Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. Just like windows, mac also allows a seamless solution to do pen drive format. Now, you can follow these two solutions to format any hard drive, flash drive, usb drive, ssd or any other external storage drive so as to make them work on your mac now.
It is a dedicated system utility tool that stores all the vital details and parameters related to windows settings. Moving from windows to mac transferring your documents. When boot camp assistant is done, the usb drive will be renamed to wininstall. 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. Dec 29, 2015 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. Dec 01, 2016 this tutorial will help you create a bootable usb flash drive for your mac on a windows computer. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os. How to format usb drive or external hard drive on mac.
Fortunately, theres a great tool that you can use for free to create bootable macos media on a usb drive in a windows 10 environment. To format hard drive for mac and windows without data loss, we suggest using minitool partition wizard and its convert ntfs to fats32 function. Whether you use mac or windows based pc, there are lots of possibilities that a portable usb device may get damaged. 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. 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. That said, if you are using smaller file sizes fat32 can suffice. Oct 15, 2019 select mac os extended journaled, or your preferred format type. The program is able to format and repair usb flash drives under windows 7, windows 10 and earlier versions of the os. Best usb format tools pen drive stick formatters for. So, if users anticipate using the flash drive with more than one operating system, they will definitely benefit from the fat32 file system. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. How to open mac format usb devce in windows youtube. How to format a write protected usb on pc or mac with pictures.
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. For apple mac users, there are two ways to format a usb flash drive to fat32, including disk utility and. Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility. Connect the usb drive to mac and launch disk utility from application. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and. Connect the usb drive or the desired external hard drive to the windows 10 computer. Follow the instructions to create a bootable usb drive. If you want to format a hard drive or usb flash drive on your computer, disk formatting tool is the best choice. 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.
How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows. If you are on an earlier operating system like windows 7, xp, etc. How to format usb to fat32ntfsexfat on windows and mac. This article shows you how to download a macos dmg file, format a usb drive using a guid partition table, burn the dmg to the drive and boot your mac from the usb. In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in a volume label. The other formats microsofts ntfs and apples mac os extended dont work well on the other operating system. Feb 21, 2020 its a universal format that is compatible with mac os xmacos, windows, linux and dos systems. 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. Jul 24, 2018 next, you should assign a file system to the drive. How to create macos bootable usb on windows 10 uubyte. To learn how to format write protected usb drive via the registry editor, follow these steps. Hi there, i have a usb flash drive which was formatted for a mac. How to format usb drives on windows 10 make tech easier.
Jun 14, 2018 format usb drive for both mac and pc use. Rightclick on the drive you want to format, click on format. You can use fsntfs instead to format the drive as ntfs which will then only work on a windows pc. Under file system box, select exfat for this drive. How to format and create a usb drive or pen drive that is compatible with windows 10, 8, 7 or mac or linux. This process may take a long time to complete you can click the stop button to interrupt this process. It can take about 20 minutes to format and set up the usb installer on the mac. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. Follow these next steps to create one skip to step 2 if youve got a dvd already. To find it, type disk management or format disk in windows search and select create and format hard disk partitions. How to quickly make a mac os x bootable usb on windows. To share a usb drive between a mac and a windows pc, there are two disk formats to choose from. Click on the usb drive in the sidebar in disk utility. Again, like the first method, you will need a usb drive with a capacity of 16gb as a minimum recommendation and you will also need to download the.
Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. The overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. Im here to use a windows 10 based hp laptop to format my lexar drive. In the screenshot below, the drive is formatted with the exfat file system. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10. On the left side panel, you will see the usb drive name. If you are a personal user, you can try its professional edition. How to format a hard drive on windows or mac avast. How to create a windows 10 installer usb drive from a mac. It recognizes the drive, installs the drivers, yet never shows up as an active. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need.
Connect the drive to a usb port on your windows machine. Jan 15, 2019 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. You have to format the drive to exfat or fat32 if the burning process failed due to the wrong partition scheme. Format usb for mac and pc on windows quickly and securely. Developers of the program claim that the fat is the best format for usb drive to avoid conflicts with other operating systems. Rightclick your flash drive and then select format. In order for this to work you should have a usb flash drive. A popup menu will appear, and you can customize many options here. 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. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and. There are a few subtle differences between exfat and fat32, but most of these are only an issue if you are using a. Following are the top features of this usb flash drive. How to format flash drive on win7 when it was formatted on a mac.
