Format a thumb drive for mac or windows

Use microsofts media creation tool to ensure you have a windows 10 boot drive. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Aug 27, 2019 in todays technology, if you buy a usb hard drive, you can just simply use it directly using your mac. Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility. 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. Install the parallels desktop emulator on your mac os. The above command will format the usb drive in the fat32 format which is ideal for usb drives. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x.

Find my computer in the start menu or by typing it in the search bar. Be careful using these instructions to ensure you are formatting the correct disk. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. Here well take how to format usb on windows pc without losing data as an example. Dont worry, the following part will show you the solution for windows and mac os users. Usb drives can be formatted on your mac using the disk utility application. How to format usb flash drive on mac stepbystep tutorial. Apr 30, 2016 now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10. The latest trend with computers is not including a cddvd drive. Feb 17, 2020 creating a windows 10 boot drive is easy peasy.

Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. How to format usb drive to ntfs windows 10 all 4 ways. 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. Choosing the best format to work between macs and pcs with a flash drive. 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. Download hp usb disk storage format tool on mac, install it on emulated windows.

For example, if a usb flash drive that contains a bootable copy of macos doesnt show up on the startup manager, you may need to repair the disk permission. Transferring a 4gb or larger file to a usb flash drive or memory card. How to format your usb drive with exfat in windows 7810. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. We all make mistakes, and you wouldnt be the first person in the world to accidentally format a usb flash drive. Heres how to format a new flash drive thumb drive usb stick on a mac for both pc and mac.

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. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows 7 by jack scicluna photography, llc guest writer. Feb 21, 2020 how to format a usb flash drive with mac to fat32. If you want to use a different file system on your usb drive, youll need to format it. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmaclinux. Most usb flash drive users do not ever think to format their drives. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility.

Now you can share files between a mac and windows computer. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos easeus. Go to the applications folder on your mac s hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. How to format pen drive on mac just like windows, mac also allows a seamless solution to do pen drive format. In this case, you want to redo the entire process again, but this time use the following steps to use the diskpart commandline utility on windows to create the appropriate gpt partition. Learn how to format your usb flash drive or usb external drive so you can use it on both mac os x and windows computers. How to format a usb flash drive on a mac techwalla. Compare with the other commonly used ntfs file system on a flash drive, fat32 has a compatibility advantage across many operating systems. This article will teach you how to format the usb flash drive so both macs and pcs can read them.

Formatting your usb drive using windows tools you can easily format your usb drive with just the builtin features of your windows computer. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os. 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. Formatting your flash drive will typically remove any files or folders on the drive, so make sure you back up your files before. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os x, though with some drawbacks. Windows cannot read a mac formatted disk, but macs can read a windows formatted one. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows 7. How to format and create a usb drive or pen drive that is compatible with windows 10, 8, 7 or mac or linux. You dont have to be a technological wiz to reformat your usb drive. 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.

Also, remember to format the usb drive with a apfs or mac os extended format. How to quickly create a macos bootable usb on windows 10. However it is an easy way to make the most out of your data storage experience. Learn steps on how to format usb drive with exfat using cmd, file explorer and free exfat format tool in windows 7. 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. Sometimes windows 10 setup can become confused if it sees a thumb drive. In the screenshot below, the drive is formatted with the exfat file system. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in. 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. Windows will format the drive as exfat and youll be able to use the drive on both windows and mac. As simple as the process seems, it tells you a lot about your system. It can help you manage system partitions, erase an external unit like a thumb drive, and even repair your disk.

For whatever reason, the option to format usb drives larger than 32gb with the fat32 file system isnt present in the regular windows format tool. Most do not even realize it is possible to manipulate their file storage in this way. Jul 16, 2017 heres how to format a new flash drive thumb driveusb stick on a mac for both pc and mac. If you format your fat32 drive in windows, the drive partition cannot be larger than 32gb. If you only use a mac computer, you can format your thumb drive so it can work on windows systems. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. However, for this you need to follow the next steps. In this case, some users might try to format the usb drive to ntfs in windows 10 for different reasons. Volume format most manufacturers use the fat 32 or msdos fat volume format.

Many computer users who use a removable flash drive have the demand for formatting it to the fat32 file system. Apple file system format or the older mac os extended format, and it automatically chooses a compatible format for you. Nov 19, 2015 how to format an external hard drive or pen drive. Technician pc windows pc that youll use to format the usb flash drive. The file allocation table 32 fat32 was the standard windows file system before ntfs. You will learn the easiest way to format drive on mac and windows as exfat. Dec 29, 2015 how to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. The process for formatting a drive is different depending on the system youre using.

