In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in a volume label if you want, and then click start. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. External data storage devices such as usb flash drives, external hard disk drives hdds, and solid state drives ssds provide one of the easiest ways to transfer files between separate computers without accessing the. It offers secure and easy solution to reformat usb flash drive on mac.
Moving files from macformatted external hard drive to pc. Go to the applications folder on your mac s hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. Top 5 usb flash drive formatting software for mac doyourdata. Both mac os x and windows also support the fat32 file system, but we dont recommend it for hard drives. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. As you can see, exfat is the only file system that works with all versions of windows and. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. The drive is probably now formatted for a mac only file system. Developers of the program claim that the fat is the best format for usb drive to avoid conflicts with other operating systems. This format is considered as default file system format of the mac os x drives. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. If you want to use the drive between a windows and mac machine, you can format it to fat32.
You can format the drive from either the mac or the windows machine. Click ok to the format warning and wait until the process is complete. Be sure to select the drive all the way to the left not a volume indented below the drive. Its a universal format that is compatible with mac os xmacos, windows, linux and dos systems. How to format usb flash drive on mac stepbystep tutorial. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows 7 by jack scicluna photography, llc guest writer. Choosing the best format to work between macs and pcs with a flash drive.
Windows will format the drive as exfat and youll be able to use the drive on both windows and mac. Its below the file system heading near the top of the page. This format will allow you to use your flash drive on mac without any limitations. So, if it needs to be formatted at all, you need to format it as fat32. If you only use a mac computer, you can format your thumb drive so it can work on windows systems. Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility. Lets see how to format usb drive on a windows pc first. If the drive comes formatted in ntfs, which is the default file system for windows, youre going to want to reformat the drive because mac os x.
I dont know why i am so amused that you can format a drive for fat32 much more easily on a mac with a utility that comes included with every mac when the format is not one that you would normally use on a mac. Super eraser for mac is a very powerful yet easytouse mac data erasing software application. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. It is a dedicated system utility tool that stores all the vital details and parameters related to windows settings. The exfat format will not give any limitations on the file size that you are going to store on your flash drive and you can still use it on both windows and macs that are running in mac os x snow leopard or later version. Technician pc windows pc that youll use to format the usb flash drive. To format a flash drive on a mac, plug in the drive and open the applications folder, the utilities folder and then disk utility. How to format a usb flash drive using file explorer. So, if you want to format a flash drive connected to a usb, firewire, or thunderbolt usb type c or not on a mac you need do the following procedure. How to format a flash drive on macos erase usb macmetric.
Go to open disk utility, which is located under applications in the finder menu. The first technique to format write protected usb drive is by using the registry editor on windows. Have you ever ran into a problem where youre trying to use a flash drive on both windows and mac. Install windows from a usb flash drive microsoft docs. Select your external hard drive or usb flash drive from the list on the left. The program is able to format and repair usb flash drives under windows 7, windows 10 and earlier versions of the os. One thing you need took care of that the usb drive needs in gpt partition in order to work on a mac computer otherwise it wont boot. If you need to format external hard drive mac or windows, you. How to quickly create a macos bootable usb on windows 10. Remember, this will erase all the files on the drive. This is the easiest way and simply requires you to plug in your usb drive, open the windows file explorer and right click your drive to view a number of actions that you can perform. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device.
In macos, choose apple menu system preferences, click software update, then install all available windows support software updates. Macs and pcs use different file systems, which can make it tricky to put data from your mac on a flash or hard drive and give it to a windows. How to format internal andor external drive to work properly on mac and windows computers. Rather than use a mac formatted drive, you should get the important files off of it and use exfatformatted drives for moving data between macs and pcs.
Usb drive format tool is a tiny freeware utility designed for formatting any usb storage devices usb flash drive, usb stick, usb pen drive, usb portable drive, and. However, if you want to use part of the drive for os xs time machine backups, you should do this from the mac, since theres an extra step to make the drive compatible for time machine. It will not affect the performance of the flash drive. Format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows cult of mac. So if you think you might need to plug the usb drive into a mac running an older version of macos, format it as mac os extended. If this is the case, chances are that its using a mbr partition, and the usb drive needs a gpt partition to. Be absolutely sure you have your files off the drive and that youve selected the correct drive you want to format. Go to applications and utilities and launch disk utility.
