To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in thefile explorer window and select format. The good news is that formatting usb on mac is also as easy as on windows 10. This article mainly talks about how to format reformat usb flash drive to fat32, exfat, ntfs or ext4 file system in windows 1087xp. So, if users anticipate using the flash drive with more than one operating system, they will definitely benefit from the fat32 file system. Hp usb disk storage format tool utility will format any usb flash drive, with your choice of fat, fat32, or ntfs partition types. You can format the drive from either the mac or the windows machine. Follow these steps to format a drive in fat32 in windows 10. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmac. Insert your ntfs drive or usb stick and click to highlight the disk name in the white box on the lefthand side of the window. Now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10. Launch the file explorer and from it find the usb drive. Its a universal format that is compatible with mac os xmacos, windows, linux and dos systems. 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.
Just transfer all useful files out from the external hard drive to other devices on mac. After removing the usb write protection, you can apply any one of the aboveprovided solutions in part 1 to format your usb drive to fat32. Windows recognizes only the first primary partition on removable device like usb flash drive, thus you cant format the partition except the first one on usb flash drive or sd card. How to recover lost data after formatting a usb drive to fat32 on mac. Go to the applications folder on your mac s hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. How to format usb flash drive using fatfat32ntfsexfat. Many people think it is hard to format the windows drive on macintosh. Install windows from a usb flash drive microsoft docs. Rightclick on the drive you want to format, click on format. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system part 3.
Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. We here will show you the full guides on how to format fat32 and ntfs drives on mac as an example. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. For apple mac users, there are two ways to format a usb flash drive to fat32, including disk utility and. If succeeded, you can use the usb drive with fat32 file system to store data again. I have an audio system that will allow me to play music stored on usb in file format fat 121632. How to format usb flash drive using fat fat32 ntfsexfat. Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility. How to format internal andor external drive to work properly on mac and windows computers. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos.
Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. From all above, you can have a general idea of fat32 and exfat file system. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. A drive can be formatted with exfat using either a windows or a mac computer. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. I formatted using windows 10, loaded music and my player will no longer play. Formatting sandisk usb flash drives in fat32 format using. Be absolutely sure you have your files off the driveand that youve selected the correct drive you want to format. Formatting a disk using windows maxes out the partition at 32gb, but not if the formatting is done using mac os. Type exit and hit enter to close the program when diskpart reports it has successfully formatted the usb. Connect the usb drive or the desired external hard drive to the windows 10 computer. Rightclick on windows icon and select windows powershell admin, click yes to open it. Usb external drive formatted in fat32 is not displayed in.
Fat32 format works on both windows and mac but the problem is you can only work with the files with maximum size 4gb. 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. Under file system box, select exfat for this drive. 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. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os x. In summary, for usb drives, you should use exfat if youre in a windows and mac environment, and ntfs if youre only. Means if one want to transfer movie or any stuff greater than 4gb it cant be done in this format. Under the external tab, highlight your flash drive. Mac devices on the other hand run on either mac os extended or apfs. A1 in most windows systems while formatting a usb stickflash drive, file system choices are presented to you ntfs, fat, fat32 or exfat. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility. Fat32 is one of the most popular and versatile file formats for a drive. Fat or fat 32 file system is the option selected by default for formatting a usb flash drive.
How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. The overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. 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. Usb external drive formatted in fat32 is not displayed in windows 10 hi, this external drive is new. Select the option that boots the pc from the usb flash drive. Remember, this will erase all the files on the drive. So, apple could fix this problem by changing to boot camp assistant to format the usb flash drive as exfat instead of fat32. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. You may also be preparing the drive for use as, say, a storage device for a media player or to record tv. If you want to use the drive between a windows and mac machine, you can format it to fat32. How to format a flash drive to fat32exfatext4 in windows. For now, you can use the following steps to create a usb windows 10 flash drive installer. To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below.
Formatting a usb drive can repair corrupt partition as well as change file system format, thus we may need to format usb flash drive from time to time. Most usb flash drives on sale are designed to work with windows operating systems that run on fat32. Click the scheme popup menu, then choose master boot record. The quickest way is to search on spotlight and click the result under top hit. For apple mac users, the easier way to format usb flash drive to fat32 is using the disk utility. When youre reformatting a hard drive, windows will ask you what format to use. A common and easy way to format a usb drive to fat32 is to make use of the file explorer. The partition need formatting to fat32 is not the first primary partition on removable disk. Mac computers running high sierra or mojave may be able to boot from usb flash drives that are exfat formatted. How to format a large capacity usb flash drive, fat32, windows. You will learn the easiest way to format drive on mac and windows as exfat. 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.
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. Format to fat32 for usb or external hard drive in windows. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows. 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. How to format usb drives on windows 10 make tech easier. Only after formatting it, they would realize that they had lost important data. It is time to learn how to format your external hard drive or other external drives to a common file system for mac and windows.
To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. Formatting with the fat32 format tool will provide full storage support for use in. I decided to format the drive and reload my music with more folders to allow myself to select by genre, etc. Creating windows 10 bootable usb on mac is a common task for people who have multiple computers at home. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x. Format your external drive with exfat for both mac and. You can also make the disk bootable by specifying a file location. You can use fat format of drive with windows vista but you wont be able to use it above windows vista that is from windows 7 and above. I bought a drive, loaded music on it and it played well.
You have to format the drive to exfat or fat32 if the burning process failed due to the wrong partition scheme. Choose this format if the size of the disk is 32 gb or less. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac easily. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps. In recent versions of windows 10, you will no longer see fat32 as the format option for drives that are larger than 32gb. Although we know its limitation of 4gb file size only. Click the format popup menu, then choose one of the following. We recommend using fat32 format tool from ridgecrop consultants ltd. The main reason for formatting a usb drive as fat32 on a mac is that you want to be able to use the drive on a windows pc, as well as a mac perhaps to transfer files between the two machines. 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. From what i understand, windows doesnt always like the way mac s do the formatting on some larger drives, though, so give it a try and if your windows machines dont like it, just format the drive with windows. Bonus tip data recovery from formatted hard drive on mac. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. This page tells how to format a usb or external hard drive into fat32 and resolve the issue.
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. There are various free thirdparty windows applications that can be used to format sandisk usb flash drives in the fat32 file system for use in devices that do not support the exfat file system. No worry, actually it is not impossible to realize it no matter you use an external or internal drive of your windows system. To format a hard drive for compatibility of both mac and windows you can use fat32 format which has both readwrite capability on win mac respectively. Turn on the pc and press the key that opens the bootdevice selection menu for the computer, such as the escf10f12 keys. How to format usb to fat32ntfsexfat on windows and mac. In the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with windows computers. Of course, if you have a backup already, ignore this step. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive.
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