Your mac computer comes with a handy utility appropriately called disk utility, which can be used to format any. How to clear a flash drive on pc or mac with pictures wikihow. How to format a usb flash drive on a mac techwalla. Formatting was completed successfulno errorswarnings. How to format usb flash drive on mac stepbystep tutorial. If you want to use the drive between a windows and mac machine, you can format it to fat32. Nov, 2018 get your flash drive formatted and set up for dashcam on v9 of tesla incar software. My usb is a 16gb corsair, so 200mb is no where near the truth. Click here for instructions to format with mac solution 2 format in ntfs warning. Go ahead and plug in your flash drive in the usb port on your mac.
Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows. There are many ways to make a usb flash drive inaccessible or dismantled, the most common are. In this article, we will introduce 5 disk formatting tools for windows and mac to help you securely format hard driveusb flash drive or memory card on a pc or a mac. Formatting usb flash drive means emptying all files in the drive and returning to the initial state. Get your flash drive formatted and set up for dashcam on v9 of tesla incar software. Windows uses ntfs and mac os uses hfs and theyre incompatible with each other. If you need further assistance, please reply and we will be happy to help you. Sometimes, you might have to format your usb flash drive to either wipe it or fix errors, etc. How to format an external disk or a flash drive for mac. But if it is ntfs, format your flash drive to make it completely compatible with macos. On my mac i can see the usb mounted and empty in the finder. However, you can format the drive to work with both windows and mac by using the exfat filesystem.
Dec 29, 2015 windows uses ntfs and mac os uses hfs and theyre incompatible with each other. Mar 19, 2005 this confuses me by usb flash drive, you mean those little memory sticks you can use to transport info from one computer to another, right. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Formatting cruzer glide for windows and mac sandisk forums. Only use this option if your flash drive has been previously formatted and you are sure that your flash drive is not damaged. Once the disk utility is opened, select your flash drive from the sidebar and click the erase button. How to format flash drive on win7 when it was formatted on. After that, go ahead and launch the finder and click on your flash drive detected by your mac. Under file system box, select exfat for this drive. How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or.
Rightclick on the flash drive or memory card, then select format. The file allocation table 32 fat32 was the standard windows file system before ntfs. You can make this your client name or your company name. It will automatically locate the connected drive, and you can load it. Now, when you are formatting a usb drive on mac, you have an important decision to make. Rightclick the command prompt icon and select run as administrator. 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. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and. How to format inaccessible or unmounted usb flash drive on. Whether the usb should be readable by windows machines and mac machines or just by mac and not readable in windows. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. Formatting erases any existing files on a flash drive.
How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmac. 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. Ive seen claims on the internet that formatting these drives in. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmaclinux. To format a driveon a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. 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.
Oct 29, 2019 now, when you are formatting a usb drive on mac, you have an important decision to make. In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in a volume label. Disk utility application in macos is the best option to format a flash drive on macos. In the windows format program, the first drop down menu has only 200mb option. If i insert the usb drive on a windows machine, windows indicates that i need to format the drive before i can use it. Sep 19, 2011 the overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats.
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. Go to the applications folder on your macs hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. In addition, it is important to take note when formatting a flash drive as ntfs. Follow these instructions to partition flash drive on mac. This confuses me by usb flash drive, you mean those little memory sticks you can use to transport info from one computer to another, right. Transferring a 4gb or larger file to a usb flash drive or. Go to open disk utility, which is located under applications in the finder menu. If you have a usb flash drive inserted in your mac, you can see it under the external in the disk utility.
Jun 14, 2019 unlike windows in file explorer, mac os x and macos do not include a format drive option in the finder. You only get 11 characters and spaces count as a character. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. How to format usb drives on windows 10 make tech easier. The quickest way is to search on spotlight and click. Mar 22, 2012 the best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Another method of formatting your usb drive is by using diskpart, a command prompt utility. Click the partition tab, if you want to use more than one partition in the drive.
Select the capacity of the drive respective to the one containing the device you wish to format then click the erase tab. I mounted the usb drive on mac, ran diskutililty and erased using msdos. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. 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.
