How To Format Sd Card In Macbook Air

MacBook Air Q&A

1. Macbook Sd Card Reader
2. How To Format Sd Card In Macbook Air 7
3. Macbook Air Sd Card Reader
4. Sd Card Macbook Pro
5. How To Format Sd Card In Macbook Air 4

Update Published August 11, 2019

Now, let's move to the subject – formatting an SD card on MacBook Pro & Air. Connect the SD or microSD card to your Mac computer. Navigate to Disk Utility, which you can find in Applications Utility. You can also use a shortcut; Command key (⌘), and then type 'Disk Utility.'. MacBook Pro USB Adapter with Dual Charging Upgraded, USB Type C Hub Adapter Dock for MacBook Air Pro M1 2021/2020-2018, with 4K@60Hz HDMI, TB3, USB C, USB 3.0 and SD/Micro Card Reader (Space Grey).

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Which SD Card Slot storage solution is best for the MacBook Air? Which models are compatible? Is this kind of storage safe?

If you ever found yourself transferring photos from an SD card to your MacBook Air and wondered if you could just store files from your computer on an SD card for a bit of extra space, you're not alone.

Most users should consider upgrading the internal SSD in their Late 2010, Mid-2011, Mid-2012, Mid-2013, Early 2014, Early 2015, or Mid-2017 MacBook Air for more storage.

However, as the capacity of microSD cards has increased, companies have released storage solutions specifically designed to slide into the SD Card Slot on all 13' MacBook Air models with SD Card slots. These solutions are not as protected as an internal SSD and should not be thought of as permanent storage, but they are quite convenient and still can be useful.

Identification Help (Skip)

As SD Card Slot storage solutions are compatible with each 13' MacBook Air model with an SD Card slot (and 11' MacBook Air and later 13' MacBook Air models do not have an SD Card slot at all), identification assistance practically is unnecessary for this particular upgrade.

However, just for confirmation, compatible MacBook Air models have Model NumbersA1369 or A1466.

If you find this page useful, please Bookmark & Share it. Thank you.

Which SD Card Slot storage solution is best for the MacBook Air? Which models are compatible? Is this kind of storage safe?

If you ever found yourself transferring photos from an SD card to your MacBook Air and wondered if you could just store files from your computer on an SD card for a bit of extra space, you're not alone.

Most users should consider upgrading the internal SSD in their Late 2010, Mid-2011, Mid-2012, Mid-2013, Early 2014, Early 2015, or Mid-2017 MacBook Air for more storage.

However, as the capacity of microSD cards has increased, companies have released storage solutions specifically designed to slide into the SD Card Slot on all 13' MacBook Air models with SD Card slots. These solutions are not as protected as an internal SSD and should not be thought of as permanent storage, but they are quite convenient and still can be useful.

Identification Help (Skip)

As SD Card Slot storage solutions are compatible with each 13' MacBook Air model with an SD Card slot (and 11' MacBook Air and later 13' MacBook Air models do not have an SD Card slot at all), identification assistance practically is unnecessary for this particular upgrade.

However, just for confirmation, compatible MacBook Air models have Model NumbersA1369 or A1466.

Macbook Sd Card Reader

These models also can be readily identified in software by Model Identifier:

Subsequent 13' MacBook Air models do not have an SD Card slot and cannot use this upgrade method accordingly.

EveryMac.com's Ultimate Mac Lookup feature -- as well as the EveryMac app -- also can uniquely identify these models by their Serial Number, which is listed on the underside near the model number and within the operating system alongside the model identifier. More details about specific identifiers are provided in EveryMac.com's extensive Mac Identification section.

Best MacBook Air SD Card Storage Solutions

Some SD Card storage options on the market are low quality knockoffs or from inexperienced startup companies with products burdened by questionable software, but two products worth considering are the Transcend JetDrive Lite 130 and the Nifty MiniDrive Air.

As SD Card storage products for different Apple notebooks are different physical sizes be sure that these particular ones are the one you buy for a MacBook Air.

Photo Credit: Transcend Information Inc. (Left), Nifty Drives (Right)

Although the two products look similar, they actually are quite different.

Established in 1988, Transcend is a well respected manufacturer of RAM and trusted for quality products. The JetDrive Lite 130 is created as single piece and designed to fit snuggly into the MacBook Air with the end sticking out just enough to be able to remove it conveniently. It is sold with either 64 GB, 128 GB, or 256 GB of integrated flash storage.

The Nifty MiniDrive Air, on the other hand, is a simple aluminum and plastic adapter designed to hold an existing microSD from another company of your choosing. It fits flush with the MacBook Air and ships with a small 'hook' tool to remove it. It is no longer available for sale new, but it remains available on the used market.

This brief commercial from Transcend shows their product in action:

Effectively, these products function like a compact high capacity USB stick or a tiny version of an 'old school' floppy disk. Stick it in the SD Card slot and it pops up on the desktop like any other removable storage. Easy.

Using SD Card Storage Solutions Safely

Although all media can fail, whether it is a hard drive, an SSD, or a SD Card -- and it is important to backup your data regularly -- using a quality SD Card solution from Transcend should be safe. The Transcend JetDrive Lite 130 is rated to last for 10,000 insertion/removal cycles. Likewise, the Nifty MiniDrive MK5 Air with an installed high quality microSD card from a trusted manufacturer should be safe, as well.

There is at least one product from an unproven startup that uses flash memory of unknown quality as well as proprietary software of unknown quality to 'pair' the storage from your internal SSD and the SD card together on a 'permanent' basis and any solution of this type should be avoided to reduce the risk of data loss. This 'pairing' method has been shown to cause data loss and compatibility problems with macOS updates, as well. At least one unproven product of this type costs twice as much as the proven Transcend solution, as well.

