While apfs is optimized for the flashssd storage used in recent mac computers, it can also be used with older systems with traditional hard disk drives hdd and external, directattached storage. That said, if you are using both a pc and mac in the workflow, youll need to use a different. 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 usb flash drive to ntfs, exfat or fat32. How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or. I have a number of commercial flash drives with outdated information. If you plan to use the drive only for your mac, then you can easily reformat it.
See to it that there are no files saved on your flash drive that you no. We also boast an active community focused on purchasing decisions and technical aspects of the iphone, ipod, ipad, and mac platforms. Mac computers are capable of formatting any storage device internal or external such as hddssd, usb flash drive, and external storage. Heres how to correctly format the drive to work on both. How to format a flash drive on my mac boo apple community. How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or flash. I use the exfat format so you can go between the two of them. The overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats.
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. It happens on all usb ports in back of macmini and with different lexar and verbatim usb flashdrives. Along with the flash drives, this format is also faster and more reliable for mac hard drives. If your integral usb has a security or zip software preloaded integral splash, secure. Solution 1 format in exfat exfat file system that allows a single file larger than 4gb to be stored on the device.
This portable storage device makes the data transfer process easy and troublefree. This choice is more appropriate for usb flash drives, although you can still use it for sdd and hdd units too. Usb disk storage format tool removes any traces of malware and viruses that could infect the usb flash drive. Be aware that formatting a drive deletes all of the files on it, so back up anything important before completing this step. 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. The file allocation table 32 fat32 was the standard windows file system before ntfs. It allows to choose standard formatting or erase all data on a flash drive, which can not be formatted by usual system way. You probably meant a usb flash drive or usb external hard disk drive. Go to the applications folder on your mac s hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. Feb 03, 2020 are you formatting the disk that came built into your mac.
Nov 27, 2019 usb flash drives are the best means for data storage in comparison with internal hard drives. The volume representing your startup disk is macintosh hd, unless. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility macyourself. Go to the applications folder on your macs hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. If the builtin disk came apfsformatted, dont change it to mac os extended. How to format usb flash drive on mac stepbystep tutorial. How to format external hard drives for mac and windows. 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. It happens on all usb ports in back of mac mini and with different lexar and verbatim usb flash drives. 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.
How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. Jun 14, 2019 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 the following procedure. 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. If youre moving it between mac and windows, you want to format your flash drive with the fat32 filesystem.
Go ahead and plug in your flash drive in the usb port on your mac. Mar 03, 2020 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. It shouldnt matter whether you format it on your mac or on a windows machine. Even on hard drives, however, apfs is faster and more reliable than mac os extended. By default, they format disks with the maconly os x extended file system. Format mac hard drive with time machine formatting an external hard drive with time machine is as easy as formatting it with disk utility. If you want to use a different file system on your usb drive, youll need to format it. Ive seen claims on the internet that formatting these drives in the mac os extended journaled format speeds up. How to format a usb flash drive on mac wondershare. Please back up all your data before you format the usb drive. 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. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple.
Formatting flashdrives always fails the first time. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods. The quickest way is to search on spotlight and click. It allows you to format partition to exfat, fat32, ntfs, ext2 and ext3 and ext4 on external hard drive, internal hard drive, usb flash drive and sd card. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in.
How to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac. 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. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows. Heres how to format a new flash drive thumb driveusb stick on a mac for both pc and mac. Again, formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep. Remember formatting flash drives will delete all the data from your usb drive and make it fresh and hopefully remove all errors. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos easeus. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. The apfs format is optimal for solid state drive such as flash drives. Check the drives file system before jumping on the formatting, it is important to check your drives file system. Feb 21, 2020 how to format a usb flash drive with mac to fat32. Many computer users who use a removable flash drive have the demand for formatting it to the fat32 file system.
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. Even if the mac is unable to mount the storage, following this method will enable you to format the storage. This article will teach you how to format the usb flash drive so both macs and pcs can read them. If you plan to use the drive only for your mac, then you can easily reformat it in mac os extended format using disk utility. It combines the essential advantages of fat and ntfs large file sizes are supported. Then format your external hard drive or usb flash drive with the file system to make your drive compatible with mac and windows. How to format a usb flash drive on a mac techwalla. Use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. Transferring a 4gb or larger file to a usb flash drive or. You can use the following guide to fix readonly external hard drive in disk utility without formatting. The software for formatting comes on the cd or available on support sites for your branded usb drive on the net. Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility. Select disk utility from the utilities window in macos recovery. Click the erase button and the drive will start formatting.
