Format a flash drive for mac and windows

Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows 7. For example, in the screenshot below, the macformatted drive is disk 2. It is a dedicated system utility tool that stores all the vital details and parameters related to windows settings. How to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac. You should go ahead and format your storage drive with exfat. Jul 29, 2019 formatting usb flash drive means emptying all files in the drive and returning to the initial state. And fat32 is the format that both mac and windows pc support. If you only use a mac computer, you can format your thumb drive so it can work on windows systems. Find out how to format an external drive or usb disk making the drive work with both windows pc and mac can read and write. Open up your my computer or computer in vista from the start menu and look for the drive that has a removable disk icon. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device.

How to format internal andor external drive to work properly on mac and windows computers. Usb drives have limited space and it becomes essential to format it for getting free space. How to format usb flash drive on mac stepbystep tutorial. By the way, we will talk about production usb and nonproduction usb. Rightclick your flash drive and then select format. How to format a usb flash drive on a mac techwalla. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility. Some flash drives have to be formatted first before you can store files on them.

When we connect them to retrieve the data they wont even show the disk. Next, click the delete button to start the formatting process. Mar 12, 2020 the first technique to format write protected usb drive is by using the registry editor on windows. The quickest way is to search on spotlight and click. Gpt is a newer format supporting larger capacities, but isnt compatible with. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. Learn how to format usb flash drive using cmd in windows 10, 8 and 7. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in. Hi there, i have a usb flash drive which was formatted for a mac. For example, in the screenshot below, the mac formatted drive is disk 2. Mar 15, 2018 rather than use a macformatted drive, you should get the important files off of it and use exfatformatted drives for moving data between macs and pcs.

It is required to format the usb drive to mac os file system to make it fully compatible with the platform. The option you pick will depend on what you plan on using the drive for. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos high sierra. Sep 19, 2011 the overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. Heres how to format a new flash drive thumb drive usb stick on a mac for both pc and mac. Format a drive using disk utility on a mac launch disk utility applications utilities. It shows windows was unable to complete the format. So, if it needs to be formatted at all, you need to format it as fat32. I put it in my win 7 pro machine to format it for win7.

How to format a flash drive on macos erase usb macmetric. Jan 30, 2017 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 sdcard in fat, fat32, exfat. The process for formatting a drive is different depending on the system youre using. If you want to use a usb drive on both mac and windows, then you need to format the drive to the format supported by both systems. Mar 03, 2020 as you can see, exfat is the only file system that works with all versions of windows and macos and does not have any max filesize or partitionsize limits.

Apr 30, 2016 now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos easeus. 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. But if it is ntfs, format your flash drive to make it completely compatible with macos. Therefore, no matter you cannot format flash drive to fat32 or ntfs in windows, this freeware can get it fixed. Go to the applications folder on your macs hard drive, then.

Not every flash drive out there can be used with a mac computer right out of the box. Usb flash drive format tool free download and software. We all make mistakes, and you wouldnt be the first person in the world to accidentally format a usb flash drive. With exfat, you can write and read on both mac and windows pcs and is our recommended option for an ultraportable usb device. In this article, we are taking a closer look at the disk utility, which comes with all recent versions of the mac os x operating system and how you can use it to format usb drive. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows 7 by jack scicluna photography, llc guest writer. Then, click the delete tab and select the msdos fat or exfat format. 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. By using the command prompt, you can format any usb flash drive, pen drive or memory stick that is write protected, corrupted, damaged, unreadable, unrecognized by pc and mobile.

How to format flash drive on win7 when it was formatted on a mac. 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. Format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows cult of mac. In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in a volume label if you want, and then click start. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows. It recognizes the drive, installs the drivers, yet never shows up as an active. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility posted by ant on march 11th, 2012 43 comments if you have an external hard drive or usb flash drive that youd like to use on both macs and windows pcs, choosing the right file system to format the drive can be confusing. To format a usb flash drive using file explorer, use these steps. In other words, you can read and write fat32 file format on both the operating system. 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. Apple file system format or the older mac os extended format, and it automatically chooses a compatible format for you. Disk drill, a premium data recovery solution for mac os x with support for all popular file formats and common storage devices, is here to help you recover deleted files from usb flash drive. Click ok to the format warning and wait until the process is complete. 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.

The nt file system ntfs is the file system that modern windows versions use by default. 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. Developers of the program claim that the fat is the best format for usb drive to avoid conflicts with other operating systems. To learn how to format write protected usb drive via the registry editor, follow these steps. The first technique to format write protected usb drive is by using the registry editor on windows. Best usb format tools pen drive stick formatters for. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os x, though with some drawbacks. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and.

Under the devices and drivers section, rightclick the flash drive and. Your new drive should appear in the lefthand column, and clicking the. Lets see how to format usb drive on a windows pc first. To format a driveon a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. 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.

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 internet. Jun 14, 2019 unlike windows in file explorer, mac os x and macos do not include a format drive option in the finder. How to fix cannot format usb flash drive in windows 10. May 29, 2018 to format external drive to file system compatible with mac and pc, connect the drive to your computer and follow the detailed steps given below take formatting hard drive to exfat in windows 7 for example. Disk utility application in macos is the best option to format a flash drive on macos. The latest trend with computers is not including a cddvd drive.

