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. It is a dedicated system utility tool that stores all the vital details and parameters related to windows settings. It shows windows was unable to complete the format. Luckily, you can fix cannot format usb flash drive in windows 10 using few tricks. Choosing the best format to work between macs and pcs with a flash drive. Ive had drivers for mac on windows systems and ntfs drivers. You can use this format if you share the drive between mac os x and windows computers and have no files larger than 4gb. Formatting your flash drive will remove all files or folders on the drive, so make sure you. Some flash drives have to be formatted first before you can store files on them. 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.
For apple mac users, there are two ways to format a usb flash drive to fat32, including disk utility and. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows. 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. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. 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. It will automatically locate the connected drive, and you can load it. To format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. If you have no use for a windowsformatted drive that you want to use your mac, or a bootable drive youd rather use as a usb flash drive instead, formatting is the answer because you can set up that drive tailored around your personal needs.
How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. 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. 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. When we connect them to retrieve the data they wont even show the disk. 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. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. How to format usb drives on windows 10 make tech easier.
Unlike windows in file explorer, mac os x and macos do not include a format drive option in the finder. Quick tutorial and explanation on formatting drives for mac and windows and what file system to use. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility. 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. Now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10. 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.
How to format a usb flash drive on mac wondershare. It recognizes the drive, installs the drivers, yet never shows up. The process for formatting a drive is different depending on the system youre using. Go to the applications folder on your macs hard drive, then. Its a universal format that is compatible with mac os xmacos, windows, linux and dos systems.
Format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows youtube. Before continuing, make sure that you have a backup of any files that you want to keep. Windows cannot read a macformatted disk, but macs can read a windowsformatted one. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os x, though with some drawbacks. 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 format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility. 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. The first technique to format write protected usb drive is by using the registry editor on windows.
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. How to format a disk or drive in windows 10 format is the process of preparing a data storage device such as a hard disk drive, solidstate drive, or usb flash drive for initial use to accept windows files. 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. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. You can select to use a fat, fat32, exfat, ntfs, or refs file system when formatting. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmac. 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. How to format internal andor external drive to work properly on mac and windows computers.
Format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows cult of mac. How to format usb drive for mac and windows to transfer. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. If you only use a mac computer, you can format your thumb drive so it. Using windows format method means that the resultant udf drive cannot be recognized on os x at least as of os x 10. Formatting usb flash drive means emptying all files in the drive and returning to the initial state. I put it in my win 7 pro machine to format it for win7. Open up your my computer or computer in vista from the start menu and look for the drive that has a removable disk icon. 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. 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. Therefore, no matter you cannot format flash drive to fat32 or ntfs in windows, this freeware can get it fixed. 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.
Proceed based on whether youre erasing your startup disk or some other disk. As you can see, exfat is the only file system that works with all versions of windows and. If you want the storage device to only show up on mac systems, then format your storage device with apfs. Go to the applications folder on your macs hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos high. To use hfsexplorer, connect your macformatted drive to your windows pc and launch hfsexplorer. Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility. 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. Lets see how to format usb drive on a windows pc first. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. How to format usb flash drive on mac stepbystep tutorial. This drive will be formatted, so make sure it doesnt have any important files on it. 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.
Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Fat32 file allocation table readwrite fat32 from both native windows and native mac os x. How to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. Click the file menu and select load file system from device.
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. 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. The quickest way is to search on spotlight and click. How to fix cannot format usb flash drive in windows 10. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos. 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. The latest trend with computers is not including a cddvd drive. Sharing a hardflash drive across windows, os x, and linux. To learn how to format write protected usb drive via the registry editor, follow these steps. 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. Dont worry, the following part will show you the solution for windows and mac os users.
The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Have you ever ran into a problem where youre trying to use a flash drive on both windows and mac. 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. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format.
Go to open disk utility, which is located under applications in the finder menu. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows. How to format usb flash drive on windows or mac os. If you have a usb flash drive inserted in your mac, you can see it under the external in the disk utility. A corrupted disk erases all the data present on the disk and doesnt allow it to format the disk. Learn how to format usb flash drive using cmd in windows 10, 8 and 7. So, if it needs to be formatted at all, you need to format it as fat32.
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. Beginners guide to using a usb flash drive ask a tech. Install windows from a usb flash drive microsoft docs. Technician pc windows pc that youll use to format the usb flash drive. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows 7 by jack scicluna photography, llc guest writer. Hi there, i have a usb flash drive which was formatted for a mac. Moving from windows to mac transferring your documents. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos high sierra. Rightclick your flash drive and then select format. However, each of these methods comes with deficiencies. The overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. With exfat, you can write and read on both mac and windows pcs and is our recommended option for an ultraportable usb device. 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.
In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in a volume label if you want, and then click start. 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. How to format a usb drive for mac and pc compatibility youtube. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. Click ok to the format warning and wait until the process is complete. By the way, we will talk about production usb and nonproduction usb. Not every flash drive out there can be used with a mac computer right out of the box. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Usb flash drive format tool free download and software. Erasing a disk or volume permanently deletes all of its files. So, if users anticipate using the flash drive with more than one operating system, they will definitely benefit from the fat32 file system. 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. 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.
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