Heres how to correctly format the drive to work on both. Apples msdos fat is just a different name for microsofts fat32. Fat or fat 32 file system is the option selected by default for formatting a usb flash drive. If you dont have the dvd handy, you need to create a bootable windows usb drive. Apr 09, 2011 i have an ssd which has two partitions. How to open mac format usb devce in windows youtube. Windows will only format a drive as exfat if windows recognizes it as a removable drive. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac computer, it must be formatted to exfat or fat32 file format. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. If you have a thumb drive, cd, dvd or other storage device with mac operating system installed, you can choose to boot from usb on mac instead of the builtin startup disk, and if not, please follow the 3 steps in this article to learn how does mac change boot order to usb drive. Youll have an encrypted volume that you can work with and. Your usb drive will now be erased and reformatted as either fat32 or exfat, depending on the format you chose in step 6.
Now your usb flash drive is formatted with ntfs format. In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in a volume label if. After choosing the best format for usb drive according to your needs, you might start to wonder. How to format a drive in exfat formatting in windows 73 ways. Exfat is not compatible with computers older than windows vista or mac os x 10. Follow the below instructions to format your usb or hard drive to exfat file system.
Apr 17, 2018 hi, i have a 10tb g drive usb not usb c harddisk and i have formatted it to exfat via a window 7 pc. I am interested in getting a two drive raid 1 setup from owc or gtech and wondering if i can format the drives as exfat. The main distinction is that it may well retailer data over 4 gb. Please, backup any data you are interested in keeping which is already. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmaclinux.
Install and run aomei partition assistant and youll see your usb stick at the main interface. Mar 09, 2012 if you are looking for the steps to format a flash drive in exfat formatting on a windows 7based pc. How to format your usb drive with exfat in windows 7810. How to format hard drive to exfat in windows 7810 three ways. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows 7.
How to format and create a usb drive or pen drive that is compatible with windows 10, 8, 7 or mac or linux. The maximum length for the volume name is 11 characters. A file system is a method and structure of data used by an operating system, called windows, linux or mac os, for reading media files such as disks, removable drives, etc. Dec 29, 2015 how to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Rightclick on the drive you want to format, click on format. Format external hard drive for mac and pc with exfat. How to format a hard drive on windows or mac avast. Fat32 has several limitations, including a 4 gb perfile limit. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. Im here to use a windows 10 based hp laptop to format my lexar drive. Formatting your flash drive will typically remove any files or folders on the drive, so make sure you back up your files before. My passport for mac not detectable on windows 7 with exfat. Mar 15, 2018 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. 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.
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 internet. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. Therefore, its perfect for a usb flash drive or external disk, especially when you need to save files more than 4gb in size. Format encrypted drives as exfat to make them play nice on. Again, formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep. Creating windows 10 bootable usb on mac is a common task for people who have multiple computers at home. Learn how to format usb flash drive using cmd in windows 10, 8 and 7.
How to format a usb drive in windows 7 in exfat formatting. For apple mac users, the easier way to format usb flash drive to fat32 is using the disk utility. But if you didnt foresee that, you may have formatted your drive with apples hfs plus, which windows cant read by default. Since many usb drives cant be used on mac pc directly, formatting it to fat32 makes it usable whether you want to use it on mac or windows. Although there are third celebration instruments you are able to do this with. How to format usb to fat32ntfsexfat on windows and mac. So far the exfat drives have allowed me to move data. 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. My book external hard drive western digital wd it is formated in exfat. You can format a hard drive or usb flash disk specifically so that it will be. Under file system box, select exfat for this drive.
This is the easiest way and simply requires you to plug in your usb drive, open the windows file explorer and right click your drive to view a number of actions that you can perform. Free tool to format usb to exfat from fat32 or ntfs in windows 7 810. You can format the drive from either the mac or the windows. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows.
Right click the partition on your usb drive and select format partition. Boot camp software for running windows on a mac and the microsoft office productivity suite. Formatting a disk using windows maxes out the partition at 32gb, but not if the formatting is done using mac os x. Overwrite exfat format of 8tb external drive with ntfs.
