If youre not a nerd you probably just used it out of the box. Some mac users may require the ability to erase a disk or erase a hard drive from the command line on mac os, a task which is typically performed through the disk utility application from the gui. 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. The command line approach to disk erasure in macos is a bit different and it requires precise syntax to insure that you are erasing the proper disk, making this. How to format a write protected usb on pc or mac with pictures. Disk utility step 1 connect your usb flash drive to the mac computer. 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.
How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. Launch the program and click on the burn module on the home screen. We here will show you the full guides on how to format fat32 and ntfs drives on mac as an example. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility. Click on the usb drive in the sidebar in disk utility. If you want to use a different file system on your usb drive, youll need to format it. How to format mac and reinstall macos from scratch teknologya. The main reason for formatting a usb drive as fat32 on a mac is that you want to be able to use.
Click on the format menu and choose either msdos fat32 or. I pulled the plug off of an xp computer w a usb disk in it and the stick became unreadable from win8. Heres how to format a drive using a mac including how to format a drive for windows and mac so the contents can be read on both platforms, and what format to use for time machine. Its exactly the same procedure if you need to reformat a flash drive on a mac. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmac. Jun 14, 2018 format usb drive for both mac and pc use. The extended file system ext was the first file system created specifically for linux. How to format mac and reinstall macos from scratch. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps. The overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. For some weird reasons the usb format for ps4 is fat32 or exfat. Heres how to correctly format the drive to work on both.
Please back up all your data before you format the usb drive. Even so, its still easy to create a usb installation disk for os x lion if you want to install lion on a freshly formatted hard drive, if youre in an emergency booting situation, or if you need to repair your mac s hard drive. How to format a usb stick on a mac using disk utility tech. My chinese sucks so i thought it might be practical for other users to translate it and add some of my own experiences to it. Connect the usb fash drive to the mac os x computer. The trick is actually not all that hard, but it took me a while to find a solution that would work on a chinese website. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows. How to format usb drives on windows 10 make tech easier. To share a usb drive between a mac and a windows pc, there are two disk formats to choose from.
So your first move is to make usb can be recognized again, and then you can use mac hard drive data recovery software to recover files if the usb becomes inaccessible. Insert the usb drive into an available, active port and it will automatically be detected and displayed on the software interface. You can also open a finder window, select applications in the sidebar, and head to utilities disk utility. Thanks to disk utility, the issue of how to format usb on mac is fairly straightforward. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos easeus. But i dont know what format to have the usb stick as my movie files are around 10gb each and if the usb stick is formatted to msdos it wont let me go over 4gb and the tv doesnt seem to read exfat. Click on the erase tab displayed at the top of the disk utility window. If you only use a mac computer, you can format your thumb drive so it can work on windows systems. How to format a usb flash drive using command prompt in windows. Maybe you just want a different flavor of macos other than your current version.
By default all usbsticks are formatted as fat msdos default so they work on windows, mac and linux. Again, formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep. Once youve put the usb stick into your mac, you need to open the applications folder, which can be located in the finder or by pressing cmd and spacebar keys together then typing applications. If your integral usb has a security or zip software preloaded integral splash, secure. Aug 20, 2016 perhaps your macs system has run into some problems or isnt working correctly. When your usb flash drive is not showing up on your mac, the reasons might be the usb port, or usb contains errors that make the drive undetectable. Step 2 select the usb drive and click on erase option. I then did a format to exfat on a windows 7 computer and my mac wont read it. Oct 15, 2017 however, this is a tutorial on how to format a usb flash drive, not to do it for no reason. There are currently 2 choices that are provided by the windows operating system. We here will show you the full guides on how to format fat32 and ntfs drives on. A very simple utility for the correct flash stick formatting in fat32 or ntfs formats. Locate the drive name from the left hand side of disk utility and click on it. Use startup manager or startup disk preferences to select the bootable installer as the startup disk, then start up from it.
