Proceed based on whether youre erasing your startup disk or some other disk. There will be no space wasted by protected mac partitions. Dec 29, 2015 your exfatformatted drive or partition can now be used for both windows and mac. Then the best solution is to reformat the unreadable usb drive and make it readable or usable again.
If you have any issues with a builtin drive you can boot from the external disk. The latest trend with computers is not including a cddvd drive. 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. If a wireless network is available, you can choose it from the wi. Make sure you have right files and know how to do it. Most do not even realize it is possible to manipulate their file storage in this way. How to format usb flash drive on mac stepbystep tutorial. Oct 29, 2019 by now, you must be able to reformat thumb drive on mac without any trouble. Feb 03, 2020 disk utility in macos high sierra or later can erase most disks and volumes for mac using either the newer apfs apple file system format or the older mac os extended format, and it automatically chooses a compatible format for you. Dec 17, 2018 this format will allow you to use your flash drive on mac without any limitations.
How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x admfactory. Whether the usb should be readable by windows machines and mac machines or just by mac and not readable in windows. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. See this stepbystep tutorial for how to format your usb drive for mac machine macos and pc windows 10. This file system format is highly recommended for macos. How to format a flash drive on macos erase usb macmetric. The best way to fix flash drive not recognized on windows and mac. A jump drive, or usb flash drive, offers convenient portability to your data. 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 usb drive external hard drive on macos catalina. How to format usb flash drive on a mac 2018 youtube. Your usb drive will now be formatted and ready for use on your mac computer. Hey guys thanks for watching, i hope you enjoyed, and if you did hit like like button. Go to the applications folder on your mac s hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmac. Directions for creating a usb drive tesla motors club. Plug the drive into a usb socket if you have a recent macbook or macbook pro. Feb 21, 2020 how to format a usb flash drive with mac to fat32.
Once the formatting process is finished, you should be able to transfer files to the newly formatted flash drive. Format usb drive, external hard drive on macos catalina. Most usb flash drive users do not ever think to format their drives. Some flash drives have to be formatted first before you can store files on them. Usb drives and external hard drives on macos catalina are used for storing and backing up important data such as photos, videos, audios, images, notes, messages, music files, pdf files, word documents, among other files. How to repairfix unreadable usb flash drives on mac. Click here for instructions to format with mac solution 2 format in ntfs warning. If you have a mac lying around, you can plug the drive into a mac and back up the files. And keep in mind that if you are going to format your flash drive, make sure that you choose the right format so that you can use it.
If first aid failed to fix the unreadable drive, it indicates that the usb drive might have severe errors beyond its capability. Simply erasing a usb drive in disk utility will automatically format it too. Apr 30, 2016 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. 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. Formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep. I really would like to have a usb drive that plays well with the chromebook, car and macintosh. Your exfatformatted drive or partition can now be used for both windows and mac. If you want to use a different file system on your usb drive, youll need to format it.
How to reinstall macos from macos recovery apple support. A mac cannot be started from an exfat formatted disk. How to format a write protected usb flash drive in 2019. How to format a usb flash drive on a mac techwalla.
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. The exfat formatting progress should be completed in a short while. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. This process wont actually convert the file system. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos easeus. The quickest way is to search on spotlight and click. Formatting a memory card, flash drive or device using a pc. If your flash drive s file system is msdos or exfat you can use it as it is without further formatting. Time machine, however, gives you the possibility to create an automatic backup of the data on your hard drive before formatting. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows 7 by jack scicluna photography, llc guest writer. Each time you access the drive, you will be prompted for that password, although keychain will offer to remember it for you when using it on your mac. Locate the drive name from the left hand side of disk utility and click on it click on the erase tab across the top next to format. Click to select your usb drive from the left panel.
I use the exfat format so you can go between the two of them. The operating system is pretty userfriendly and will let you access the connected pen drive without any trouble. Compare with the other commonly used ntfs file system on a flash drive, fat32 has a compatibility advantage across many operating systems. If you only use a mac computer, you can format your thumb drive so it can work on windows systems. 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. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility.
Mar 03, 2020 because the process of reformatting a disk drive will very likely erase all content and make recovery impossible. By now, you must be able to reformat thumb drive on mac without any trouble. Use the file system dropdown menu and select the ntfs option. Go to open disk utility, which is located under applications in the finder menu. To format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. Oct 15, 2017 however, this is a tutorial on how to format a usb flash drive, not to do it for no reason. The drive will now be formatted for use by windows systems. Simply connect the device, select the drive and a formatting option, and click format. Apr 28, 2020 learn how to format usb flash drive using cmd in windows 10, 8 and 7. Jul 22, 2019 how to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. How to format your usb drive with exfat in windows 7810.
How to format a write protected usb on pc or mac with pictures. Steps for mac connect your ubs drive to your computer. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. 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. If you have an older usb flash drive thats been beaten around, it may not work even if you reformat it. Transferring a 4gb or larger file to a usb flash drive or. How to reformat a jump drive on a mac your business. How to format a usb flash drive on mac wondershare. Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility. Sdformatter app is specifically designed to format flash drive and sd card on windows and mac os. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. Under the devices and drivers section, rightclick the flash drive and select the format option. When the usb flash drive is formatted, all the data stored on it is erased.
