How To Format Flash Drive For Mac And Windows

  

  1. Formatting A Flash Drive Mac
  2. How To Format A Usb Drive For Mac And Pc Compatibility
  3. How-to-format-usb-flash-drives-to-work-with-both-mac-and-windows-7
  4. Format Usb Flash Drive Windows

Note: Formatting your flash drive will remove all files or folders onthe drive, so make sure you back up your files before formatting yourdrive.

  1. Select the USB flash drive in Disk Utility. Click the 'Partition' tab, if you want to use more than one partition in the drive. 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.
  2. Launch Disk Utility. Connect the USB flash drive to your Mac. If there are any files on the drive you.
How to format flash drive for mac and windows

Right click on the flash drive and click on Format option. This opens a new window, where you can set File system, Allocation unit size, and change Volume label for the USB drive. Once all options are set, proceed to format the USB drive. This is one of the quickest USB flash drive format tool for Windows. After choosing your drive, click on the 'Erase' button on the top menu bar. You will see a popup window, in that window, give the name to your drive and select a format for your USB drive. Once done, click on the 'Erase' button. This will format Write Protected USB drive on Mac using Disk Utility.

Windows:

How to format a usb drive for mac and pc compatibility
  1. Connect the USB flash drive to your computer.

  1. Click “This PC”.

  1. Right-click the flash drive’s icon. It’s beneath the “Devices and drives” heading in the middle of the page.

  1. Click Format. This option is near the middle of the drop-down menu. Doing so opens the Format window.

  1. Click the “File System” box. It’s below the “File System” heading near the top of the page. A drop-down menu will appear with the following options:

NTFS - The default Windows operating system format. If you’re using your drive as a secondary Windows drive, you’ll need to choose this option.

FAT32 - The most widely compatible format. Works with most computers and gaming consoles.

Note: exFAT format USB flash drives do not work with ClonerAlliance products.

  1. Click a format option (FAT32 or NTFS). If you’ve formatted your drive before and you’re positive that it isn’t broken, you can also check the Quick Format box.

  1. Click Start, and then click OK. Doing this will cause Windows to begin formatting your flash drive for you.

  1. Click “OK” when prompted. Your flash drive has successfully been formatted.

Mac:

  1. Connect the USB flash drive to your Mac.

Formatting A Flash Drive Mac

Note: Some Macs don’t have USB ports, so you’ll need to purchase an adapter.

  1. Click “Go”. It’s a menu item in the top-left side of the menu bar.

How To Format A Usb Drive For Mac And Pc Compatibility

If you don’t see Go, first click the Finder icon, which resembles a blue face in your Mac’s dock.

  1. Click “Utilities”. This option is in the Go drop-down menu.

  1. Double-click “Disk Utility”. You’ll likely find this option in the middle of the Utilities page.

  1. Click your flash drive’s name. It’s on the far-left side of the Disk Utility window.

  1. Click the “Erase” tab. This option is at the top of the Disk Utility window.

  1. Click a format option.

Note: exFAT format USB flash drives do not work with ClonerAlliance products.

  1. Click Erase, then click Erase when prompted. This will begin the formatting process. Once the formatting is complete, you’ll see an icon for your flash drive appear on your Mac’s desktop.

For Apple Mac users, there are two ways to format USB flash drive to FAT32, including Disk Utility and Terminal command line. Refer to detailed steps of using both tools for FAT32 format. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. Otherwise, you can use data recovery software to recover data from a formatted USB drive.

How-to-format-usb-flash-drives-to-work-with-both-mac-and-windows-7

Are you looking for a secure way to format USB to FAT32 on Mac? You are at the right place. Follow here, you can find two methods that will assist you in doing so on your storage device. And if you lost data during the formatting, reliable Mac file recovery software is ready to help anytime:

Workable SolutionsStep-by-step Troubleshooting
Method 1. Use Disk UtilityConnect USB to Mac > Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility > Select USB and click 'Erase'...Full steps
Method 2. Use Terminal CommandConnect USB to Mac > Hit cmd + space keys > Type terminal and hit Enter...Full steps
Bonus Tip. Recover Formatted DataIf you lost data due to formatting, run EaseUS file recovery software > Scan and recover formatted data...Full steps

How to Format a USB Flash Drive with Mac to FAT32

Computer users who use a USB might have the demand for formatting it to the FAT32 file system. Compare with the other commonly used NTFS file system on a flash drive, FAT32 has a compatibility advantage across many operating systems.

It's a universal format that is compatible with Mac OS X/macOS, Windows, Linux, and DOS systems. So, if users anticipate using the flash drive with more than one operating system, they will definitely benefit from the FAT32 file system. For Apple Mac users, there are two ways to format a USB flash drive to FAT32, namely Disk Utility and Terminal command line. Below are the detailed steps of the FAT32 format with both methods.

Method 1. Format FAT32 on Mac [Disk Utility]

To format USB to FAT32 with Disk Utility will erase all data on the flash drive, so before you doing so, please do remember to check whether you have saved useful data to another secure device in advance.

To format the USB drive to FAT32, follow the next steps:

Step 1. Connect the USB flash drive to your Mac computer.

Step 2. Go to Applications >Utilities > Double click and open Disk Utility.

Step 3. Select your USB flash drive on the sidebar, choose Erase.

Step 4. Rename the USB flash drive (optional).

Step 5. Choose the format as MS-DOS (FAT) for Format, Master Boot Record for Scheme. Then click Erase.

Wait for the process to complete, then you'll get an empty new USB flash drive with FAT32 as the file system. You can use it for saving data again.

Method 2. Format FAT32 on Mac [Terminal Command Line]

The command-line behavior does the same way to erase data with the Disk Utility. Again, create a backup before taking this action.

To format FAT32 on Mac with Terminal, follow the next steps:

How to format a usb drive for mac and pc compatibility

Step 1. Connect the USB flash drive to your Mac computer.

Step 2. Hit cmd + space to run Spotlight, type: terminal, and hit Enter.

Step 3. Type: diskutil list and find out which disk is your USB drive.

Step 4. Type: sudo diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 MBRFormat /dev/disk2.

Format flash drive for mac and pc 2017

Format Usb Flash Drive Windows

  • sudo gives you user right.
  • Diskutil calls disk utility program.
  • eraseDisk commands to format.
  • FAT32 sets the file system.
  • MBRFormat tells disk utility to format with a Master Boot Record.
  • /dev/disk2 is the location of the USB drive.

Wait for the process to complete. After this, you can type 'diskutil list' in the command again to check if the formatting has been successful.

Bonus Tip: How to Recover Data from Formatted USB

How

Formatting the USB would erase the data on it completely, so please make sure that you have a backup. If you don't, you can count on data recovery software to retrieve the lost data.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard has both Windows and Mac versions, so it's a good choice for data recovery, no matter you're using a PC or Mac. For Mac users, it only takes a few clicks for the software to scan and display the formatted data. To guarantee an effective data recovery without spending money to no avail, you can install the Mac data recovery free version for the first trial. You can preview all the found data before the final recovery.

To recover data from a formatted USB flash drive on Mac, follow the next steps:

Step 1. Correctly connect your USB flash drive to your Mac. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac. Start selecting the flash drive and click 'Scan' to let the software search lost files on it.

Step 2. After a quick scan and deep scan, all files will be presented in the left panel in the scan results.

Step 3. Select files you want to recover and click the 'Recover Now' button. Don't save the recoverable files to the USB drive itself in case of data overwriting.