Otherwise, select the mac os extended casesensitive, journaled format. Many computer users who use a removable flash drive have the demand for formatting it to the fat32 file system. Go to the applications folder on your mac s hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. Oct 15, 2019 select mac os extended journaled, or your preferred format type. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through. How do i use a bootable usb installer to install macos or os x. The quickest way is to search on spotlight and click. Also, before you process with the process, make sure that the device has no important data on it.
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. Mine displays as 2 gb smi usb disk media, then underneath it you will see usb disk. For most reasons to erase, including when reformatting a disk or selling, giving away, or trading in your mac, you should erase your entire disk. Jul 22, 2019 rightclick your flash drive and then select format.
Hey guys thanks for watching, i hope you enjoyed, and if you did hit like like button. On the left side of the window are the drives connected to the computer. If the files system is ntfs format, its not hard to understand why the usb flash drive is unreadable on mac. Connect the bootable usb installer to your target mac. Its below the file system heading near the top of the page. But dont worry, this page talks about the reasons for this issue, and how to fix usb flash drive not mounting on mac without data loss even if external hard drive is not showing up on mac. By default, they format disks with the maconly os x extended file system. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Jul 05, 2017 youll see the drives file system displayed to the right of format under the general heading. I explain the differences between the formats afps, mac.
Jan 30, 2017 usb drive format tool is a tiny freeware utility designed for formatting any usb storage devices usb flash drive, usb stick, usb pen drive, usb portable drive, and sdcard in fat, fat32, exfat. Because there are different types of formats for different purposes, its good to know the. Rightclick on the drive you want to format, click on format. Formatting the usb or an external hard drive on macos isnt a herculean task, but theres always something with mac that sets it apart, at least for me. Want to be on the cutting edge of the future and enjoy using usb typec. Stepbystep tutorial to format usb flash drive or external hard drive on mac. It will not affect the performance of the flash drive. Jan 15, 2019 its exactly the same procedure if you need to reformat a flash drive on a mac. Not only this, we will help you pick the best file system for your usb flash drive that you are planning to use on a mac. The main reason for formatting a usb drive as fat32 on a mac is that you want to be able to use. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmac. Enter a name for the disk or volume, such as macintosh hd. How to erase a disk for mac use disk utility to erase format a hard disk, ssd, flash drive, or other storage device. How to format inaccessible or unmounted usb flash drive on.
Also, go to mac s finder applications utilities and launch disk utility from here. Your mac computer comes with a handy utility appropriately called disk utility, which can be used to. To erase and format any drive connected to a mac computer running os x yosemite, use disk utility. It is required to format the usb drive to mac os file system to make it fully compatible with the platform. But, if you plan on using an external drive with both macs and pcs, you. Usb flash drive format tool free download and software. Locate the drive name from the left hand side of disk utility and click on it. Formatting the device as ntfs will make it unwriteable on a mac computer. A dropdown menu will appear with the following options. If you want to protect the disk with a password, select the mac os extended casesensitive, journaled, encrypted format. To fix the incompatible issue, you can download and install an ntfs driver to read and write ntfs drives on mac. 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. The other formats microsofts ntfs and apples mac os extended dont work well on the other operating system. Sep 19, 2011 the overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats.
Simply erasing a usb drive in disk utility will automatically format it too. Click on the format menu and choose either msdos fat32 or. Press y to confirm you want to erase the usb flash drive. Usb drive format tool is a tiny freeware utility designed for formatting any usb storage devices usb flash drive, usb stick, usb pen drive, usb portable drive, and sdcard in. The program is able to format and repair usb flash drives under windows 7, windows 10 and earlier versions of the os. Make sure that it has at least 12gb of available storage and is formatted as mac os extended. When you click on usb disk you will see a few tabs. Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. How to install macos or os x on a new hard drive for your mac.
