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. It is the recommended file format for windows computers, however, they are not suited for mac os. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. Therefore, it is advisable to format your external drive as a last result and only if all the devices you have support exfat. As complicated as that might sound, its not really difficult to format a hard drive in any version of windows.
This is a detailed tutorial on how to format a hard drive in windows 10, windows 8, windows 7, windows vista, and windows xp. Use these steps to create a bootable media to install mac os x. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Windows will format the drive as exfat and youll be able to use the drive on both windows and mac. The other formats microsofts ntfs and apples mac os extended dont work well on the other operating system. Download hp usb disk storage format tool on mac, install it on emulated windows. How to format a hard drive you must format a drive before using it in windows 10, 8, 7, vista, or xp. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Plug the drive into a usb socket if you have a recent macbook or macbook pro. How to format a hard drive on windows or mac avast. Dec 29, 2015 how to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Im here to use a windows 10 based hp laptop to format my lexar drive. Whether the usb should be readable by windows machines and mac machines or just by mac and not readable in windows.
How to format a write protected usb on pc or mac with. Mar 19, 2020 to format a hard drive means to erase any information on the drive and to set up a file system so your operating system can read data from, and write data to, the drive. Best usb format tools pen drive stick formatters for. Better still, it can be read from and written to on any mac running mac os x snow leopard or later and on windows. Format usb or external hard drive for mac using mac disk utility format usb or external hard drive for mac on windows pc using thirdparty usb format tool. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. Feb 17, 2020 creating a windows 10 boot drive is easy peasy. 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. 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. In our example, we have fat32 file system which is compatible on windows. There are a couple ways to mount an efi partition, in my opinion the simplest way is to give it a drive letter. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. Right click on the partition and select delete volume this will remove the partition. How to format a disk or drive in windows 10 information format is the process of preparing a data storage device such as a hard disk drive, solidstate drive, or usb flash drive for initi.
How to quickly make a mac os x bootable usb on windows. You need to erase and format the usb to be compatible with your mac. Dec 16, 2018 how to create bootable usb drive for mac. Install windows from a usb flash drive microsoft docs. Apr 22, 2012 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. 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. If you want to use the usb devices in windows you have to know how to do it. It recognizes the drive, installs the drivers, yet never shows up as an active. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmaclinux. Jan 04, 2012 how to format an external drive for mac compatibility. Disk utility step 1 connect your usb flash drive to the mac computer. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac.
Insert the usb drive into an open port on your windows computer and then launch the windows disk management utility. Jul 22, 2019 how to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. Formatting your flash drive will typically remove any files or folders on the drive, so make sure you back up your files before. In the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with windows computers. Install the parallels desktop emulator on your mac os. Similar to windows 10, you can format usb drives on mac using disk utility app. Have you ever ran into a problem where youre trying to use a flash drive on both windows and mac. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. Technician pc windows pc that youll use to format the usb flash drive.
Apr 30, 2016 now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10. 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. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc. If you are on an earlier operating system like windows 7, xp, etc. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and. I put it in my win 7 pro machine to format it for win7. Therefore, now your usb drive is ready to boot macos high sierra and you can install macos high sierra from your usb flash drive. Dec, 2019 you can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. Creating a gpt partition to build a mac os x bootable drive on windows 10. Click on the usb drive in the sidebar in disk utility. However, in disk management, youll find that there is no exfat option when you right click the partition that you need to format and choose format partition, if the partition is on an internal or external hard drive. To format a usb flash drive using file explorer, use these steps.
This drive will be formatted, so make sure it doesnt have any important files on it. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmac. Erase or format your macs drives using disk utility. Thats why were using a bootable windows 710 installation dvd or usb drive which allows us to format the hard disk. If you are not able to login to your mac, you need to use time machine backup disk.
This will erase all contents on the disk, however, so youll need to. Its fairly straightforward and all you have to do is rightclick on it and select format. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. Though you can mount the drive to view and copy the content, you cant write on the drive. Jun 14, 2018 format usb drive for both mac and pc use. 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. Some of these usb flash drive format software run only in administrator mode, while some run normally. This wikihow teaches you how to remove write protection from a usb drive so you can format it in windows or macos. 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.
In the disk utility app on your mac, choose view show all devices. Save any files you need to another volume before formatting. Read mac formatted drives with windows the tech guy. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. How to format flash drive on win7 when it was formatted on. How to format and create a usb drive or pen drive that is compatible with windows 10, 8, 7 or mac or linux. How to create mac os x bootable usb pen drive on windows. We all make mistakes, and you wouldnt be the first person in the world to accidentally format a usb flash drive. Usb drives can be formatted on your mac using the disk utility application. To find it, type disk management or format disk in windows search and select create and format hard disk partitions. 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. Dec 01, 2016 this tutorial will help you create a bootable usb flash drive for your mac on a windows computer.