Go to the applications folder on your macs hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility macyourself. Feb 21, 2018 when we connect them to retrieve the data they wont even show the disk. To format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. Nov 01, 2011 choosing the best format to work between macs and pcs with a flash drive. A drive with two partitions, for example can have one partitioned in exfat and another in a mac os extended format, so you can use the same drive on a mac and a windows computer. So, if users anticipate using the flash drive with more than one operating system, they will definitely benefit from the fat32 file system.

This wikihow teaches you how to change your flash drives default file format. How to format usb drives on windows 10 make tech easier. Formatting usb flash drive means emptying all files in the drive and returning to the initial state. Following are the top features of this usb flash drive. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. Windows will format the drive as exfat and youll be able to use the drive on both windows and mac. Next, open a command prompt window as administrator. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. However, there are instances that not unless that your flash drive is build to use for your mac, you will not be able to format it. Luckily, you can fix cannot format usb flash drive in windows. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. A vast majority of video production will be done on a mac or windows operating system, so we arent going to cover linux. Sharing a hardflash drive across windows, os x, and linux.

Mac os x users can format a flash disk by loading the disk utility program located in the utilities folder that is inside the applications. How to format internal and or external drive to work properly on mac and windows computers. How to format a usb flash drive on mac wondershare. This drive will be formatted, so make sure it doesnt have any important files on it. If you have an old flash drive or one that was formatted to work with windows or another operating system, you can still format your flash drive to work on a mac.

Among many quality flash drives, sandisk extreme pro 128 gb drive is considered the most popular usb flash drive for windows and mac. Feb 17, 2020 creating a windows 10 boot drive is easy peasy. To put it simply, if you want to share external hard drive between mac and pc, you need to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. Format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows youtube. How to use diskpart to clean and format drive not working on. It will not affect the performance of the flash drive. Select your external hard drive or usb flash drive from the list on the left. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. For example, choose fat32 if youre formatting the flash drive for use with a gaming console, or choose ntfs if youre creating a windowsonly backup drive. Format a flash drive on mac and make it compatible with windows computers connect the usb to your mac and open applications utilities disk utility. Therefore, its perfect for a usb flash drive or external disk, especially when you need to save files more than 4gb in size. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. 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. That said, if you are using both a pc and mac in the workflow, youll need to use a different format.

Volume format most manufacturers use the fat 32 or msdos fat volume format. Use microsofts media creation tool to ensure you have a windows 10 boot drive handy should you ever run into issues with your current pc. Jul 22, 2019 how to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. You will learn the easiest way to format drive on mac and windows as exfat. How to format usb drives on windows 10 by ayo isaiah apr 30, 2016 apr 28, 2016 windows if you have a malfunctioning or corrupted usb drive, formatting it may be the best way to get it back to its original working state. Dont worry, the following part will show you the solution for windows and mac os users. The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at the same time and type in disk utility to find the program.

Feb 21, 2020 its a universal format that is compatible with mac os xmacos, windows, linux and dos systems. How to format usb flash drive on windows or mac os. First, note the number of the disk in the disk management window. Install windows from a usb flash drive microsoft docs. How to format flash drive on win7 when it was formatted on. The program is able to format and repair usb flash drives under windows 7, windows 10 and earlier versions of the os.

Luckily, you can fix cannot format usb flash drive in windows 10 using few tricks. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. Aug 27, 2019 in todays technology, if you buy a usb hard drive, you can just simply use it directly using your mac. If you want the storage device to only show up on mac systems, then format your storage device with apfs. Regardless of whether your block device is a hard drive or flash drive, and regardless of its logical block size, format udf will produce a udf drive that can be recognized automatically on windows. Dec 17, 2018 if your flash drives file system is msdos or exfat you can use it as it is without further formatting.

How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmac. If you have a usb flash drive inserted in your mac, you can see it under the external in the disk utility. I use the exfat format so you can go between the two of them. Unlike windows in file explorer, mac os x and macos do not include a format drive option in the finder. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Moving from windows to mac transferring your documents. Jan, 2020 besides, when windows 10 cannot format flash drive to fat32 for its big capacity surpassing 32gb, this software is also very useful since it breaks out this limitation and is able to format a large hard drive such as 2tb to fat32. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. Technician pc windows pc that youll use to format the usb flash drive. Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Go to open disk utility, which is located under applications in the finder menu. Dec 29, 2015 how to format a hard drive for both windows and mac.

A corrupted disk erases all the data present on the disk and doesnt allow it to format the disk. Hook it up to your mac and launch the disk utility app, located in your utilities folder which is in applications. 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. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. In the essay, we will talk about how to format usb flash drive on windows and on mac os and how to recover usb data. Formatting your flash drive will remove all files or folders on the drive, so make sure you back up your files before formatting your drive. Windows cannot read a mac formatted disk, but macs can read a windows formatted one. Formatting your flash drive will typically remove any files or folders on the drive, so make sure you back up your files before. Aug 16, 2019 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. 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.