The current USB standard is USB 3.2. This standard supports USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20Gbps), Gen 2 (10Gbps), and Gen 1 (5Gbps). This is a name change from the previous standard which can lead to confusion. To make it clearer, here is a cross-reference. USB 3.1 Gen 2 rename to USB 3.2 Gen 2. USB 3.0, USB 3.1 Gen 1 rename to USB 3.2 Gen 1. Our fastest drives currently support USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps). This standard also brings support for USB-C connection (formerly Type-C). These connectors are now standard on many laptops and are reversible so that you can plug in the cable any direction you want. With the Gen 2 supports, you can take advantage of the fast transfer speed of SSD and be ready for faster hard drives in the future.
USB standard explained
What is CipherShield Smart Insert technology?
Smart Insert with CipherKey allows you to have total control of your data with two intelligent key insertion modes. Standard design with all CipherShield drives, mode 0 with hotplug mechanism enables you to authenticate and access the drive when the CipherKey is plugged in. When the key is removed, all data within the drive are encrypted. Mode 1 is better utilized for a large data backup job where you don’t want to be tied waiting for the data transfer to be completed. The CipherShield drive is authenticated by plugging the key in once and removed. The drive runs without the need to have the key connected at all times. The risk of theft is no longer a concern because when a USB or power cable is unplugged, the drive will automatically lock down its content. A limited number of models available, the rest can be special ordered from Buslink or specify the key mode 1 when ordering from resellers or your preferred IT solution providers.
How to operate the drive?
All CipherShield drives utilize a CipherKey or two CipherKeys to gain access to the drive. Access to the drive is granted by inserting the key into a slot on the faceplate. By removing the key, data cannot be accessed even though the drive is still connected to the computer. When the key is removed, the drive is “transparent” to the operating system of a computer, thereby ensuring full protection of the data.
What is CipherKey, and how does it protect the CipherShield drive?
The CipherKey is a physical key with a design based on the Firewire form factor. It contains the secret encryption key code necessary for encryption and decryption operations. The hard drive has been partitioned and formatted using the CipherKey, thus the entire content of the hard drive is associated only with this unique key. Only a CipherKey containing the identical secret encryption key code can be used for authentication or to unlock the drive.
Why should I need CipherShield encrypted drive?
The sensitive nature of confidential information is driving the need to secure data stored on all portable computer systems. CipherShield’s innovative solution ensures multi-level privacy, confidentiality, and authentication – allowing organizations to protect valuable assets, credentials, and intellectual property that are exposed to a significant risk of theft. Legal liability and the financial consequences associated with stolen confidential information require organizations to go to extreme lengths to protect their data. CipherShield encrypted storage products offer superior hardware-based encryption and pre-boot authentication, thus allowing companies to shield their data and regulate control over access to their corporate and sensitive customers’ information. By doing that, they comply with federal regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, or HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) for the healthcare industry.
Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted) MS-DOS (FAT) ExFAT. 19 hours ago How may a Solid-state drive (SSD) Time Machine backup password be changed for a SSD formatted as 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted)'? This is how a Time Machine backup password is changed for an SSD formatted as 'APFS (Case-sensitive, Encrypted)'. APFS (Case-sensitive, Encrypted).
Why hardware encryption is better than software-based encryption?
The encryption strength of the software-based / password protection approach depends entirely on the strength/unguessability of the password itself. Not only that, you have to take into consideration the fact that…. people just forget. With today’s hectic life, remembering a complex password like “Myd0g$N4me#7” with all the numbers, punctuations, and mixed uppercase and lowercase letters, will eventually lead to the password in a post-in note and stuck somewhere to the wall, or else they’re just going to create a simple password like “john123”. And then think about the scenario when the user does forget. With hardware-based key encryption, the key itself is the password. The encryption and decryption, which utilize a government-grade AES encryption algorithm, are done by a processor embedded inside. The access to the data doesn’t rely on a password, which could be easily hacked, but on a physical element.
Apart from faster, real-time processing of data encryption and decryption, hardware-based encryption is also not as vulnerable as software-based password input in terms of brute force attack of password guessing. An attacker can plug the drive into the computer and have a program performs hundreds of password guessing in a second. Furthermore, there will also a cross-platform issue with the software-based password feature, in which it will only work in Windows PC, not Mac or Linux. With hardware-based encryption, this won’t be an issue at all. The main advantage to CipherShield over other security methods is that our product is designed to be used by everyone and anyone. Unlike software encryption, there are no passwords to remember or complex installation. Such methods usually require MIS support and are quite expensive to maintain.
File system formats explained
There are many types of file systems used to store data on drives. The types depend on the operating system (OS) used. Microsoft Windows supports FAT, FAT32, NTFS, and exFAT. Macintosh supports FAT32, HFS+, exFAT, and NTFS (read-only). Linux supports Ext4, ZFS, xfs, NTFS (need to enable support), and exFAT (need to enable support). It is best to use the native format for better security, compatibility, and speed, i.e. NTFS for Windows, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for Macintosh, and Ext4 for Linux. If you need to use your drive in multiple OS, reformat your drive to exFAT. All our drives with USB-C come with exFAT as the default format so you can use it in all the OS.
