Format Flash Drive For Mac And Pc 2017
Hello friends, Today I will tell you two methods on how to format a flash drive on Mac. Users can even wipe all data from their Mac drives. Both these methods are working, and you can quickly flash drive on Mac. You can format a flash drove on MacBook air, pro or any other MacBook model. You can even flash drive to work both on Mac and PC.
How to Format USB Flash Drive from Command Prompt, Learn how to format USB flash drive using cmd in Windows 10, 8 and 7. 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.
Need to format an external hard drive for Mac and Windows. Windows PC and Mac use different filesystems. Windows uses NTFS and Mac uses HFS. They are incompatible with each other. So, if you want to use an external hard drive on both Windows and Mac, you need to format it to a filesystem that is compatible with Windows PC and Mac. Attach the drive to your Mac. Launch Disk Utility (from Applications Utilities Disk Utility). Select the drive in the left-hand sidebar. From the Format menu, select ExFAT. The overwhelming majority of USB flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats: FAT32 or NTFS. The first format, FAT32, is fully compatible with Mac OS X, though with some drawbacks. How to format an drive to use with a Mac & PC. If you want to format a drive so that you can copy files between a Mac and a PC you'll want to follow the tutorial above, but choose ExFAT from the.
Contents
- 1 How to Format a Flash Drive on Mac – Top 2 Methods
Most of the Mac users don’t know that how to format a flash drive on Mac. Because the settings and app access on Mac are a little bit of difficulty that’s why it becomes very tuff to format a flash drive on Mac. But, if you don’t know how to format a flash drive on Mac, then this section is going to help you in the best manner. I have shared some methods that will tell you that how to format a flash drive on Mac. Every method is very simple and straightforward so that there is no difficulty to understand them. Let’s move on to the methods list and check the ways to format a flash drive on Mac one by one.
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Method 1 – Using Disk Utility
Disk Utility is the inbuilt app which comes with the Macintosh-based computer/laptop. Disk Utility is responsible for managing internal disks and external storage devices. Using Disk Utility a Mac user can easily format a flash drive on Mac. This app is for organizing and manage the disks available on the Mac s that it can help us to know that how to format a flash drive on Mac. I have shared step by step guide below which will help you to format a flash drive on Mac quickly.
- Insert the flash drive on your Mac.
- Now, open the Applications folder and click on Utilities.
- Then, double-click on the Disk Utility.
- From the left pane click on your flash drive on Disk Utility.
- Now, click on Erase option.
- Confirm the action by clicking on Erase option again.
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Method 2 – Using EaseUS Software
EaseUS is a software which is used to format a flash drive on Mac and to recover the deleted data as well. It comes in tow variant that is free and paid. If we talk about to format a flash drive on Mac then free is good enough to do so. Though, we can take help of the free version of EaseUS software to format a flash drive on Mac. Scroll down and check the method to know that how to format a flash drive on Mac using EaseUS software.
- Get the EaseUS software from its website on your Mac.
- Now, connect your flash drive on your Mac and open this software.
- Then, click on the flash drive name under partition section.
- After that, right-click on it and then click Format.
- That’s it. Wait for some time, and it will format the flash drive on Mac.
Read more: What is Other on Mac Storage and How to Delete it
Last Words on How to Format a Flash Drive on Mac – Top 2 Methods
Using these methods you have now learned that how to format a flash drive on Mac. If you have bought a new MacBook, then it will be very tuff to how to format a flash drive on Mac. Though, at that moment this article will help you a lot. Several methods have been listed in this article to get to know that how to format a flash drive on Mac. I hope after reading this entire article you are now able to format a flash drive on Mac. Share this fascinating article with your friends and other peoples also to let them know that how to format a flash drive on Mac.
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If you have an external hard drive or USB flash drive that you’d like to use on both Macs and Windows PCs, choosing the right file system to format the drive can be confusing. Learn a few ways to make your drive Mac and PC friendly.
Need to access or transfer files between Mac and PC? As simple as this task sounds, it’s not very straightforward for inexperienced users. Since Mac OS X and Windows use totally different file systems, the way a drive is formatted can determine what type of computer it will work with. In fact, there are four ways you can format an external or USB flash drive to achieve varying degrees of compatibility between Macs and PCs. Let’s take a look at them:
HFS+
Mac OS X’s native file system is HFS+ (also known as Mac OS Extended), and it’s the only one that works with Time Machine. But while HFS+ is the best way to format drives for use on Macs, Windows does not support it. If you’re only going to be using your external or USB flash drive with certain PCs – such as at home or the office – you might be interested in a program called MacDrive. When you install MacDrive on a Windows PC, it will be able to seamlessly read & write to HFS+ drives. This isn’t a good solution if you need your drive to work on any PC without installing software, though.
NTFS
The native Windows file system is NTFS, which is only partially compatible with Mac OS X. Macs can read files on NTFS drives, but it cannot write to them. So if you need to get files from a PC to your Mac, NTFS is a decent option. However, you won’t be able to move files in the other direction, from Mac to PC.
FAT32
The most universally supported way to format your drive is with the FAT32 file system. It works with all versions of Mac OS X and Windows. Case closed, right? Well, not so fast. Unfortunately, FAT32 is a very old file system and has some technical limitations. For example, you cannot save files that are larger than 4GB on a FAT32-formatted drive. This is a deal-breaker if you work with huge files. The other limitation is the total size of the partition. If you format your FAT32 drive in Windows, the drive partition cannot be larger than 32GB. If you format it from a Mac running 10.7 Lion, the drive partition can be up to 2TB. Much better, except for that pesky 4GB limit.
exFAT
The exFAT file system eliminates the two major deficiencies of FAT32: the largest partition and file sizes it supports are virtually unlimited by today’s standards. Awesome, it’s perfect! Almost… since exFAT is fairly new, it isn’t compatible with older Macs and PCs. Any Mac running 10.6.5 (Snow Leopard) or 10.7 (Lion) supports exFAT, while PCs running Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista SP1, and Windows 7 are compatible. If you know you’ll be using computers running updated versions of these operating systems, exFAT is the clear best choice.
Format a drive using Disk Utility on a Mac
- Launch Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities).
- Select your external hard drive or USB flash drive from the list on the left.
- Click on the Erase tab. Select the format – Mac OS Extended (HFS+), MS-DOS (FAT32), or exFAT – then name the drive.
- Click the Erase button and the drive will start formatting. Be aware that formatting a drive deletes all of the files on it, so back up anything important before completing this step.
Format Flash Drive For Mac And Pc 2017 Full
Format a drive using Windows
Formatting Flash Drive On Mac
- Go to Computer (or My Computer in Windows XP).
- Select your drive from the list and right-click on it. Choose Format from the contextual menu.
- A window will pop up where you can choose the format – NTFS, FAT32, or exFAT. Make sure the allocation unit size is set to default and type in a volume label.
- Click Start to format the drive.