How to Force Format a USB on Mac?

macos tips
1

After a failed bootable USB creation using balenaEtcher,
my USB drive became locked and unusable.
Every time I try to erase it,
I get the error
Unable to begin erase operation: A writable disk is required (-69772).
Is there any method to forcefully format and restore the USB?

2

This post can help you: Can’t Erase USB Drive A Writable Disk is Required -69772

3

For force formatting:

On Mac: you can open Terminal, and type diskutil list to see the USB’s identifier. Then type diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 USB MBRFormat /dev/disk2. (Replace the disk2 with the drive name.)

On Windows: Run diskpart, type diskpart
list disk
select disk #
clean
create partition primary
format fs=fat32 quick
assign

For restoring the data, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac or Windows seems a good choice, which can recover data from the internal, external, unreadable drives.

4
  1. Recover your data ASAP.
  2. Erase your drive in macOS Recovery Mode.
  3. Format the specific volume, not the entire drive in Disk Utility.
  4. Run First Aid to repair the drive.
  5. Delete partitions or volumes.
  6. Retry erasing the disk several times.
  7. Erase the drive in Terminal.