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Format usb drive for mac and windows how to#
Format usb drive for mac and windows full#
Format usb drive for mac and windows windows#

Step 3: Expand the File system drop-down menu and select the exFAT option.

Step 2: Right-click on the drive and choose the Format option.

Step 1: Connect your USB flash drive and open press Win key + E to open File Explorer. Refer to the following steps to learn how. This is the easiest way with which many users are familiar. Method 1: Format a USB Flash Drive Using File Explorer

Format usb drive for mac and windows windows#

Generally, On Windows 10, 8, 7, there are some common ways you can format a USB flash drive.

Format usb drive for mac and windows how to#

How to Format a USB Drive on Windows 7/8/10?Īfter deciding which file system you are going to apply, let’s explore the formatting methods. We strongly recommend that you use exFAT, which is considered the best choice for both Windows and Mac computers, whereas the exFAT file system works better than FAT32 and can handle the file size up to 16GB. It serves no matter the Windows or Mac users who want to work with files larger than 4GB.

exFAT: It provides an unlimited file and partition size.

The disadvantage is that the Mac computer can only read the data from the NTFS drive. Besides, it supports on-the-fly file encryption.

NTFS: It can create partitions larger than 32GB and read/write files larger than 4GB.

But it cannot handle single files larger than 4GB and has a limited partition size (up to 32GB).

FAT32: It’s compatible with all major operating systems and uses less memory usage.

We can’t talk about formatting without talking about file system as it differs when we are using the different computers the common file systems are FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS for Windows, APFS, HFS+, and exFAT for macOS, here we will only talk about the most common file systems when formatting a USB flash drive: Which File System Should I Choose for a USB Flash Drive? Meanwhile, it also creates a filing system that can help organizes your data on Windows or Mac.

Format usb drive for mac and windows full#

It wipes all the data stored on your flash drive and allows full use of the storage capacity. Recover Files From a Formatted Drive Using Bitwar Data Recoveryįormatting is the fastest way to prepare the USB flash drive for the initial use.How to Perform a USB Drive Format on Mac?.Method 4: Format a USB Flash Drive Using PowerShell (Windows 10 Only).Method 3: Format a USB Drive Using Disk Management.Method 2: Format a USB Flash Drive Using Diskpart.Method 1: Format a USB Flash Drive Using File Explorer.How to Format a USB Drive on Windows 7/8/10?.Which File System Should I Choose for a USB Flash Drive?.This Mac 911 article is in response to a question submitted by Macworld reader Robin. Select the drive in the left-hand sidebar.įrom the Scheme menu, select Master Boot Record.Ĭlick Erase and follow prompts to confirm. Launch Disk Utility (from Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility). While first ensuring you have a copy of any data on a drive you want to format as ExFAT, as formatting will erase the drive’s contents, follow these steps: Instead, pick ExFAT, its replacement (and still quite old), best used on drives of 32GB or larger capacity. Designed for an earlier time, it can’t handle files larger than 4GB. If you’re both Mac users, swell with Mac and Windows in the mix, you might be tempted to pick FAT32 when formatting that thumb drive.īut FAT32 is distinctly out of date.

But it still crops up whenever you’re trying to put files on a USB thumb drive to hand off to someone else. For those of us who rarely transfer files physically across devices, file-format capability may be a distant memory.