In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in a volume label. Locate your usb stick under this pc, rightclick on it and select the format option. Developers of the program claim that the fat is the best format for usb drive to avoid conflicts with other operating systems. It can take about 20 minutes to format and set up the usb installer on the mac. As long as we format the external hard drive to one of these 2 file systems, it can be shared between mac and windows. How to encrypt a usb stick on linux, windows or mac os. Oct 27, 2011 is there a way to retrieve data from a mac formatted usb stick on a pc running windows xp or windows vista. Choose this format if the size of the disk is 32 gb or less.
Its below the file system heading near the top of the page. In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. Apr 30, 2016 now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10. If you want to format a hard drive or usb flash drive on your computer, disk formatting tool is the best choice. Now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10. 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. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. How can i read a mac formatted usb stick on windows. 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. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos high sierra. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. Once done, reboot and you will begin the windows setup. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos.
Create bootable usb for mac on windows 10, mac and windows file system is completely different, so you are not able to create bootable usb for mac with powershell, cmd or rufus. 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. How to quickly make a mac os x bootable usb on windows. 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. Rightclick on the drive you want to format, click on format.
Usb disk storage format tool by authorsoft corporation is a free utility that allows you to easily format your usb flash drives. Hp usb disk storage format tool free download and software. Creating windows 10 bootable usb on mac is a common task for people who have multiple computers at home. Then click open to restore it when the process completes, we continue to the next step. How to create a windows 10 installer usb drive from a mac. And if you format it to ntfs, it will not be fully supported in mac operating system. In general any fat format should work on both a pc and a mac as i understand it not from personal experience for from others and again in general if you select photos in photos and export them file menu export to a desktop folder then drat that folder to a fat formatted usb stick you should be able to use those photos on either a mac. When you cannot format usb drive in windows explorer, or the usb drive not shows in my computer or windows explorer, you can go to the windows disk management to format usb drive. You can also make the disk bootable by specifying a file location.
Installing windows from an external usb flash stick, using. 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. It will not affect the performance of the flash drive. Now, when you are formatting a usb drive on mac, you have an important decision to make. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac. Apr 17, 2019 if your computer warns you that the windows was unable to complete the format of usb drive, dont worry. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. Jul 28, 20 this will work in all modern versions of apple mac osx including 10. When you launch the application, you will see that your drive has automatically been identified. The good news is that formatting usb on mac is also as easy as on windows 10. It is the mac equivalent of an iso file that has been in use since apple transitioned from the img format with mac os x.
Being able to create a bootable usb flash drive and start from the disk, this program is a popular bootable partition tool that can help you format hard drive without windows installation cd. 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. So you might want to use other applications to format your external storage devices. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os. Under the external tab, highlight your flash drive. To share a usb drive between a mac and a windows pc, there are two disk formats to choose from. You can make this your client name or your company name. Jun 14, 2018 format usb drive for both mac and pc use. Automatically copy the bootcamp drivers to the usb stick. However, you can format the drive to work with both windows and mac by using the exfat filesystem.
Sometimes, you cant access certain bad sectors on the drive making it difficult to read the entire stored content. Create bootable usb from dmg file on windows mac install usb. This is a free pc app that actually allows you to explore and transfer or extracts the files from a mac volume. 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. The former option can help ensure that the usb drive is made fully compatible with your mac, since most usb drives are preformatted for windows computers by default. Connect the usb drive or the desired external hard drive to the windows 10 computer. The overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. Click the scheme popup menu, then choose master boot record.
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. Launch the file explorer and from it find the usb drive. Rufus for mac 2019 how to create a bootable usb drive. Oct 29, 2019 now, when you are formatting a usb drive on mac, you have an important decision to make. Insert the usb drive into an open port on your windows computer and then launch the windows disk management utility. In the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with windows computers.
Yes, any usb stick can be used with mac and windows, provided the format is correct. How to make a windows 10 usb using your mac build a. How to format a usb external disk for mac osx using disk. In the application windows look for the utilities folder. Go to the applications folder on your mac s hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. If you want to use the drive between a windows and mac machine, you can format it to fat32. Go to applicationsutilities and launch disk utility.
Format usb for mac and pc on windows quickly and securely. Aug 16, 2019 on windows 10, the ability to format a usb flash drive can come in handy in a number of scenarios. On windows 10, the ability to format a usb flash drive can come in handy in a number of scenarios. Better still, it can be read from and written to on any mac running mac os x snow leopard or later and on windows. How to format flash drive for pcmac with large file sizes. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Formatting a usb drive in windows is normally very easy, heres how it is done.
For example, in windows xp my computer is equivalent to this pc on windows 10. When the restore process completes the size of partition was becoming smaller. If you cant format usb, sd, external hard drive or hard drive partition, relax. Again, formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep. Initially external disks may be formatted for windows and after you connect it to your mac it appears in the device list in the finder, but is a read only disk meaning that you cant write to it in its current format. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. A dropdown menu will appear with the following options. To create a bootable usb drive from a dmg file on windows, you will need to have the right utility. Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows 7. To format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application.
How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows central. Under file system box, select exfat for this drive. This article will provide effective methods to get all these problems fixed and just follow to find the solutions here now. Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility. How to format usb drive on windows 10 using command prompt. Fat32 works with all versions of windows, mac os, linux, game consoles, etc. If you havent already plugged in your usb flash drive in to your mac. You have to format the drive to exfat or fat32 if the burning process failed due to the wrong partition scheme. Nov 01, 2011 format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows.