Volume format most manufacturers use the fat 32 or msdos fat volume format. Tesla dashcam flash drive formatting and setup on a mac. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in thefile explorer window and select format. If you format a flash drive that has files on it, the files will be deleted.
Of course, if you have a backup already, ignore this step. When i plug the same usb to a windows, the os tells me that the drive must be formatted. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at the same time and type in disk utility to find the program. Go to the applications folder on your mac s hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. Nov 11, 2009 formatting was completed successfulno errorswarnings. Apr 30, 2016 another method of formatting your usb drive is by using diskpart, a command prompt utility.
Search for the command prompt on the start menu or just type cmd. Do these steps and you will then be able to format your flash drive on your mac. Generally, the formatting process can go smoothly via file explorer, disk management or diskpart command. 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. So, whether you wish to format the internal hard drive, external drive, or a usb flash drive, the procedure is the same for all. In the essay, we will talk about how to format usb flash drive on windows and on mac os and how to recover usb data. Formatting flash drive on mac so it can be used also on. How to format an external disk or a flash drive for macos sierra select the guid partition map if you are creating a bootable install disk or going to use with time machine backup. Click ok to the format warning and wait until the process is complete. On the left side of the window are the drives connected to the computer. In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac.
Then, click on the delete tab and select the mac os plus with registrations or mac os plus uppercase lowercase with registration and click on the delete button. Mar 15, 2018 to use hfsexplorer, connect your macformatted drive to your windows pc and launch hfsexplorer. If you want the usb device to be readable by the both mac and windows devices, then you have three options ntfs, fat or exfat. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. Click the file menu and select load file system from device. And then click on erase to erase and format the external disk or flash drive. Ive seen claims on the internet that formatting these drives in the mac os extended. But luckily, there are file systems well supported by both mac and windows pc, and they are fat32 it might be called msdos on mac and exfat. Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility.
Formatting the device as ntfs will make it unwriteable on a mac computer. All commands given below should be entered without quotes. Connect the drive you wish to format for dual compatibility to the mac click the drive name on the left side list in disk utility, and then click the erase tab click the pulldown menu alongside format and select msdos fat optionally, give the drive a name. If the drive is called no name, directly above that, you should see the drive capacity of xxxx.
Unlike windows in file explorer, mac os x and macos do not include a format drive option in the finder. Is it possible to format the inaccessible usb flash drive on the mac to fix the issue. 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. Then do a right click with your mouse to pull up a menu. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows. If your flash drives file system is msdos or exfat you can use it as it is without further formatting. 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. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows 7. The overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. 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. If you want to format a hard drive or usb flash drive on your computer, disk formatting tool is the best choice. Format a flash drive on mac and make it compatible with windows computers connect the usb to your mac and open applications utilities disk utility.
Just transfer all useful files out from the external hard drive to other devices on mac. However, once in a while, windows was unable to format flash. Rightclick on the drive you want to format, click on format. Formatting flash drive on mac so it can be used also on windows. By the way, we will talk about production usb and nonproduction usb. I click on the format disk button, a window is displayed indicating the capacity of the drive at 200mb. Flash drive formatting and setup on a mac pure tesla.
The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os x, though with some drawbacks. How to format usb flash drive on windows or mac os. Formatting is a very simple procedure which is operated in a similar way for all sorts of storage media. If you have an old flash drive or one that was formatted to work with windows or another operating system, you can still format your flash drive to work on a mac. To use hfsexplorer, connect your macformatted drive to your windows pc and launch hfsexplorer.
How to format a hard drive for mac internal, external or flash. A drive with two partitions, for example can have one partitioned in exfat and another in a mac os extended format, so you can use the same drive on a mac and a windows computer. 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. 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. Search for powershell, rightclick the top result, and select the run as administrator. In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in a volume label if you want, and then click start. To format a usb flash drive using powershell commands, use these steps. Input the name you would like to call it, for example your clients name or your business name. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Rightclick your flash drive and then select format. When you click on usb disk you will see a few tabs.
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