Windows cant normally read mac formatted drives, and will offer to erase them instead. Best usb format tools pen drive stick formatters for. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. Similar to windows 10, you can format usb drives on mac using disk utility app.
Format external hard drive or usb drive for mac easeus. In our example, we have fat32 file system which is compatible on windows. This wikihow teaches you how to change your flash drives default file format. Format usb or external hard drive for mac on windows pc using thirdparty usb format tool. 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. How to quickly create a macos bootable usb on windows 10. To do this, you can take the assistance of disk utility, which is a dedicated system component in mac. To share a usb drive between a mac and a windows pc, there are two disk formats to choose from. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. You will learn the easiest way to format drive on mac and windows as exfat. How to format a write protected usb on pc or mac with. Usb drives can be formatted on your mac using the disk utility application. How to format usb to fat32ntfsexfat on windows and mac.
If you want to use a different file system on your usb drive, youll need to format it. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. Moving from windows to mac transferring your documents. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. 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.
In the disk utility app on your mac, choose view show all devices. On the left, rightclick the usb flash drive, select the format disk for mac option. Use disk utility on mac if you are running an older version of mac, you can use the builtin disk utility app to create a windows 10 bootable usb drive. How to quickly make a mac os x bootable usb on windows. Insert the usb drive into an open port on your windows computer and then launch the windows disk management utility. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac.
How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Just like windows, mac also allows a seamless solution to do pen drive format. Format usb for mac and pc on windows quickly and securely. Ntfs is the default file system for windows operating system and hfs for mac operating system. You can also open a finder window, select applications in.
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. To format a hard drive for compatibility of both mac and windows you can use fat32 format which has both readwrite capability on winmac respectively. How to create macos bootable usb on windows 10 uubyte. 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. To find it, type disk management or format disk in windows search and select create and format hard disk partitions. Format usb drive for mac and pc via freeware aomei partition assistant, a free powerful format tool, is specially designed for windows operating systems. Hp usb disk storage format tool for windows a very simple utility for the correct flash stick formatting in fat32 or ntfs formats. Hp usb disk storage format tool utility will format any usb flash drive, with your choice of fat, fat32, or ntfs partition types. The overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. The default format used by most usb flash drives and other external storage media is fat32. Formatting your flash drive will typically remove any files or folders on the drive, so make sure you back up your files before. Format usb or external hard drive for mac using mac disk utility.
You can view the current file system of the usb drive. Again, formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep. Learn how to format usb flash drive using cmd in windows 10, 8 and 7. After the usb flash drive is inserted into the usb port, press the power button for your machine or restart if. Unplug any external devices that arent necessary during. The windows system uses a hard drive with a different file system than the mac systems. Once your bootable usb installation media is ready, remove it and insert it into your mac, power it on, holding down the option key, and select the usb you just created to reinstall mac os x. Well show you to create a bootable usb flash drive with the windows 10 installer from a mac. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. 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. 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. This wikihow teaches you how to remove write protection from a usb drive so you can format it in windows or macos.
How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. The other formats microsofts ntfs and apples mac os extended dont work well on the other operating system. How to format usb flash drive to ntfs in windows 10. Click the scheme popup menu, then choose master boot record. So, if it needs to be formatted at all, you need to format it as fat32. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. First off, ensure your flash drive is already plugged in to your pc. How to create a bootable mac osx usb stick in mac or windows 100% working bootable usb watch part 2 on how to install macos in your desktop laptop with all the fixes. If you move a hard drive between the two operating systems, heres what you need to know.
Format usb key on mac os mac os users can format their usb keys into the fat format in a few simple steps. How to create bootable macos usb drive on macwindows. The good news is that formatting usb on mac is also as easy as on windows 10. You can use it to format usb drive quickly and securely. How to format usb drives on windows 10 make tech easier. 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. 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. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. Creating bootable usb using rufus is a natural process because it is a portable application so that we dont have to install it on our computer. The latest trend with computers is not including a cddvd drive.