Step 1 connect your usb flash drive to the mac computer. You can also open a finder window, select applications in the sidebar, and head to utilities disk utility. Oct 29, 2019 firstly, connect your flash drive to the mac by inserting it to the correct usb slot. Restore files with easeus mac data recovery software if the usb flash drive becomes. 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. Formatting a usb flash drive on mac is a little bit lengthy process but yields the desired result. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x. To share a usb drive between a mac and a windows pc, there are two disk formats to choose from. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. This option is near the middle of the dropdown menu. 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.
The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the. In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in a volume label if you want, and then click start. Go to the applications folder on your macs hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. Plug the drive into a usb socket if you have a recent macbook or macbook pro. Choose mac os extended journaled from the format popup menu and click the apply button. The overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats.
How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows central. Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility. Compare with the other commonly used ntfs file system on a flash drive, fat32 has a compatibility advantage across many operating systems. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. Learn how to format an external hard drive, ssd, or a usb flash drive on mac for both mac and windows. There are many ways to make a usb flash drive inaccessible or dismantled, the most common are. If you wish to boot the drive on a pc or use it with older versions of windows, you may also need to set the partition scheme to master boot record mbr for full windows compatibility. Mac computer has a builtin utility called disk utility, which can be used to format any storage device. To make sure, you can go to disk utility and check its file system. Do these steps and you will then be able to format your flash drive on your mac. How to format inaccessible or unmounted usb flash drive on mac. Search for powershell, rightclick the top result, and select the run as administrator. Time machine can back up to an external usb drive connected to an airport extreme base station 802.
There are a few subtle differences between exfat and fat32, but most of these are only an issue if you are using a. For example, if you install macos or microsoft windows on a usb drive, your mac can recognize that drive as a startup disk. In the screenshot below, the drive is formatted with the exfat file system. However, if the usb flash drive is not mounted on mac, you will lose access to the usb flash drive as well as to the data stored on it. Youll see the drive s file system displayed to the right of format under the general heading. The casesensitve format can distinguish between lowercase and uppercase letters. Usb flash drive formatting software for mac can help us format, reformat or erase usb flash drive on mac. For apple mac users, the easier way to format usb flash drive to fat32 is using the disk utility. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps. Jul 31, 2018 by default, mac starts from its builtin hard disk, but a startup disk can be any storage device that contains bootable contents that compatible with your mac. Oct 06, 20 hp usb disk storage format tool utility will format any usb flash drive, with your choice of fat, fat32, or ntfs partition types. You need to erase and format the usb to be compatible with your mac.
How to create a bootable installer for macos apple support. Oct 29, 2019 it is required to format the usb drive to mac os file system to make it fully compatible with the platform. Best usb format tools pen drive stick formatters for. Rightclick your flash drive and then select format. It allows to format a usb flash drive from sandisk, kingston, panasonic, lexar, samsung, sony, etc easily in all complex cases, for example, to format writeprotected usb flash drive, format usb drive back to the original size, format usb drive to fat32 or ntfs, and more. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os. Dec 17, 2018 this simple guide will teach you how to format a flash drive on mac. See this stepbystep tutorial for how to format your usb drive for mac machine macos and pc windows 10. Usb drives can be formatted on your mac using the disk utility application. Oct 15, 2017 however, this is a tutorial on how to format a usb flash drive, not to do it for no reason.
How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos. Go ahead and plug in your flash drive in the usb port on your mac. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos easeus. Select mac os extended journaled, or your preferred format type. I suppose if they used format then some people would think it meant to reformat the drive and somehow maintain the data.
Click on the usb drive in the sidebar in disk utility. Also, go to macs finder applications utilities and launch disk utility from here. In our example, we have fat32 file system which is compatible on windows. Luckily sandisk offers 256gb ultra dual usb c drive, which contains plenty of storage while allowing you to use a newer macbook without dongles. The ubiquity of the fat32 file system allows the drive to be accessed on virtually any host device with usb support. Among many quality flash drives, sandisk extreme pro 128 gb drive is considered the most popular usb flash drive for windows and mac. We all make mistakes, and you wouldnt be the first person in the world to accidentally format a usb flash drive. The former option can help ensure that the usb drive is made fully compatible with your mac, since most usb drives are preformatted for windows computers by default. Backup disks you can use with time machine apple support. After that, go ahead and launch the finder and click on your flash drive detected by your mac. To format a usb flash drive using powershell commands, use these steps. Transferring a 4gb or larger file to a usb flash drive or. This guide provides 2 ways to boot a mac from a usb flash drive.
