Jan 04, 2012 yes, connecting an external hard drive or usb flash key to a mac will generally read and work fine as is because the mac can easily read other filesystem formats, including windows msdos, fat, fat32, exfat, and ntfs formats, but unless you intend on using the drive between a windows and mac machine, formatting it to be entirely mac compatible. Usb disk storage format tool by authorsoft corporation is a free utility that allows you to easily format your usb flash drives. Its below the file system heading near the top of the page. So, i tried the hp usb disk storage format tool, and it make short work of the job. Format usb or external hard drive for mac on windows pc using thirdparty usb format tool. If youve been a windows user for even a small amount of time, youd know how to format usb drive on windows.
Apr 23, 2020 when boot camp assistant finishes, your mac restarts to the windows installer. Hp usb disk storage format tool free download and software. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Choose the exfat file system in the list and click start. For example, in windows xp my computer is equivalent to this pc on windows 10. Note that you should replace the disk2 with the name of the your drive from step 3 if it wasnt disk2. In the disk utility app on your mac, choose view show all devices. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. Format usb or external hard drive for mac using mac disk utility. Format usb for mac and pc on windows quickly and securely. How to create a bootable usb drive for macos sierra. 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. Locate your usb stick under this pc, rightclick on it and select the format option.
Sep 19, 2011 the overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. Sep 25, 2019 you will see output like this note your mac s terminal may be black text on a white background if you havent customized it. How to format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. How to create macos high sierra bootable usb on windows. Have you ever ran into a problem where youre trying to use a flash drive on both windows and mac. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os x, though with some drawbacks. Sep 23, 2019 once your bootable usb installation media is ready, remove it and insert it into your mac, power it on, holding down the option key, and select the usb you just created to reinstall mac os x. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac.
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. When boot camp assistant is done, the usb drive will be renamed to wininstall. In some cases, the usb flash drives need to be formatted to fat32 as it is one of the most preferred and compatible file systems for both mac and windows. Best usb format tools pen drive stick formatters for.
In our example, we have fat32 file system which is compatible on windows. How to format and create a usb drive or pen drive that is compatible with windows 10, 8, 7 or mac or linux. The program is able to format and repair usb flash drives under windows 7, windows 10 and earlier versions of the os. Sometimes we need to format the u disk, then how to format it, here will tell you a way 1. You can view the current file system of the usb drive. The overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. Click the erase button click the scheme popup menu, then choose master boot record. To find it, type disk management or format disk in windows search and select create and format hard disk partitions. Developers of the program claim that the fat is the best format for usb drive to avoid conflicts with other operating systems.
Open the finder window and navigate to applications install macos sierra. Nov 01, 2011 format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows. If the installer asks where to install windows, select the bootcamp partition and click format. U disk is a commonly used mobile storage tool in daily life. Apr 30, 2016 now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10. Insert the usb drive into an open port on your windows computer and then launch the windows disk management utility. Whilst the process of downloading and installing an os through the mac app store is straightforward enough, its painful for people with a slower internet connection, or if theyve. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and.
If you are on an earlier operating system like windows 7, xp, etc. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesnt worry its not complex. The above command will format the usb drive in the fat32 format which is ideal for usb drives. This also allows you to restore time machine backups on windows. A dropdown menu will appear with the following options. How to create bootable macos usb on windows 10 when the mac failed to boot or want to reinstall macos. Need to access or transfer files between mac and pc. If you want to use the drive between a windows and mac machine, you can format it to fat32. The ntfs files can be read by the macos, but you cannot. 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.
How to create a windows 10 installer usb drive from a mac. So if your system is unstable, you need to run a diagnostic tool on the hard drive, or you just want to load a linux desktop just to see what its all about, lets look at how you start your machine using rescue usb boot media. The other formats microsofts ntfs and apples mac os extended dont work well on the other operating system. So you might want to use other applications to format your external storage devices. Use unetbootin on mac unetbootin is free to use and allows you to make a bootable usb drive for windows 10 using your mac. Run this command using the correct disk number for your usb. How to make a windows 10 usb using your mac build a. If youre intent is to only read files loaded from a pc from a mac, the standard windows ntfs format should suffice.
In the disk utility app on your mac, choose view show all devices in the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with windows computers. So, now go to your usb flash drive and check the macos high sierra files. In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in a volume label. Heres how to correctly format the drive to work on both. And its likely that you can not do it with the windows builtin disk management tool. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. Format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows. You can also make the disk bootable by specifying a file location. Be absolutely sure you have your files off the drive and that youve selected the correct drive you want to format. Getting your mac to load from a usb drive is fairly straightforward. Usb cannot format, usb drive is write protected, usb format error, usb becomes raw, and more are the common issues you might encounter when you use a usb flash drive. Its very easy to format a usb drive on a mac using disk utility.
