The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wifi menu in the menu bar. 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. You can then rightclick in the empty space and select new simple volume to create a partition and format it with the windows ntfs or fat32 file systems. 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. Unlike windows in file explorer, mac os x and macos do not include a format drive option in the finder. Format usb or flash drive software for windows free. Feb 21, 2020 how to format a usb flash drive with mac to fat32.
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. Install windows on your older mac using boot camp apple support. Go to the applications folder on your macs hard drive, then. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in. I put it in my win 7 pro machine to format it for win7. Therefore, it is advisable to format your external. This format will allow you to use your flash drive on mac without any limitations. Find my computer in the start menu or by typing it in the search bar. How to format a usb flash drive on a mac techwalla. Erase drive but consider consulting an expert first. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. Hi there, i have a usb flash drive which was formatted for a mac.
Save any files you need to another volume before formatting. Format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows youtube. To learn how to format write protected usb drive via the registry editor, follow these steps. Select your usb flash drive on the sidebar, choose erase. Feb 17, 2020 creating a windows 10 boot drive is easy peasy. Usb drives can be formatted on your mac using the disk utility application. It is a dedicated system utility tool that stores all the vital details and parameters related to windows settings. How to format usb flash drive on windows or mac os. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp.
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. At the bottom of the main window are storage device details, including disk description, connection. The latest trend with computers is not including a cddvd drive. How to format usb drives on windows 10 by ayo isaiah posted on apr 30, 2016 apr 28, 2016 in 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. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. To share a usb drive between a mac and a windows pc, there are two disk formats to choose from.
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. Windows cannot read a mac formatted disk, but macs can read a windows formatted one. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmac. How to format internal andor external drive to work properly on mac and windows computers. If you want to format a hard drive or usb flash drive on your computer, disk formatting tool is the best choice. Before you install windows, install all macos updates. Is there a way you can format the flash drive using mac os x an. Jun 14, 2019 unlike windows in file explorer, mac os x and macos do not include a format drive option in the finder. 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. Gpt is a newer format supporting larger capacities, but isnt compatible with.
Like i said, if you want to use the device for both. Many computer users who use a removable flash drive have the demand for formatting it to the fat32 file system. The first technique to format write protected usb drive is by using the registry editor on windows. Learn how to format usb flash drive using cmd in windows 10, 8 and 7. Sep 19, 2011 the overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. 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. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmaclinux. The process for formatting a drive is different depending on the system youre using. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os. The overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. Hi, i formated my flash drive on my mac, and now it will not open my files in windows. 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. How to format a usb drive for mac and pc compatibility youtube.
By the way, we will talk about production usb and nonproduction usb. How to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac. May 29, 2018 if you want to make your drive compatible with mac and windows, you need to format it with a common file system for mac and windows. Go to the applications folder on your macs hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. If you have made the mistake of buying a flash drive they runs on a fat32 file format you dont have to discard it altogether. 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. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. How to format usb flash drive to ntfs in windows 10. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac easily. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos high sierra july 20, 2018 dennis sellers 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 user. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows 7 by jack scicluna photography, llc guest writer. With it, you have the freedom to write, copy and edit files ssd, hdd and flash drives formatted with mac os extented.
Nov 01, 2011 choosing the best format to work between macs and pcs with a flash drive. On your mac, log in as an administrator, quit all open apps, then log out any other users. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x admfactory. Jul 22, 2019 how to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. We all make mistakes, and you wouldnt be the first person in the world to accidentally format a usb flash drive. With mac os extended journaled format, you can setup os x startup drive.
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. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. 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. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos. Here is a tutorial help you read mac drive on windows. How to format usb flash drive on mac stepbystep tutorial. Select your thumb drive in the disk utility window then click the erase tab. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos high sierra. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos easeus. 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. I think i will take dtravis7 advice and format it using fat. 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.
This wikihow teaches you how to change your flash drives default file format. Lets see how to format usb drive on a windows pc first. The quickest way is to search on spotlight and click. If you have a usb flash drive inserted in your mac, you can see it under the external in the disk utility.