The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os x, though with some drawbacks. When your usb flash drive doesnt show up on mac, the causes are various, including usb port issue, usb drive corruption or internal errors. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. If the drive is called no name, directly above that, you should see the drive capacity of xxxx. Some flash drives have to be formatted first before you can store files on them. If you want to use a different file system on your usb drive, youll need to format it. This simple guide will teach you how to format a flash dr ive on mac. How to format and use a usb flash drive on your mac.
You can also make the disk bootable by specifying a file location. Step 3 you can type the dormatted disk name and choose msdos fat32 or exfat on the format menu. Power off your mac from the menu or by holding the power button. Erasing will erase the drive and set it up using the format you selected. As the disk utility window would open, you can view the connected pen drive labeled under the external devices on the left. How to format external drives on mac what you should. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmaclinux. You can view the current file system of the usb drive.
How to format usb flash drive on a mac 2018 youtube. How to format a flash drive on a mac demonstration duration. Volume format most manufacturers use the fat 32 or msdos fat volume format. Launch disk utility, located in applications utilities. Plug the drive into a usb socket if you have a recent macbook or macbook pro that only has usbc connectors, youll need a usbc to usba adaptor. Following are the top features of this usb flash drive. If you want to use the drive between a windows and mac machine, you can format it to fat32. Is it possible to format the inaccessible usb flash drive on the mac to fix the issue. Step 2 select the usb drive and click on erase option. Select the capacity of the drive respective to the one containing the device you wish to format then click the erase tab.
Now you can try the following guide to format your usb drive in simple steps. Search for powershell, rightclick the top result, and select the run as. Usb drives have limited space and it becomes essential to format it for getting free space. How to format a usb flash drive on a mac techwalla. Go to applicationsutilities and launch disk utility. Under file system box, select exfat for this drive. Disk drill, a premium data recovery solution for mac os x with support for all popular file formats and common storage devices, is here to help you recover deleted files from usb flash drive.
Formatting your flash drive will remove all files or folders on the drive, so make sure you back up your files before formatting your drive. Type or paste one of the following commands in terminal. Once youve copied any files you need from the usb drive to your mac. How to format usb flash drive on mac stepbystep tutorial. As earlier stated, you need to first back up your usb drive before formatting the drive as you may not be able to recover the contents again. Click here for instructions to format with mac solution 2 format in ntfs warning. Effective solutions toward this problem are available in two parts on this page. In the sheet that appears click the partition button and your flash drive will be formatted as a mac os x. How to format a flash drive on macos erase usb macmetric. How to repairfix unreadable usb flash drives on mac. Feb 21, 2020 how to format a usb flash drive with mac to fat32.
The extended file system ext was the first file system created specifically for linux. Rightclick on the flash drive or memory card, then select format. Most flash drives ship preformatted with the fat32, or exfat file systems. Open terminal, which is in the utilities folder of your applications folder. Mar 12, 2020 connect the usb flash drive or other volume that youre using for the bootable installer. So here well discuss a quick method pun intended of formatting usb on mac. Now, you can follow the steps to be highlighted below to get it successfully formatted. In this post, we are taking how to format usb flash drive or external hard drive on mac. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. How to format external hard drive, usb flash drive on mac. Hp usb disk storage format tool free download and software.
How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos. Terminal shows its progress as it erases and installs macos or os x on your usb flash drive. By default, mac starts from its builtin hard disk, but a startup disk can be any storage device that contains bootable contents that compatible with your mac. However, because a flash drive appears as a usb connected hard drive to the host system, the drive. Developers of the program claim that the fat is the best format for usb drive to avoid conflicts with other operating systems. Format usb flash drive or external hard drive with disk utility. Firstly, connect your flash drive to the mac by inserting it to the correct usb slot. If you plan to use the usb drive on linux computers, you can format it to this file system.
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