If this is the case, chances are that its using a mbr partition, and the usb drive needs a gpt partition to. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. Under the devices and drivers section, rightclick the flash drive and select the format option. 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. Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. But how do you create such a disk if all youre left with is a windows 10 computer. If you want to make your drive compatible with mac and windows, you need to format it with a common file system for mac and windows. When boot camp assistant finishes, your mac restarts to the windows installer. If your mac suddenly refuses to boot up properly, you might need bootable macos install usb to make repairs. Save any files you need to another volume before formatting. If youre having issues trying to create a bootable media, you can get a usb flash drive that comes with mac osx ready to install. Install windows 10 on your mac with boot camp assistant. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos.
Select your usb flash drive on the sidebar, choose erase. You want to do this before creating the bootable media because there is a good chance that the drive was formatted using a windows device. When you connect a macformatted drive to windows, youll be informed that you need to format the disk in drive x. How to create a windows 10 installer usb drive from a mac. If you only use a mac computer, you can format your thumb drive so it can work on windows systems. 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. This also allows you to restore time machine backups on windows.
To format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. You have to format the drive to exfat or fat32 if the burning process failed due to the wrong partition scheme. To boot ubuntu from usb media, the process is very similar to the windows instructions above. But for most users, they always find the need to convert or format their usb drive to ntfs. How to format a usb flash drive using file explorer.
This article will introduce how to format usb drive for mac and pc on widows with diskpart tool and aomei partition assistant. As you can see, exfat is the only file system that works with all versions of windows and. Rightclick on the drive you want to format, click on format. Then click on the partition tab in the right window. How to create a windows 10 installer usb drive from a mac windows. You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. Confirm the bios boot sequence lists the usb drive first, or make that change as needed. 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. To erase the disk, open disk utility applications utilities folder, select the usb drive in the sidebar, go to erase tab and select exfat on format. The main function is to help the user to quickly select options and format the usb flash drive on the computer by pressing a format button.
Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows. How to format usb drives on windows 10 by ayo isaiah apr 30, 2016 apr 28, 2016 windows if you have a malfunctioning or corrupted usb drive, formatting it may be the best way to get it back to its original working state. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows. Although we know its limitation of 4gb file size only.
It can support almost all file systems including ext2, ext3, ntfs, fat32,exfat, etc. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmac. Have you ever ran into a problem where youre trying to use a flash drive on both windows and mac. Thus in order to make the hard drive windows formatted, you have to convert the file system to ntfs or fat32. Windows formatted hard drives have either ntfs file system of an fat32 file system. Dont click the format disk button or windows will erase the contents of the driveclick cancel. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows 7 by jack scicluna photography, llc guest writer. How to format a usb drive for mac and pc compatibility youtube. Under file system box, select exfat for this drive. You need to erase and format the usb to be compatible with your mac.
How to format internal andor external drive to work properly on mac and windows computers. You can also make the disk bootable by specifying a. Use the file system dropdown menu and select the ntfs option. How do i format a usb flash drive to work apple community. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os.
As this is only compatible with older versions of mac os, it is recommended that you use an alternative method. Creating windows 10 bootable usb on mac is a common task for people who have multiple computers at home. If the installer asks where to install windows, select the bootcamp partition and click format. In the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with windows computers. Windows cannot read a mac formatted disk, but macs can read a windows formatted one. 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. Alternatively, you can also can also use a gparted live cd to format your usb key. Lets see how to format usb drive on a windows pc first. In most cases, the installer selects and formats the bootcamp partition automatically. 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. 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. Dont worry, the following part will show you the solution for windows and mac os users. It can create bootable usb for both bios and uefi systems also it can create bootable usb of several operating systems such as windows, ubuntu, linux, etc.
The process for formatting a drive is different depending on the system youre using. It can help you manage system partitions, erase an external unit like a thumb drive, and even repair your disk. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. 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. Format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows cult of mac. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. Open disk utility and select the icon of the usb key on the left side of the window.
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