Ultimately, keep in mind that (1) an SD Card is a removable card and should be thought of as removable storage rather than permanent storage, (2) only use an SD Card from a quality, known manufacturer, and (3) backup your data regularly regardless of the type of media you use. If you follow these three steps, your data should be as safe as it can be.

MacBook Air SD Card Storage Purchase Options

In the US, Amazon sells the Transcend JetDrive Lite 130.

In the UK and Ireland, site sponsor Flexx sells the full range of Transcend JetDrive Lite models for the MacBook Air series with free shipping. The company provides flat rate shipping to France, Germany, and Switzerland and inexpensive shipping for all of Europe, too.

Also see:

• How do you replace or upgrade the SSD storage in the 'Late 2010' and 'Mid-2011' MacBook Air models? Is it even possible?
• How do you replace or upgrade the SSD storage in the 'Mid-2012' MacBook Air models? Is it even possible?
• How do you replace or upgrade the SSD storage in the 'Mid-2013' and subsequent MacBook Air models? Is it even possible?

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Many a time you want to create a bootable device for your new notebook, netbook, or laptop which has no CD/ DVD drive. Nowadays, most electronic devices come with compactness, which gives rise to a number of notebooks that are manufactured without a CD/ DVD drive but with an SD card slot. In such devices, if you want to install or reformat the operating system, then you have to make use of either a flash drive or a memory card with a minimum storage capacity of 8 GB.

In case, if you want to make a bootable SD card, SDHC, or USB drive for Windows or Mac operating system. Then here is a complete guide for you!

1. Boot SD card or USB for Mac.
2. Boot SD/ SDHC card for Windows.
3. Recover data from bootable SD card.

Note: Some of the SD cards or SDHC cards come with high storage capacities and are compatible with almost all the relevant devices. But many devices are only compatible with the SD card for booting.

How to make Bootable SD card/ SDHC for Mac?

Follow the simple steps to create a bootable SD card/ SDHC card or USB drive for your Mac OS with the help of the terminal. This method of creating a bootable SD card for Mac doesn't need any external sources.

How To Format Sd Card In Macbook Air 7

1. Connect the SD/SDHC memory card to the computer.
2. Go to Utility – you can call utility with the help of the Finder option of the Launchpad on your Mac.
3. Select on the SD card and click Erase.
4. In Format, select MSDOS FAT from the dropdown. Enter a name in the ‘Name' field. This is optional for the user.
5. Click Erase.
6. Open the Terminal and go to the location of your system image – enter the appropriate location in the command.
7. In order to find all the disk drives in the Mac, type – SUDO DISKUTIL LIST – this will display all the connected disks with the Mac system.
8. Make sure about the partitions and the identifiers like disk2, disk3, etc. Try to keep the number of partitions to be just one.
9. To unmount the drive type; SUDO UMOUNT DISK2
10. To unmount the subpartitions type; SUDO DISKUTIL UMOUNT DISK2p1.
11. To make the SD card bootable type in; SUDO DD Bs=4m if= image_name.xyz of dev/disk2

Macbook Air Sd Card Reader

Once you perform the above steps, the command starts executing and then, makes the SD card bootable for Mac operating system.

Note: Users also look for how to recover data from the SD card on Mac using Remo Recover Mac software.

How to make an SD card or USB drive Bootable for Windows?

The steps to make a bootable SD/ SDHC card on Windows 10 or its previous versions comprise some similar steps. This involves the complete formatting of the SD card and then uploading the OS files to make a bootable SD card or SDHC card. Follow the below steps to make a bootable SD card or USB flash drive for Windows operating system.

Sd Card Macbook Pro

1. Connect the SD card or USB drive to your computer – make sure the SD card is empty and you do not have any valuable data on it.
2. Go to Command prompt – In order to do that, go to the Start menu and type cmd and hit Enter.
3. Go to diskpart – To do that, go to the Start menu and type diskpart, and press Enter.
4. In the new window, type; list disk – the window should be system32/diskpart.
5. From the list of the disks that your computer has, look for your SD/SDHC card or USB. You can refer to the memory space of the disks to identify your SD card.
   • Type; select diskX – the name of the disk you want to use i.e. the SD card.
   • Type; Clean
   • Type; Create Partition Primary
   • Type; Active
   • Type; Format Fs= NTFS Quick
   • Type; Assign
   • Type; Exit
6. Now, mount your ISO file of Windows – Right-click on the image and select Mount.
7. Run the following commands:
   • G: CD BOOT – Gis the iso file drive letter.
   • BOOTSECT.EXE/NT 60 F – F is the SD card or USB drive letter.
8. Copy all the files from the ISO image to the memory card.
9. Your SD/SDHC card is now in bootable mode, you can restart your computer and test the bootable SD/ SDHC card.

Have you lost files from a bootable SD card?

Utilize Remo SD card Recovery software (Windows/ Mac) to easily recover data from a bootable, formatted or corrupted memory card with ease. This tool works with a user-friendly interface to safely restore more than 300 file formats like photos, videos, raw-images, documents, audio files from various devices like USB, external hard drive, SD card, SDHC card, and many more. This tool is compatible with all the latest versions of Windows and Mac operating systems.

How To Format Sd Card In Macbook Air 4

Quick Alert:

While performing any of these steps double-check what you are selecting and what command you are executing. This is because any small mistake can corrupt your SD / SDHC card file system. Sometimes, you can fix your corrupt SD card in easy ways, but not always. There are chances that your card would become useless permanently. Hence, handle your card carefully. While using the CMD you might also cause data loss, which can be recovered with the help of Remo the best tool to recover an SD card.