually they are formatted as FAT (or exFAT or maybe NTFS). Usually it is best to format them in the device (camera, drone etc) where they are used. Or format with Disk Utility on the Mac.

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Answer 5

Justmet Author

Level 1

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Aug 29, 2023 4:08 PM in response to Matti Haveri

My Disk utility doesn't recognize my SD card when plugged in with USDB-C connection.

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Answer 6

Aug 30, 2023 12:09 AM in response to Justmet

Maybe the card (or adapter?) is bad? Do other devices see the card?

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Formatting SD cards on a Mac mini

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