The application will appear on the screen, and you will see the main window, with a list of available storage devices on the left and various disk management options on the right. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. Dont worry, the following part will show you the solution for windows and mac os users. Usb flash drive format tool free download and software. I recommend using exfat instead, which is essentially a newer version of the same format. At the bottom of the main window are storage device details, including disk description, connection. How to format flash drive on win7 when it was formatted on.
How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos. Moving from windows to mac transferring your documents. How to format a large capacity usb flash drive, fat32, windows. If you have a usb flash drive inserted in your mac, you can see it under the external in the disk utility. The overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. How to format usb flash drive on windows or mac os. Under the file system toggle it between ntfs and fat32. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os x, though with some drawbacks. Make sure you have right files and know how to do it. Apple file system format or the older mac os extended format, and it automatically chooses a compatible format for you. Use the file system dropdown menu and select the ntfs option.
How to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac. How to format usb drives on windows 10 make tech easier. When you have a flash drive, the first thing you may need to do is format it in such a way so it can be read by both mac and windows machines. Is there a way you can format the flash drive using mac os x and still be able to access the files using the windows operating system. Install windows on your older mac using boot camp apple. I formated my flash drive on my mac, and now it will not open my files in windows. How do i format a usb drive on a pc that was formatted on a mac. A dropdown menu will appear with the following options. Clicking the format option will open a new window where you can configure the available options before formating your drive. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility.
Windows cannot read a mac formatted disk, but macs can read a windows formatted one. To format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. The latest trend with computers is not including a cddvd drive. How to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac you will be presented with a dropped down panel where you need to type a name for the volume and select the format type as mac os extended journaled and partition map scheme as guid. Because fat32 supports only up to 4 gb large files, it should be used only with flash drives. It is the easy, secure way to wipe data on usb flash drive under mac os. To share a usb drive between a mac and a windows pc, there are two disk formats to choose from. Formatting usb flash drive means emptying all files in the drive and returning to the initial state.
First, note the number of the disk in the disk management window. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows. The process for formatting a drive is different depending on the system youre using. Under the devices and drivers section, rightclick the flash drive and select the format option. Unlike windows in file explorer, mac os x and macos do not include a format drive option in the finder. In this guide, we show you virtually every method to format a usb flash drive and quickly erase its contents or fix data corruption and other issues using windows 10s builtin tools. Your flash drive should be listed in the left menu.
If your mac restarts after installing an update, open software update again to install any additional updates. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. You can format a hard drive or usb flash disk specifically so that it will be compatible with both mac os x and windows pc computers. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmac. It is strongly recommended to use mac data erasing software to reformat usb flash drive on mac.
I put it in my win 7 pro machine to format it for win7. For apple mac users, there are two ways to format a usb flash drive to fat32, including disk utility and. Its beneath the devices and drives heading in the middle of the page. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows. This drive will be formatted, so make sure it doesnt have any important files on it. Apfs is optimized for ssd solid state drive such as flash drives, so if you reformat a flash drive on a mac, you should definitely choose apfs unless you plan to use it with a prehigh sierra mac, of course. Flash drive not recognized issue on windows and mac. Rightclick your flash drive and then select format. Once finished, it will tell you what the flash drives problem is. For example, in the screenshot below, the macformatted drive is disk 2. This option is near the middle of the dropdown menu.
Insert the drive in the mac and start disk utility utilities folder. On the left, rightclick the usb flash drive, select the format disk for mac option. You want to do this before creating the bootable media because there is a good chance that the drive was formatted using a windows device. Read mac formatted drives with windows when you plug a drive thats been formatted for mac into a windows pc, you may find that it isnt readable. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. Format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows youtube. The latest top 5 usb flash drive formatting software for mac download usb flash drive formatting software to format, reformat, quick format. By the way, we will talk about production usb and nonproduction usb. Read mac formatted drives with windows the tech guy. Best usb format tools pen drive stick formatters for. Use your usb drive rightclick on it and select format disk format this will format the usb drive so that it can be used to store the mac os operating system. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. It recognizes the drive, installs the drivers, yet never shows up as an active.
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