HFS Plus or HFS+ (also known as Mac OS Extended or HFS Extended) is a journaling file system developed by Apple Inc. It replaced the Hierarchical File System (HFS) as the primary file system of Apple computers with the 1998 release of Mac OS 8.1. Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted) adds password and encryption protection to the partition while also including Mac formatting with case sensitive folder names. MS-DOS (FAT) allows you to use Windows volumes of 32 GB or less. ExFAT allows you to use Windows volumes over 32 GB Rename the new drive.
Driver Download
The model number of all BUSlink hard drives is located at the back panel of the unit, where all the power and interface ports are. If you have any questions or difficulty in downloading the files, please contact us at [email protected].
BUSlink USB 3.0 SuperSpeed PCI-Express Card (U3-PCIE)
Drive: USB3-PCIE.zip
L and D series USB 1.1 hard drives ( with yellow panel )
Please note that we no longer provide phone support for L, D, or P series hard drive.
Power adapter: DC output 12V – 2.5A
Driver: 3in1.exe Alternate Driver: setup2000.exe
Note: We have discontinued support for L and D series hard drives, including any updates for the drivers. If you’re on Windows XP SP3 and above, the only option is to remove the IDE hard drive from the case and plug directly to your PC, or purchase a USB to IDE adaptor, or purchase a new USB 2.0 enclosure. Please email [email protected] for a current list of product examples.
Buslink USB 2.0 External Hard Drive (UII-xxx)
BUSlink Combo USB 2.0 and FireWire External Hard Drive (CO-xxx-U2FE) BUSlink Triple Interface External Hard Drive (CO-xxx-U2FS) Disk-On-The-Go USB 2.0 (D-xx-U2) Disk-On-The-Go Lite Dual Interface USB 2.0 and FireWire (DL-xx-U2F) Disk-On-The-Go Lite USB 2.0 (DL-xx-U2) Power adapter for the desktop drive: DC output 12V – 2A Power adapter for Slim drive: DC output 7.5V – 1.2A Driver: USB2MassStorage_v1019.zip
Os X Extended Case Sensitive Journaled Encrypted FileAll FireWire drives including FireWire Data Bankers and Disk-On-The-Go external notebook drives are plug and play. There is no separate driver available, and none is needed.
Power adapter for Desktop Optical Drive: DC output 12V – 2A
Power adapter for Slim Optical Drive: DC output 7.5-1.2A Driver: USB2MassStorage_v1019.zip
BUSlink USB 2.0 PCI Card (UII-PCIP)
BUSlink USB 2.0 and FireWire PCI Card (PCI-U2F) BUSlink USB 2.0 Cardbus (UII-CB4) BUSlink USB 2.0, FireWire, and SATA Combo PCI Card (PCI-U2FS) Driver: U2V2_1_4.zip SATA Driver for BUSlink USB 2.0, FireWire, and SATA Combo PCI Card (PCI-U2FS): sata_PCI.zip
BUSlink 2 ports SATA Cardbus (CB2S)
Driver: sata_cardbus.zip Os X Extended Case Sensitive Journaled Encrypted Data
Not every USB drive can be used on Mac out of the box -- you need to format the drive to make sure it's compatible with the MacOS extended file system. And here in this article, we'll offer you a full guide on how to format a USB Drive on Mac. Besides, in case you lose important data due to formatting, we have a professional data recovery tool to help you recover data from a formatted USB drive on Mac.
Part 1. What You Should Do First Before Formatting USB Drive on Mac
Make sure that уоu know clearly whаt уоu are doing whеn you begin the whole formatting process, which will еrаѕе your еntirе hаrd drivе.
To avoid formatting the wrong disk, firstly remove the USB drive from Mac, check the title of other storage disks, then insert the USB disk again and note the name of the disk. Next, drag the USB data to a safe location for backup/recovery measures before formatting it. Then you are set to get it done!
Part 2. What Is the Best Format for USB Drive on Mac?
You'll be given several format options when you try to format a USB drive on Mac, including Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), Mac OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled), Mac OS X Extended (Journaled, Encrypted), Mac OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted), MS-DOS (FAT) and ExFAT. If you are using macOS 10.13 or later, you'll also see an option named APFS, which is the default file system of macOS 10.13 and later.
1APFS (Apple File System)
APFS is a new file system for macOS. It's the most appropriate format for SSD. However, you need the latest macOS to write to this file system. If you're sure that you don't need to use it on a Mac running old version in the future, then you can format your USB drive to APFS.
2Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) & Mac OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
Mac OS X Extended, aka HFS+, is the default file system before APFS for macOS 10.12 and earlier. It doesn't put a limit on the size of files you can save on the drive, which is the greatest advantage. Windows-running computers can read the files formatted to Mac OS X Extended but can't write to them. And this file system is necessary if you plan on using the drive for Time Machine backups.
The biggest difference between Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) and Mac OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) is the latter one is case-sensitive to folder names. For example, 'file' is different from 'File'. Therefore, if you do not have special needs, just ignore this option.
3Mac OS X Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) & Mac OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted)
These two are basically the same with the previous two but with encryption, which means you have to provide the password whenever you connect the drive to your Mac.
4MS-DOS (FAT)
This is Disk Utility's name for FAT32 file system. As the most widely compatible file system, it suits both Windows operating system and macOS. Therefore one can easily transfer data between PC and Mac using a USB drive formatted this way. However, a USB drive formatted to FAT32 doesn't support long file names and an individual file cannot be larger than 4GB.
5ExFAT
ExFAT is the improved version of the older FAT32, which offers larger storage space and supports files larger than 4GB. Of course it also supports transferring files between PC and Mac as a cross-platform file system.
To arrive at a conclusion, if you need to transfer smaller files between operating systems, choose MS-DOS (FAT) or FAT32. And with no doubt, ExFAT will be the best format for USB drive on Mac for larger files.
Part 3. How to Format USB to FAT32/ExFAT on Mac
As earlier stated, you need to first back up your USB drive before formatting it as the formatting operation will wipe all the data. Now, you can follow the steps highlighted below to get the USB successfully formatted.
![]() Method 1: Format a USB Drive on Mac OS with Disk Utility
Step 1: Insert the USB waiting to be formatted to a Mac computer.
Step 2: Navigate to Applications > Utilities, and click it twice to open it.
Step 3: Select the drive you want to format and click on Erase.
Step 4: Rename the USB drive (optional), and choose one file system from the options.
Step 5: Then select Master Boot Record for scheme, hit Erase.
Step 6: Once the process is done, you are ready to use the drive with new file system to store data again.
Method 2: Convert/Format USB Drive to FAT32/ExFAT
Step 1: Connect the USB drive to your Mac computer.
Step 2: Click on cmd + space to run Spotlight, input terminal then tap Enter key.
Step 3: Type diskutil list to find the location of your USB drive (eg: dev/disk2 is the USB drive in the below picture).
Step 4: Type sudo diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 MBRFormat /dev/disk2.
Note: You can replace FAT32 with ExFAT in the command, and your USB drive will be formatted in that way.
After the process completes, type diskutil list in command once more to check if the USB drive has been formatted successfully.
Bonus: How to Recover Lost Data After Formatting USB Drive
Formatting a USB drive is never an easy task and problems tend to arise from time to time, among which data loss is perhaps the most common one. Users format a USB drive by mistake or directly format it without doing any backup job and both mistakes will cause data loss disaster. This issue will worry us even more when there are important files we cannot offord to lose. If this is the case, you'll need a professional data recovery software to help you get back lost files, and AnyRecover is what you need exactly. With this software, anyone can recover all kinds of data from formatted USB drive on Mac with only 3 simple steps.
Os X Extended Case Sensitive Journaled Encrypted
As a comprehensive Mac data recovery solution, it handles all data loss scenarios, including formatting USB drive, hard drive failure, and Mac crash.
All-round and deep scan ensures high recovery rate, and sophisticated algorithms contribute to quick scanning speed.
Supports data recovery on all types of USB drives in various file formats like NTFS, HFS+, FAT32, and ExFAT.
Brings back the lost photos, videos, documents, compressed files, etc. - numerous kinds of data from formatted USB drive easily.
Os X Extended Case Sensitive Journaled Encrypted Pdf
Provides preview before recovery and enables selective recovery.
Note
AnyRecover offers free trial for every user, with which one can scan, preview and recover 3 files for free. Just download and have a try! The more time for hesitation, the less possibility for your lost data to get back!
Follow the simple steps below to recover data after formatting USB drive on mac:
Step 1: Make sure you have connected your USB drive to your Mac successfully. Download, install and launch AnyRecover. Then select the formatted USB drive you are trying to recover data from as the location to find data. Press the 'Start' button to initiate the scanning.
Step 2: The software will immediately begin the scanning process. Google backup and sync not working. You can pause the process at any time and resume from that point later.
Step 3: Immediately after the scanning process is complete, all the files will be listed in their respective file formats and folders. Freely preview and choose what to recover by clicking on 'Recover' button.
Final WordsOs X Extended Case Sensitive Journaled Encrypted Case
Formatting is a complicated process indeed but by clearing your mind and then follow the steps as listed out in the article, you can successfully format a USB drive on Mac without much difficulty or errors. Loss of data may come as a nightmare but AnyRecover is powerful enough to help you out. In fact, not just after you format a USB drive, it can work wonders whenever you lose data. Try it and you won't be disappointed.
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