So you might want to use other applications to format your external storage devices. For example, if you connect a usb 3 device to usb 2 port, your device is limited to usb 2 speeds, and it cant draw more power from the port than can be delivered over usb 2. Rename the usb flash drive, choose the format as msdos fat for format, master. This video will show you how to format a usb on a mac. Apr 30, 2016 now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in.
Usb disk storage format tool by authorsoft corporation is a free utility that allows you to easily format your usb flash drives. How to create a bootable installer for macos apple support. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmaclinux. Many people think it is hard to format the windows drive on macintosh. Step 1 download and install iso burner mac edition. How to format a write protected usb on pc or mac with. Hp usb storage format tool is available for free, the installer can be downloaded for windows 10, 7, 8, etc. The other formats microsofts ntfs and apples mac os extended dont work well on the other operating system. 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. If you want to use exfat its the best if you want to use your usb drive with macs and pcs, you must erase the usb drive on your pc with windows. You can, however, format a windows hard drive from a mac if you connect the windows hard drive to the mac and format it through disk utility, or the command line as described above. How do i format a usb stick on my imac apple community. How to format usb flash drive on mac stepbystep tutorial.
How to fixrepair the unreadablecorrupted usb flash drive on mac. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x. The main function is to help the user to quickly select options and format the usb flash drive on the computer by pressing a format button. 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. The quickest way is to search on spotlight and click. It is a completely free application that allows you to create a bootable usb stick in order to install macos in just a few simple steps. I only own a mac and not a pc and have a problem as i have large movie files i want to put on my usb stick to put onto my tv to watch them on. Hey guys thanks for watching, i hope you enjoyed, and if you did hit like like button. How to format a flash drive on macos erase usb macmetric. Now, click on the erase button and the disk utility will prepare the usb stick for the next steps youre going to follow. Mar 04, 2019 how to format a mac using a usb stick. Go to applicationsutilities and launch disk utility. 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. To format the usb drive to fat32, follow the next steps.
This is a simple procedure and is achieved the same way for all drive types and through. This will launch apples startup manager which shows bootable devices connected to the machine. Aug 30, 2016 this is an article for mac, it is erasing a hard drive from a mac command line, it is not a windows tutorial. Launch disk utility, located in applications utilities. When you start formatting your external hard drive with a computer you get a choice to choose the file system you want. In case you would prefer to use an alternative solution to the recovery tool, then you can rely on a simple pendrive and the diskmaker x program. Without using any additional software then whats already on your mac, you can easily create a usb stick that boots to clonezilla. If you want to use your usb stick with an apple mac, you will need to restart or poweron the mac with the usb stick inserted while the optionalt. And if you format it to ntfs, it will not be fully supported in mac operating system. Disk utility will let you know when its completed the task. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os x, though with some drawbacks.
How to erase sd card and format usb drive on mac setapp. Step 3 you can type the dormatted disk name and choose msdos fat32 or exfat on the format menu. Plug the drive into a usb socket if you have a recent macbook or macbook pro. In applications, scroll down to the utilities folder and open the disk utility application. We all make mistakes, and you wouldnt be the first person in the world to accidentally format a usb flash drive. Mar 12, 2020 plug the bootable installer into a compatible mac. With mac os extended journaled format, you can setup os x startup 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.
Feb 21, 2020 how to format a usb flash drive with mac to fat32. Go to the applications folder on your macs hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. Mac os extended journaled this format is considered as default file system format of the mac os x drives. On mac, thats not possible, what format do you want to use with the usb drive. See this stepbystep tutorial for how to format your usb drive for mac machine macos and pc windows 10.
Go to applications utilities double click and open disk utility. Starting with os x lion, apple did away with dvds and other media as a method of installing software and switched to a download model instead. It is required to format the usb drive to mac os file system to make it fully compatible with the platform. Your mac computer comes with a handy utility appropriately called disk utility, which can be used to.