Some flash drives have to be formatted first before you can store files on them. Usb flash drive format tool free download and software. I have tried many different software programs to erase data on my usb flash drive, and eventally found what i need. Nov 01, 2011 choosing the best format to work between macs and pcs with a flash drive. Time machine, however, gives you the possibility to create an automatic backup of. Search and fixing of reading errors and bad blocks on a flash drive.
How to clear a flash drive on pc or mac with pictures. Formatting usb flash drives for mac when you buy a usb flash drive, also called a jump drive, thumb drive, usb stick or one of many other names, it usually comes formatted for windows computers. 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 the following procedure. Jan 15, 2019 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. The main reason for formatting a usb drive as fat32 on a mac is that you want to be able to use. Aug 27, 2019 this is because time machine does not have the ability yet to backup flash drives that are formatted in afps. After that, go ahead and launch the finder and click on your flash drive detected by your. It is required to format the usb drive to mac os file system to make it fully compatible with the platform. A vast majority of video production will be done on a mac or windows operating system, so we arent going to cover linux. For some reason, i have to erase and format all my flashdrives twice, because it fails the first time. Jul 16, 2017 heres how to format a new flash drive thumb driveusb stick on a mac for both pc and mac. A quick format will normally only initialise the directory structure.
File system formats available in disk utility on mac. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. To format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. This is because time machine does not have the ability yet to backup flash drives that are formatted in afps. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility.
To format a flash drive on a mac, plug in the drive and open the applications folder, the utilities folder and then disk utility. The compromise solution will be the exfat file system. 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. So, computer users often save important files like pictures, videos, documents, etc. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows. For some reason, when i ran this formatting software, it would say the usb drive is not connected.
The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os. But, if you plan on using an external drive with both macs and pcs. See this stepbystep tutorial for how to format your usb drive for mac machine macos and pc windows 10. Macrumors attracts a broad audience of both consumers and professionals interested in the latest technologies and products. Mar 10, 2020 the apfs format is optimal for solid state drive such as flash drives. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos. Format usb drive, external hard drive on macos catalina. Apple file system format or the older mac os extended format. Is apfs an appropriate format for flash drives thumb drives. May 21, 2009 i have a number of commercial flash drives with outdated information. Formatting will delete all the data in your device.
If you need to erase your disk before installing high sierra or later for the first time on that disk, choose mac os extended journaled. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. Formatting the flash drive as exfat or ntfs will resolve this issue. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. Jul 25, 2017 for some reason, i have to erase and format all my flash drives twice, because it fails the first time. Your mac computer comes with a handy utility appropriately called disk utility, which can be used to. Be careful using these instructions to ensure you are formatting the correct disk. Usb drives have limited space and it becomes essential to format it for getting free space.
Seems to always fail the first time, then completes the second time. Format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows. Usb flash drive format tool erases my usb flash drive for more than 10 passes. Hence, if you are formatting a flash drive, you should definitely choose the apfs format. Learn how to format usb flash drive using cmd in windows 10, 8 and 7. Are you about to install macos high sierra or later on the disk. Fortunately, you can take some actions to repair these minor disk errors with disk utility on your mac. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os x, though with some drawbacks. Best usb format tools pen drive stick formatters for. How to format usb driveexternal hard drive on macos catalina. Compare with the other commonly used ntfs file system on a flash drive, fat32 has a compatibility advantage across many operating systems. To do it on the mac, plug in the flash drive, and open disk utility in your applicationsutilities folder.
Jul 22, 2019 have you ever ran into a problem where youre trying to use a flash drive on both windows and mac. Repair readonly external hard drive with disk utility. Sep 19, 2011 the overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. Usb flash drives are the best means for data storage in comparison with internal hard drives. Sadly, disk utility has been made progressively worse in recent versions of the mac os macos or os x or whatever. You can also open a finder window, select applications in the sidebar, and head to utilities disk utility. May 29, 2018 aomei partition assistant standard is great partition formatting freeware, which offers you more file systems to choose during formatting. If you are are using mac os high sierra or later, apfs will also work. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through.
So, if you are using an afps formatted flash drive on time machine, it will just ask you to format your flash drive into mac os extended. Choosing the best format to work between macs and pcs with a flash drive. Make sure that the sidebar in disk utility shows the name of your startup disk. 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. The first part is for mac users, and the second part is for pc users windows 10 based. Thus, the exfat file system is optimal for usb flash drives formatting. 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. Choice of scheme when formatting usb flash drive in macos.
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