In the disk utility app on your mac, choose view show all devices. You can make this your client name or your company name. You may also be preparing the drive for use as, say, a storage device for a media player or to record tv programmes on a tv with a usb port. To do this, you can take the assistance of disk utility, which is a dedicated system component in mac. May 29, 2018 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. It could take one or two hours to complete the process depending on your computer. 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. The maximum individual file size for exfat is 16 eb.
In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in a. Go to applicationsutilities and launch disk utility. Go to the applications folder on your mac s hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. Jan 04, 2012 yes, connecting an external hard drive or usb flash key to a mac will generally read and work fine as is because the mac can easily read other filesystem formats, including windows msdos, fat, fat32, exfat, and ntfs formats, but unless you intend on using the drive between a windows and mac machine, formatting it to be entirely mac compatible. The former option can help ensure that the usb drive is made fully compatible with your mac, since most usb drives are preformatted for windows computers by default. Creating windows 10 bootable usb on mac is a common task for people who have multiple computers at home. It may even already be formatted fat32 if you just brought it home from the store. As earlier stated, you need to first back up your usb drive before formatting the drive as you may not be able to recover the contents again.
How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmac. If you want to use the drive between a windows and mac machine, you can format it to fat32. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer.
Its below the file system heading near the top of the page. How to format internal andor external drive to work properly on mac and windows computers. Format external hard drive or usb drive for mac easeus. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Among many quality flash drives, sandisk extreme pro 128 gb drive is considered the most popular usb flash drive for windows and mac. 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. Click the format dropdown menu and select one of the following file formats.
You can do this in disk utility on your mac, where it is called msdos fat format, but it is probably easier to just reformat the drive on your windows machine. Use unetbootin on mac unetbootin is free to use and allows you to make a bootable usb drive for windows 10 using your mac. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos easeus. For example, you might want to reformat a new or used removable storage device to make sure it. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows. Launch the file explorer and from it find the usb drive.
If you wish to boot the drive on a pc or use it with older versions of windows, you may also need to set the partition scheme to master boot record mbr for full windows compatibility. The first technique to format write protected usb drive is by using the registry editor on windows. The good news is that formatting usb on mac is also as easy as on windows 10. 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. Insert the usb drive into an open port on your windows computer and then launch the windows disk management utility. At the create bootable usb drive for windows installation step, choose the windows iso image and the usb drive, then click continue. Now, you can follow the steps to be highlighted below to get it successfully formatted. 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. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmaclinux. Save any files you need to another volume before formatting.
Aug 16, 2019 on windows 10, the ability to format a usb flash drive can come in handy in a number of scenarios. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. Simple and easy to use, macdrive is recognized as the leader for accessing mac disks from windows for almost 20 years. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Sep 23, 2019 use the restore disk image to drive dialog box to browse for the dmg file with the installation files for mac os x yosemite in this case, and click the ok button to create a bootable usb of the operating system. For example, in windows xp my computer is equivalent to this pc on windows 10. Install windows on your older mac using boot camp apple support. It will not affect the performance of the flash drive. This option is near the middle of the dropdown menu. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it.
You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. On windows 10, the ability to format a usb flash drive can come in handy in a number of scenarios. Better still, it can be read from and written to on any mac running mac os x snow leopard or later and on windows. Apr 30, 2016 now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10. Jan 18, 2020 a common and easy way to format a usb drive to fat32 is to make use of the file explorer. We all make mistakes, and you wouldnt be the first person in the world to accidentally format a usb flash drive. A dropdown menu will appear with the following options.
It can help you manage system partitions, erase an external unit like a thumb drive, and even repair your disk. Mac computers are capable of formatting any storage device internal or external such as hddssd, usb flash drive, and external storage. Format usb or external hard drive for mac using mac disk utility format usb or external hard drive for mac on windows pc using thirdparty usb format tool. Sometimes, you cant access certain bad sectors on the drive making it difficult to read the entire stored content. Youll see the drive s file system displayed to the right of format under the general heading. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. If you want to use a different file system on your usb drive, youll need to format it. I put it in my win 7 pro machine to format it for win7. Dec, 2019 you can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. Then do a right click with your mouse to pull up a menu. The above command will format the usb drive in the fat32 format which is ideal for usb drives. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. However, os x and windows both can read and write to a format called fat32, which used to be used for windows all the way back into the msdos days. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc.
How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. Even if the mac is unable to mount the storage, following this method will enable you to format the storage. Download the windows 7 usbdvd download tool to format the hard disk now and install windows 7 later or the windows 10 media creation tool to format the hard drive now and install windows 10 later. In the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with. Apr 26, 2016 to format a usb flash drive, simply plug the drive into your mac, and choose it from disk utilitys sidebar menu.