Now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10. You can use fsntfs instead to format the drive as ntfs which will then only work on a windows pc. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac laptop mag. Oct 29, 2019 now, when you are formatting a usb drive on mac, you have an important decision to make. If you want to format a hard drive or usb flash drive on your computer, disk formatting tool is the best choice. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. How to quickly make a mac os x bootable usb on windows. 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. And if you format it to ntfs, it will not be fully supported in mac operating system. Usb drives can be formatted on your mac using the disk utility application.
At this moment, you have to format your usb flash drive to fix the problem. 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. How to format a write protected usb on pc or mac with. You get to select a new file system for the drive before you click the start button. This article shows you how to download a macos dmg file, format a usb drive using a guid partition table, burn the dmg to the drive and boot your mac from the usb. All the steps except the last one are done on a windows 10 machine. Save any files you need to another volume before formatting. Remember, this will erase all the files on the drive. You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows. Click the format dropdown menu and select one of the following file formats. Install windows 10 on your mac with boot camp assistant.
By default, macs use hfs, while pcs use ntfs, which are not compatible with each other. In most cases, the installer selects and formats the bootcamp partition automatically. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmac. Learn a few ways to make your drive mac and pc friendly. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows 7 by jack scicluna photography, llc guest writer. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmaclinux. Jun 14, 2018 format usb drive for both mac and pc use. As the article mentioned, this is one of the common formats in. Dec 29, 2015 the instructions below are for windows 10, but other versions of windows from windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exfat for use with mac as well. It will not affect the performance of the flash drive. When boot camp assistant finishes, your mac restarts to the windows installer. Again, like the first method, you will need a usb drive with a capacity of 16gb as a minimum recommendation and you will also need to download the. Since the pc and mac are two different operating systems, they use different file systems.
Click on the usb drive in the sidebar in disk utility. Format external hard drive or usb drive for mac easeus. This option is near the middle of the dropdown menu. Use disk utility follow the steps to format fat32 with disk utility. If you want to have a clean installation of macos high sierra whether on mac, windows, or any other virtualization software then this is the best way to create macos high sierra bootable usb on windows without mac.
If youre having issues trying to create a bootable media, you can get a usb flash drive that comes with mac osx ready to install. In the main interface, right click the partition on that need. 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. The latest trend with computers is not including a cddvd drive. Its fairly straightforward and all you have to do is rightclick on it and select format. 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.
Go to applicationsutilities and launch disk utility. Windows cant normally read macformatted drives, and will offer to erase them instead. To do so you can either use the disk utility or the terminal command line. Whether the usb should be readable by windows machines and mac machines or just by mac and not readable in windows. Mar 15, 2018 to format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. 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. The release date of usb disk storage format tool for mac is unknown and we cannot say for sure if it will be released at all. This wikihow teaches you how to change your flash drives default file format. For example, you might want to reformat a new or used removable storage device to make sure it. To format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. But, while trying to format a flash drive in the usual manner, problems may arise or the fat32 option might not be available. In the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc.
It can take about 20 minutes to format and set up the usb installer on the mac. 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 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. How to create macos bootable usb on windows 10 uubyte. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows. If you have an external hard drive or usb flash drive that youd like to use on both macs and windows pcs, choosing the right file system to format the drive can be confusing. Again, formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep. Rightclick your flash drive and then select format. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. Formatting your flash drive will typically remove any files or folders on the drive, so make sure you back up your files before. 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.
This wikihow teaches you how to remove write protection from a usb drive so you can format it in windows or macos. Aug 16, 2019 on windows 10, the ability to format a usb flash drive can come in handy in a number of scenarios. To share a usb drive between a mac and a windows pc, there are two disk formats to choose from. 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. Next format your usb drive to windows fat32 format. Unplug any external devices that arent necessary during. Want to use one external drive for both your windows pc and your mac. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. Once your bootable usb installation media is ready, remove it and insert it into your mac, power it on, holding down the option key, and select the usb you just created to reinstall mac os x.
How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows central. Therefore, now your usb drive is ready to boot macos high sierra and you can install macos high sierra from your usb flash drive. How to format usb drives on windows 10 make tech easier. If you want to use a different file system on your usb drive, youll need to format it. How to format a write protected usb on pc or mac with pictures. Better still, it can be read from and written to on any mac running mac os x snow leopard or later and on windows. 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. You need to erase and format the usb to be compatible with your mac.
As this is only compatible with older versions of mac os, it is recommended that you use an alternative method. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. Insert the usb flash drive into the usb port of the computer. 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.