To format a driveon a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. Under the devices and drivers section, rightclick the flash drive and. How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. Dec 29, 2015 how to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. You will learn the easiest way to format drive on mac and windows as exfat. Make sure you have right files and know how to do it.
Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility. Open disk management, the hard drive manager included with all versions of windows. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps. Go to open disk utility, which is located under applications in the finder menu. Format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows cult of mac. 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. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer.
Dont worry, the following part will show you the solution for windows and mac os users. How to format usb drives on windows 10 make tech easier. Aug 27, 2019 in todays technology, if you buy a usb hard drive, you can just simply use it directly using your mac. How to format flash drive on win7 when it was formatted on. This format is considered as default file system format of the mac os x drives. Windows will format the drive as exfat and youll be able to use the drive on both windows and mac. How to format a flash drive on macos erase usb macmetric.
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. If your drive is an apfs format or a mac os format you can format your drive easily but if it is a fat32 format this may be a problem. 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. Apr 30, 2016 now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10. Usb flash drive format tool free download and software. In this article, we will introduce 5 disk formatting tools for windows and mac to help you securely format hard drive usb flash drive or memory card on a pc or a mac.
Format usb flash drive to ntfs using disk management 1. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. 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 share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Mar 12, 2020 the first technique to format write protected usb drive is by using the registry editor on windows. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. 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. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac.
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. 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. Some flash drives have to be formatted first before you can store files on them. 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. On windows 10, the ability to format a usb flash drive can come in handy in a number of scenarios.
If you only use a mac computer, you can format your thumb drive so it can work on windows systems. The instructions below are for windows 10, but other versions of windows from windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exfat for use with mac as well. Jul 29, 2019 formatting usb flash drive means emptying all files in the drive and returning to the initial state. Volume format most manufacturers use the fat 32 or msdos fat volume format. Mar 20, 2020 here are three proven methods on how to format usb flash drive to ntfs. 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. Follow these easy steps to format a hard drive in windows 10, windows 8, windows 7, windows vista, or windows xp. 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. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive.
Formatting usb flash drive means emptying all files in the drive and returning to the initial state. In device manager, look for your usb drive in disk drives tab. Moving from windows to mac transferring your documents. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Compare with the other commonly used ntfs file system on a flash drive, fat32 has a compatibility advantage across many operating systems. I use the exfat format so you can go between the two of them. To format a usb flash drive using file explorer, use these steps. The other formats microsofts ntfs and apples mac os extended dont work well on the other operating system.
Mac devices on the other hand run on either mac os extended or apfs. Heres how to format a new flash drive thumb drive usb stick on a mac for both pc and mac. Have you ever ran into a problem where youre trying to use a flash drive on both windows and mac. But sometimes, when you connect the ixpand flash drive to one of those devices, it reports some errors because the file system is corrupted, become raw or just. Once the drive is formatted it will be compatible to be read and written to on both a mac and pc, and the resulting fat file system is compatible with all versions of mac os x, windows 95, 98, windows xp, vista, 7, windows 8, even windows 10, its one of. 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. 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. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os x, though with some drawbacks.
For apple mac users, the easier way to format usb flash drive to fat32 is using the disk utility. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. 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. The file allocation table 32 fat32 was the standard windows file system before ntfs. 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. It recognizes the drive, installs the drivers, yet never shows up as an active. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility macyourself. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. The nt file system ntfs is the file system that modern windows versions use by default.
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. Connect the usb fash drive to the mac os x computer. Formatting your flash drive will typically remove any files or folders on the drive, so make sure you back up your files before. So, if it needs to be formatted at all, you need to format it as fat32. 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. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Opening disk management can be done a number of ways depending on your version of windows, but the easiest method is to type diskmgmt. Fat32 and exfat can be compatible with mac and windows and you can choose one after realizing their respective merits and defects based on your demands. 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 on mac. How to format flash drive on win7 when it was formatted on a mac. Thankfully, exfat a strict upgrade over fat32, is a file system optimized for usb flash drives. 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. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows.
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