Hp usb disk storage format tool free download and software. How to format a usb stick on a mac using disk utility. How to burn iso to usb on mac best iso to usb burner. Tried to format the usb disk using windows, didnt worked. Format usb for mac and pc on windows quickly and securely.
Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. However, this is a tutorial on how to format a usb flash drive, not to do it for no reason. Feb 21, 2020 when your usb flash drive is not showing up on your mac, the reasons might be the usb port, or usb contains errors that make the drive undetectable. In your applications folder there is a folder called utilities. Select your usb flash drive on the sidebar, choose erase. For apple mac users, the easier way to format usb flash drive to fat32 is using the disk utility. How to burn iso to usb on mac best iso to usb burner software. Sep 19, 2011 the overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. Apr 10, 2014 this video will show you how to format a usb on a mac. How to format an external drive for mac compatibility. Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility. Jul 22, 2019 have you ever ran into a problem where youre trying to use a flash drive on both windows and mac. How to format a usb flash drive using command prompt in windows duration. If you plan to use the usb drive on linux computers, you can format it to this file system.
Best usb format tools pen drive stick formatters for. I use a program to create multiboot usb bootable images of various. Even so, its still easy to create a usb installation disk for os x lion if you want to install lion on a freshly formatted hard drive, if youre in an emergency booting situation, or if you need to repair your macs hard drive. Mar 30, 2020 starting with os x lion, apple did away with dvds and other media as a method of installing software and switched to a download model instead. Burning iso to usb becomes much harder with the new release of macos. Many computer users who use a removable flash drive have the demand for formatting it to the fat32 file system. If your usb drive is seriously broken by hitting, dropping, shaking, etc. How to create a clonezilla usb stick on mac os diy chris.
Learn about selecting a startup disk, including what to do if your mac doesnt start up from it. How to repairfix unreadable usb flash drives on mac. How to format a usb flash drive on mac wondershare. Compare with the other commonly used ntfs file system on a flash drive, fat32 has a compatibility advantage across many operating systems. Here are some of the ways how a usb format can help you format your usb drive. If you want to use the drive between a windows and mac machine, you can format it to fat32. Oct 06, 20 was able to format a usb stick that could not be formatted with a different tool. Select the drive you want to format and click erase button. This format will allow you to use your flash drive on mac without any limitations. Click on the name of your usb drive in the left window pane in disk utility. After choosing the best format for usb drive according to your needs, you might start to wonder. To format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application.
Next, youre going to head on over to the mac app store on a mac laptop or computer. How to format usb flash drive on a mac 2018 youtube. Thats because os x, when it erases the disk with exfat, makes your usb drive unreadable for pcs. Once youve copied any files you need from the usb drive to your mac. Just follow the below instructions and youll be well on your way to cloning disks and partitions. But, if you plan on using an external drive with both macs and pcs, you should format the disk with the exfat file system instead. The disk utility window will open and display onscreen. In other words, to get the best performance, make sure that the usb port on your mac and the usb cable to your device meet or exceed the usb specification of the device. This wikihow teaches you how to remove write protection from a usb drive so you can format it in windows or macos. No worry, actually it is not impossible to realize it no matter you use an external or internal drive of your windows system. The default burning option is removed, which forces you using thirdparty burning software to burn iso image to usb on mac. Download iso burner for mac and install it on your computer.
How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos high sierra july 20, 2018 dennis sellers 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 user. Quit possible that you own a usbstick or usbharddrive that is 4gb or larger 8gb seems to be standard now,right. First you have to actually download the clonezilla iso. Search for command prompt, rightclick the top result, and select the run as administrator option. 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 the external drive is greyed out in disk utility. Usb drives can be formatted on your mac using the disk utility application. Now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10.
1491 1162 698 1347 357 79 1394 1463 488 1572 246 1168 1291 1360 1109 198 56 1031 488 452 949 1528 861 1155 1173 1519 1477 439 437 714 1464 1349 833 1093 252 468 941 1398 647 857 931 1306 627 907 984 95 213 930