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. Hi there, i have a usb flash drive which was formatted for a mac. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os x, though with some drawbacks. Rightclick on windows icon, select disk management.
Howto mount and edit macos efi partition directly on. How to format a usb drive for mac and pc compatibility youtube. When you plug a drive thats been formatted for mac into a windows pc, you may find that it isnt readable. How to format a usb flash drive on mac wondershare. Sep 19, 2011 the overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. To format usb drive in windows operating system, it is recommended to use the free usb formatter minitool partition wizard free edition. How to create mac os x bootable usb pen drive with windows 10 7. Dec 05, 2019 rightclick on windows icon, select disk management. Select the mac drive from the list of drives make sure this is the drive you want to work on, if you do it for the windows formatted drive in the list, it may cost you a lot of important data. However, for this you need to follow the next steps. Bottom line with so many ways to break the incompatibility barrier between mac and windows, you should never be limited whenever you want to transfer files across devices. 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. Under file system box, select exfat for this drive. This wikihow teaches you how to change your flash drive s default file format.
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. How to format usb drives on windows 10 make tech easier. The quickest way is to search on spotlight and click. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc.
In order for this to work you should have a usb flash drive. Format usb for mac and pc on windows quickly and securely. You can view the current file system of the usb drive. 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. Although we know its limitation of 4gb file size only. For example, in windows xp my computer is equivalent to this pc on windows 10. You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. Select your usb flash drive on the sidebar, choose erase.
Jan 15, 2019 better still, it can be read from and written to on any mac running mac os x snow leopard or later and on windows. Use microsofts media creation tool to ensure you have a windows 10 boot drive handy should you ever run into issues with your current pc. Rightclick on the drive you want to format, click on format. The default windows tool has quick format option available to format a usb flash drive, but these freeware can carry out format process in quick format mode, compression mode, etc. Type in a name for the drive, then select a format. Convert formatted drive from mac to windows info remo. In order to be able to access the macos efi partition on windows we first need to mount it. Means if one want to transfer movie or any stuff greater than 4gb it cant be done in this format. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. In general, windows builtin tools disk management and diskpart can format drive to exfat easily. Not every flash drive out there can be used with a mac computer right out of the box. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format.
Ntfs is the default file system for windows operating system and hfs for mac operating system. 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. One simple way to make the drive readable on both platforms is to format it to exfat, which both operating systems can understand. To share a usb drive between a mac and a windows pc, there are two disk formats to choose from. Format external hard drive or usb drive for mac easeus. Insert the windows 7 or windows 10 dvd into the dvd drive and boot the pc. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Use microsofts media creation tool to ensure you have a windows 10 boot drive. Once youve copied any files you need from the usb drive to your mac. How to open mac format usb devce in windows youtube. Under the devices and drivers section, rightclick the flash drive and.
How to format pen drive on mac just like windows, mac also allows a seamless solution to do pen drive format. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. As you can see, exfat is the only file system that works with all versions of windows and. Now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10. If you dont have the dvd handy, you need to create a bootable windows usb drive. How to format usb flash drive on mac stepbystep tutorial. If you only use a mac computer, you can format your thumb drive so it can work on windows systems. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac in disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer.
It can help you resize partition, extend partition, format partition, convert fat32 to ntfs, check file system, copy. If youve been a windows user for even a small amount of time, youd know how to format usb drive on windows. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os. If the drive comes formatted in ntfs, which is the default file system for windows, youre going to want to reformat the drive because mac os x. Formatting a drive will erase all data and partitions on the disk. How to format usb drive on windows 10 using command prompt. The overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. How to create macos high sierra bootable usb on windows.
Click the scheme popup menu, then choose master boot record. Go to applicationsutilities and launch disk utility. 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. How to format a hard drive windows 10, 8, 7, vista, xp. This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through all connections, be they usb, firewire, or thunderbolt. 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. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. 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. After you complete the steps, the usb flash drive from mbr to gpt format, you can use the steps below to create a bootable usb installation media to install mac os x. You will learn the easiest way to format drive on mac and windows as exfat. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. So, now go to your usb flash drive and check the macos high sierra files. To do this, you can take the assistance of disk utility, which is a dedicated system component in mac.
How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos. Means if one want to transfer movie or any stuff greater than 4gb it. As this is only compatible with older versions of mac os, it is recommended that you use an alternative method.
In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. You get to select a new file system for the drive before you click the start button. Sep 23, 2019 creating a gpt partition to build a mac os x bootable drive on windows 10. Now, when you are formatting a usb drive on mac, you have an important decision to make. 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. Oct 25, 2016 usb devices,that are formatted in mac format. You can then rightclick in the empty space and select new simple volume to create a partition and format it with the windows ntfs or fat32 file systems. 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. The hp usb format tool allows you to format the usb flash drive in the mac os x.
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