How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows. Volume format most manufacturers use the fat 32 or msdos fat volume format. You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. To erase and format any drive connected to a mac computer running os x yosemite, use disk utility. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through. You will learn the easiest way to format drive on mac and windows as exfat. Solution 1 format in exfat exfat file system that allows a single file larger than 4gb to be stored on the device. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. With mac os extended journaled format, you can setup os x startup drive. After disk utility loads select the drive outdented entry with the mfgr. In the sheet that appears click the partition button and your flash drive will be formatted as a mac os x extended journaled drive. Note that this has a slightly archaic method of installation. How to format usb drives on windows 10 make tech easier. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos.
How to format usb flash drive to ntfs, exfat or fat32. Usb drives can be formatted on your mac using the disk utility application. If you have a usb flash drive inserted in your mac, you can see it under the external in the disk utility. In such a case, its necessary to reformat wd hard drive to make it compatible with mac operating system. Intended for older windows systems windows xp to windows 7, the kingston format utility is ideal for usb flash devices from kingston. So, before you format your usb flash drive or external hard drive with doyourdata super eraser for mac, youd better back up your data to a safe. Aug 27, 2019 in todays technology, if you buy a usb hard drive, you can just simply use it directly using your mac. Formatting will delete all the data in your device. Note that using a drive frequently between windows and mac could increase the chances of file corruption, so make. Because there are different types of formats for different purposes, its good to know the differences before accepting the default settings. Initially, the capacity was 256 gb and i reformatted it to exfat and still, it was showing a capacity of 256 gb. 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. Formatting the device as ntfs will make it unwriteable on a mac computer. How to reformat a usb drive to its full c apple community.
Recoverit data recovery software can easily help you recover lost files from flash drive, even the drive got damagedcorrupted, formatted, virus attack and the file system crashed. Jan 15, 2020 learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. Thus, the exfat file system is optimal for usb flash drives formatting. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Also, since i dont know whether you are on a pc or mac to perform this operation, im here to break down this guide into two parts. For apple mac users, the easier way to format usb flash drive to fat32 is using the disk utility. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. The overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. First, back up the data on the macformatted drive if you have anything important on it. Depending on the size and speed of your flash drive, it may take a minute or two. Many computer users who use a removable flash drive have the demand for formatting it to the fat32 file system. Its exactly the same procedure if you need to reformat a flash drive on a mac. Once youve copied any files you need from the usb drive to your mac.
Deleting files on a cruzer usb flash drive using a mac. If you want to use the drive between a windows and mac machine, you can format it to fat32. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows. Once the usb flash drive external hard drive is formatted by this software, all data on the usb flash drive external hard drive will be gone forever, cant be recovered by any data recovery method.
How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in. 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. Select the capacity of the drive respective to the one containing the device you wish to format then click the erase tab. If you selected an encrypted format, enter a password and verify your password in the text fields. If you are finding it hard to access the pen drive content on mac, then dont worry. 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. Rightclick on the flash drive or memory card, then select format. Many of these drives offer a keyring attachment hole, so you will never be without your data. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc.
If you partitioned usb key in multiple partitions before, you can clean the drive, create a new primary partition and then format it to exfat entirely. Instead, well just be wiping the drive and starting over from scratch. Learn how to use macos recovery to reinstall the mac operating system on your builtin drive or an external drive. Formatting the flash drive as exfat or ntfs will resolve this issue. Now, when you are formatting a usb drive on mac, you have an important decision to make. 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. Usb flash drive format tool free download and software. How to format a usb flash drive using file explorer. All you need to have is the knowledge on how you can do. Before continuing, make sure that you have a backup of any files that you want to keep. However it is an easy way to make the most out of your data storage experience.
When you purchase something after clicking links in our. Erasing a disk or volume permanently deletes all of its files. For school or work projects, this portability means you can work from home, work or lab computers while. Format mac hard drive with time machine formatting an external hard drive with time machine is as easy as formatting it with disk utility. Now, as you can see, formatting your flash drive on your mac is a very easy thing to do. Heres how to format a new flash drive thumb drive usb stick on a mac for both pc and mac. Click on the erase button located at the bottom right corner of disk utility. While most flash drives are made to withstand years of use, take the age and previous use of the drive into consideration if you have a flash drive that cant be read anymore.
Again, formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep. Read this usb drive data recovery guide for more information. Need to reformat wd hard drive for mac if you connect your wd hard drive without reformatting, youll be unable to copy files to the disk as mac read only supports ntfs file system. Your mac computer comes with a handy utility appropriately called disk utility, which can be used to. The main reason for formatting a usb drive as fat32 on a mac is that you want to be able to use. This works well with the car but the drive cannot be read by a mac. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. It is worth mentioning that windows file explorer supports exfat formatting usb drive as well. How to reformat a usb dr ive to its full capacity i bought a genuine 256 gb usb drive from sandisk. Go to the applications folder on your macs hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive.
How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. With everything set, you may click on the erase button to start the formatting process. But if it is ntfs, format your flash drive to make it completely compatible with macos. You dont have to be a technological wiz to reformat your usb drive. Disk utility application in macos is the best option to format a flash drive on macos. 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 process will wipe all data stored on the usb drive. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos.
Use the wizard to create a partition with the ntfs or fat32 file system. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. On this guide we will show you how to recover data from flash drive not recognized on windows. You can also open a finder window, select applications in the sidebar, and head to utilities disk utility.
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