I later on bought a new mac book pro with touch bar with macos high sierra 10. Using this option, we can have single 1tb drive to manage all our tasks. Aomei partition assistant standard is free usb exfat format tool that will assist you format usb flash drive, usb hard drive, thumb drive, pen drive, and sd card from fat32 or ntfs to exfat. In the window that drops down type a name for the formatted drive in the. Oct 15, 2015 however, my problem has been solved when i tried formatting the hard drive on windows 7 from exfat to ntfs. Jul 05, 2017 in the screenshot below, the drive is formatted with the exfat file system. The following example will show you the specific steps of how to solve the problem about cannot format usb drive write protected. Choose this format if the size of the disk is over 32 gb. You can resolve the problem by formatting the hard drive or usb in exfat file system, which is compatible in both windows and mac. If you plan to use the drive to store different file formats, especially video files, formatting the usb to fat32 is actually necessary. How to format a drive for mac and pc compatibility macyourself. Apr 30, 2016 now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10.
How to make some ntfs usb drives work in multiman not all will. Format sd card usb flash drive to fat, fat32, or ntfs on. The following tutorials will teach users how to format an external hard drive for both mac and pc to exfat on mac osx and windows 10. If you require single files to be larger than 4gb, use exfat instead, though you. I can find the hark disk in disk utility with the correct name but the harddisk name is greyed and do not allow me to. Right click on start and select command prompt admin. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. If you want to use a different file system on your usb drive, youll need to format it. Whether youre formatting an internal drive, external drive, or usb flash drive, windows makes it possible to choose between ntfs and exfat formats. A window will pop up where you can choose the format ntfs, fat32, or exfat. The latest trend with computers is not including a cddvd drive.
Its slow because it uses a slow storage format like fat32 or exfat. Your usb drive isnt slow because you have too much stuff on it. 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. How to format usb drives on windows 10 make tech easier. Feb 02, 2018 how to reformat a disk to fat32 on a mac. If you only use a mac computer, you can format your thumb drive so it can work on windows systems. Macos can solely read ntfs, it can not write to it. I want to transfer some files between my pc to my friends mac. If you wish to format external hard drive in exfat follow the steps below. This wikihow teaches you how to change your flash drive s default file format. Whether you want to format a flash drive on your mac or convert a usb. A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac osx.
How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os x, though with some drawbacks. Select your drive from the list and rightclick on it. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format.
In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. Open up windows explorer and rightclick on your drive in the sidebar. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. I am considering formatting this drive as exfat so that both windows 7 and mac os can both read and write to this drive without the need to partition the drive.
You can re format it to ntfs to get faster write times, but. Insert the windows 7 or windows 10 dvd into the dvd drive and boot the pc. You have to format the drive to exfat or fat32 if the burning process failed due to the wrong partition scheme. The good news is that formatting usb on mac is also as easy as on windows 10. If you are on an earlier operating system like windows 7, xp, etc. Gdrive usb formatted as exfat cannot be mounted in mac os. Exfat a newer file format, supported in mac os x 10. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os.
To format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. Sep 19, 2011 the overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. Formatting an external hard drive will remove all the data already present on it. Click on the format menu and choose either msdos fat32 or exfat. How to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. Both windows and mac can read disks formatted with it. How to format usb flash drive using fatfat32ntfsexfat. The following example shows you how to format usb to exfat in windows 7. Take note that exfat formatting or extended fat is set up to eventually replace fat32. You should go ahead and format your storage drive with exfat. If you look for a quick and easy way to manage your drives, try using cleanmydrive 2. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. Make sure the allocation unit size is set to default and type in a volume label.
You can also open a finder window, select applications in the sidebar, and head to utilities disk utility. 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 internal andor external drive to work properly on mac and windows computers. 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. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows 7 by jack scicluna photography, llc guest writer. In the file system dropdown, choose exfat instead of ntfs. You will learn the easiest way to format drive on mac and windows as exfat. Connect the usb fash drive to the mac os x computer.
Format usb to fat32ntfs exfat in windows 10 or windows 7 the process is fairly simple and only involves a couple of clicks and menu option selections, but you will need to make sure that all the data on the drive is backed up before formatting it. Thats why were using a bootable windows 710 installation dvd or usb drive which allows us to format the hard disk. The overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. With the help of its function format partition, you can easily format the write protected usb drive without data loss in windows 108 7, windows xp, as well as windows vista. Mar 03, 2020 as you can see, exfat is the only file system that works with all versions of windows and macos and does not have any max filesize or partitionsize limits. A1 in most windows systems while formatting a usb stickflash drive, file system choices are presented to you ntfs, fat, fat32 or exfat. A quick video tutorial on how to format a usb flash drive or thumb drive, sd card using fat file system since windows doesnt have that fat option enabled by. Jul 22, 2019 how to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. Apr 25, 2012 hi, i formatted all my backup drives using exfat format for a mac running 10. How to use same external usb or hard disk with mac and.
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