How to partition and password a flash drive (USB stick) on Mac

This tutorial shows you step by step how to partition and password a flash drive on Mac. It is very useful when you have one USB stick with large storage capacity and you want to make several partitions.

Flash drive, mobile media for data storage or "memory USB stick”As they are also known, they have come to support large data capacities, the equivalent of a classic hard drive or an SSD. We have flash drives with connection USB or USB Type-C which also exceed 1-2 TB of storage space.

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How to partition and password a flash drive on Mac

In the case of a flash drive with large storage space, we can Partition and get it format them just like a classic had disk. Moreover, we can create more partitions of which one or more of them should be encrypted si password protected.

How to divide the storage space of a flash drive into several partitions or containers

With the introduction of the system APFS (Apple File System) by Apple in the spring of 2017, the possibility of split the volume of a hard disk into several compartments, called Container, without actually partitioning the disk space. Basically, in APFS, "container" means partition. With the peculiarity that the space on a "container" can be dynamic. From the total space of the disk (container) a predetermined space (volumes) or dynamic is shared.
The user has the option on Mac to divide the space of a flash drive into several classic partitions (partitioning) or to add APFS volumes in the main container. Each added volume will share a default space or a dynamic space.
benefit APFS it's like adding and deleting volumes APFS it is simpler and faster than in the case of a classic partition.

In our example we will take a flash drive SanDisk de 256 GB that we want to we divide into two volumes. Two virtual partitions. One visible to all users and one encrypted and spoken.

SanDisk Ultra USB 3.0 Media, connected to the Mac.

SanDisk Flash Drive Storage — **SanDisk** Flash Drive Storage

open Disk Utility and go to the menu on the top left (Views) to see all the devices.

Select diskthe physical under "External"And we click on the button"Erase"In disk Utility. At this moment, our flash drive is formatted ExFAT – MBR (Master Boot Record).

In the dialog box of "Erase”We choose a name for the first volume (iHowTo.Tips, in our case), then we choose the scheme: “GUID Partition Map", Then formatted: "APFS". It is very important to choose "GUID Partition Map”Before formatting. It is the only scheme that will allow you APFS.

Before you press the button "EraseMake sure you don't have important data on flash drive or that you backed up to them.

After the operation, under the name of the physical hard drive will appear a "Container"If under him a"Volume”With the name we chose. Both container and volume will be APFS. The space can be used for data storage.

At this moment we have a storage volume called "iHowTo.Tips" that we can access from Finder.

How do you password or encrypt a partition on a flash drive? Partition and password a flash drive.

Next, we will see how we can add another encrypted volume along with "ihowTo.Tips". A password protected flash drive partition. The last step in which you see how to partition and password a flash drive (USB stick) on Mac.

We can add the new volume by creating another container or inside the already created container. Select container on the left (Container disk3, in our case) and then click on "Partition”At the top of the Disk Utility.