Its exactly the same procedure if you need to reformat a flash drive on a mac. Go to the applications folder on your macs hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. How to format usb flash drive to ntfs in windows 10. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. 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. This wikihow teaches you how to change your flash drives default file format. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. As you can see, exfat is the only file system that works with all versions of windows and. You can use fsntfs instead to format the drive as ntfs which will then only work on a windows pc. How to format usb drives on windows 10 make tech easier. Fat32 is a solid file system for external drives, so long as you dont plan to use files over 4gb in size. To format usb flash drive without erasing or losing data, youll have to go through the below two stages with the usb drive which you want to format. The overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows.

Moving from windows to mac transferring your documents. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos. How to format usb drive on windows 10 using command prompt. Recover data from inaccessible or raw usb flash drive before formatting. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Format usb for mac and pc on windows quickly and securely. Jun 14, 2018 format usb drive for both mac and pc use. So, if it needs to be formatted at all, you need to format it as fat32. Im sure that after following this step by step tutorial on the same, you would certainly be able to format a write protected usb drive on both mac and windows systems. Lets see how to format usb drive on a windows pc first. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows.

For better performance, people need to choose certain file systems in different situations. 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. 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. Windows 7 professional, windows 7 ultimate, windows 8. This drive will be formatted, so make sure it doesnt have any important files on it. 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. In device manager, look for your usb drive in disk drives tab. How to format a large capacity usb flash drive, fat32, windows. Now that we know the good and bad about every file system, let see how to format a drive in windows, mac, and linux.

Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. The hp usb format tool allows you to format the usb flash drive in the mac os x. 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. I use the exfat format so you can go between the two of them. To do this, you can take the assistance of disk utility, which is a dedicated system component in mac. 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. Here are three proven methods on how to format usb flash drive to ntfs. Thats because most of the computers in the world run windows, and windows uses a different file system, usually one known as fat32. The other formats microsofts ntfs and apples mac os extended dont work well on the other operating system. Sep 19, 2011 the overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. Format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows cult of mac. One simple way to make the drive readable on both platforms is to format it to exfat, which both operating systems can understand. Save any files you need to another volume before formatting. The other limitation is the total size of the partition.

This brings us to the end of this extensive guide on how to format a write protected pen drive. So, if you want to use an external hard drive on both windows and mac, you need to format it to a filesystem that is compatible with windows pc and mac. Install windows from a usb flash drive microsoft docs. Most external hard drives and usb drives are compatible for use on mac computers as long as you format the devices for use with mac os x. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility macyourself. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x jan 4, 2012 73 comments if you want to insure full mac compatibility of a new external hard drive or flash disk, youll want to format the drive to the mac os extended filesystem. Now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10. Format usb flash drive to ntfs using disk management 1. Jan 15, 2019 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.

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. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. A file system is a method and structure of data used by an operating system, called windows, linux or mac os, for reading media files such as disks, removable drives, etc. 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. To share a usb drive between a mac and a windows pc, there are two disk formats to choose from. How to format hard drives on windows, mac and linux. How to format usb drives larger than 32gb with fat32 on. Need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Read mac formatted drives with windows the tech guy. Usb flash drive format tool free download and software. For example, change the file system to copy files too large for fat32, fixing raw usb drive, restore usb drive back to full capacity, etc. Following are the top features of this usb flash drive. Youll see the drive s file system displayed to the right of format under the general heading.

Sep 26, 2018 need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. How to create a gpt partition on a usb flash drive. Best usb format tools pen drive stick formatters for. If the usb flash drive is not working using transmac, it could be still a partition problem. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. How to format a usb drive for mac and pc compatibility youtube.

Next, you should assign a file system to the 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. Plug the usb drive into the usb port of your computer of laptop. How to open mac format usb devce in windows youtube. How to format a usb drive for mac and pc compatibility. Oct 29, 2019 just like windows, mac also allows a seamless solution to do pen drive format. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows. After making a bootable usb drive for installing operating systems like ubuntu via pen drive using softwares like poweriso, when you format your pen drive using windows or ubuntu it will show about only 2 mb of memory in a 4 gb pen drive. Mar 20, 2020 change this to whatever drive letter youre trying to work with. Have you ever ran into a problem where youre trying to use a flash drive on both windows and mac. 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.