Mar 03, 2020 if you are on an earlier operating system like windows 7, xp, etc. The program is able to format and repair usb flash drives under windows 7, windows 10 and earlier versions of the os. If you only use a mac computer, you can format your thumb drive so it can work on windows systems. If your answer is yes, you just come the right place.
Your internal drives are also listed here and you wouldnt want to format those. How to format a usb drive on a mac or windows alphr. This file system works for both windows and mac, with limitations for linux. However, you can format the drive to work with both windows and mac by. The quickest way is to search on spotlight and click the result under top hit. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Both fat32 and exfat have advantages and disadvantages. Apr 28, 2020 learn how to format usb flash drive using cmd in windows 10, 8 and 7. For example, you might want to reformat a new or used removable storage device to make sure it. 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. How to create bootable usb for mac on windows 10 in 4 ways.
Resize usb partition using paragon hardisk manager. Loading and running windows 10 from a usb drive is a handy option when youre using a computer saddled with an older version of windows. The file allocation table 32 fat32 was the standard windows file system before ntfs. Automatically format the usb stick and extract the iso to it. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os x, though with some drawbacks. On windows, just right click your removable drive format file system and select exfat.
If selected to install, you will repartition the imac hard disk to make room for the windows installation. A dmg file, like iso, can be used to install macos operating system or mac apps. Fat32 file allocation table readwrite fat32 from both native windows and native mac os x. Meanwhile, the ntfs system used by windows 10 supports large files, but this format cant be read natively by macos.
How to read a mac formatted usb stick on windows and vice. Jul 24, 2018 for example, if you encrypt the usb stick with a linux utility, you can only access those files by connecting the usb to a linux computer, and only one with that same encryption utility installed on it. 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. Rightclick your flash drive and then select format. How to fix file too large for usb drive in 5 steps. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmac. Bootable usb hard disk format tool free download easeus. If you want to use a different file system on your usb drive, youll need to format it. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. Here is a list of the best programs with which we can create bootable usb drives from different operating systems, either in windows 10 or gnulinux or macos. Step 1 run the program after unzipping the file you will find a program called sm32xtest. Although microsoft just developed and released bitlocker for windows and theres no mac implementation, but with help of m3 bitlocker loader for mac, bitlocker password protected usb flash drive can be readable on mac. You can see the sizes of each of the listed drives to help make your decision.
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. Linux, windows, and mac os all have native file encryption systems that are free to use. Click the format popup menu, then choose one of the following. Whether you use mac or windows based pc, there are lots of possibilities that a portable usb device may get damaged. Fix cant format usb flash drive error and restore it to. We all make mistakes, and you wouldnt be the first person in the world to accidentally format a usb flash drive. Depending on the file system you using to format usb stick.
Windows uses ntfs and mac os uses hfs and theyre incompatible with each other. Identify the usb drive that you want to format and make sure it is the correct drive. Oct 15, 2019 select mac os extended journaled, or your preferred format type. How to make mac os x bootable usb drive in windows digimanx. Go to the applications folder on your macs hard drive, then. How to format usb flash drive on mac stepbystep tutorial. Select your thumb drive in the disk utility window then click the erase tab. However, single files on a fat32 drive cant be larger than 4gb. Need to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. See this stepbystep tutorial for how to format your usb drive for mac machine macos and pc windows 10. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmaclinux. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. Feb 05, 2020 how to run windows 10 from a usb drive. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows.
Jul 24, 2018 when you press enter, the diskpart tool will list all the drives connected to your pc. 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. This works with any hard drive, flash drive, ssd, usb drive, or just about any other. So, if you want to use an external hard drive on both windows and mac, you need to format it to a filesystem that is compatible with windows pc and mac. 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.
Once the software has been downloaded and installed on your mac, simply insert the drive into an available usb port. Here, easeus partition software is available for free download to help. Then do a right click with your mouse to pull up a menu. If you remembered, till macos sierra the apple file system was hackintosh, but macos 10. Best usb format tools pen drive stick formatters for. 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.
Sep 19, 2011 the overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. Next format your usb drive to windows fat32 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. Click on the usb drive in the sidebar in disk utility. 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. You can backup usb drive simply by copying all files to the computer. Ntfs windows nt file system readwrite ntfs from native windows. Read only ntfs from native mac os x to readwrite format ntfs from mac os x, here are some alternatives. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. How to format usb drives on windows 10 make tech easier. Note, when you do this all the existing data on your usb stick will be wiped and you wont be able to recover.
Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows. Since changing the usb chips system requires formatting, this means all data will be erased. Insert the usb drive into an open port on your windows. Windows can not work with hfs journaled or afs macos files systems before and after 10. The steps to create a bootable usb drive on mac are very simple when using this powerful utility. How to password protect usb flash drive on macos mojavehigh sierra. To find it, type disk management or format disk in windows search and select create and format hard disk partitions. When boot camp assistant is done, the usb drive will be renamed to wininstall. To remove the read only limitation of the apple usb restore stick, so we can format it and use it for other purposes, follow the following steps. Whether the usb should be readable by windows machines and mac machines or just by mac and not readable in windows. Rightclick the usb drive and select format at the menu. How to format usb to fat32ntfsexfat on windows and mac. Jan 18, 2020 a common and easy way to format a usb drive to fat32 is to make use of the file explorer. Double click on the finder icon that is located in the dock.
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