The ubuntu distribution includes an extremely helpful tool called startup disk creator this will allow you to create a bootable usb. The easiest way to do that is hit cmd and the spacebar at the same time and type in disk utility to find the program. Run easeus partition master, rightclick the hard drive partition you intend to format and choose format. The quickest way is to search on spotlight and click. First, lets see how to format an external hard drive or usb drive in macos which works with both mac and pc platforms, first plugin your drive in macos machine. Disk utility is a utility application proprietary to macos that is used to both format and manage internal and external disks. Using disk utility, i can only format the drive to a nonencrypted fat32 or exfat. Plug the usb drive that needs to be formatted to the mac computer.
With the drive selected in disk utility, click partition. Windows builtin tools disk management and diskpart can format drive to exfat easily. It can take about 20 minutes to format and set up the usb. How to create a bootable usb drive for macos sierra. Select the search result and the disk management utility will launch. As this is only compatible with older versions of mac os, it is recommended that you use an alternative method. Includes tests and pc download for windows 32 and 64bit systems. When the driver is installed, you format your ntfs disks with disk utility where you select windows nt filesystem as the format. Dec 29, 2015 how to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Disk utilitys view option shows devices, not just volumes now click the erase tab. Just bought a 4tb segate drive for my mac to use with time machine. In addition, quick format and enable compression options are also available to perform formatting on usb flash drive. The first is that when you format and disk, you will erase all the data currently on it. Connect the usb fash drive to the mac os x computer.
Launch disk utility from applicationsutilities or spotlight search. So you might want to use other applications to format your external storage devices. For apple mac users, the easier way to format usb flash drive to fat32 is using the disk utility. Hp usb disk storage format tool utility will format any usb flash drive, with your choice of fat, fat32, or ntfs partition types. Sep 16, 2015 usb sticks or thumb drives, if you prefer are formatted exactly the same way as any other external storage device. To format as a mac disk, choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled. 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 disk utility, found within applicationsutilities connect the drive you wish to format for dual compatibility to the mac click the drive name on the left side list in disk utility, and then click the erase tab click the pulldown menu alongside format and select msdos fat. Open the start menu and search for disk management. Jul 28, 20 all external usb disks can be formatted to work on mac osx, but not always straight out of the box. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. Connect the hard drive or usb key to the mac launch disk utility, located in applications utilities locate the drive name from the left hand side of disk utility and click on it click on the erase tab across the top. In the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with windows computers. Disk utility is a smart hard drive format tool built in mac system.
You can resize, merge, create, format, align, split, and recover partitions with aomei partition assistant, as well as copy whole disks and partitions. The first would be for making a bootable clone of your mac partition. In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. The biggest decision you have to make before you format mac is to choose the right file format. How to format usb flash drive on mac stepbystep tutorial.
Go to the applications folder on your macs hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. If you want to format a hard drive or usb flash drive on your computer, disk formatting tool is the best choice. Go to open disk utility, which is located under applications in the finder menu. The latter requires to you to use a command line interface, while the former uses a graphical user interface. 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. However, fat32 has a maximum 4gb file size limit whereas exfat can work with files as large as 16eb. Provides for the ability to format devices for other filesystems. Mar 02, 2016 fortunately, your mac comes with all the tools youll need to do this, making it super simple for you to erase and format that drive for your needs. So if you need that data, make sure you copy it onto another disk before you start. Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. Hard drive format software for mac mac disk format software. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. You will learn the easiest way to format drive on mac and windows as exfat.
Fortunately, your mac comes with all the tools youll need to do this, making it super simple for you to erase and format that drive for your needs. How to format an usb stick on a mac using disk utility quora. Using disk utility mac if you have a mac and you cant seem to format a write protected usb drive, then dont worry you can use its native disk utility tool. How to format an external hard drive for mac and windows. There are a couple of things you should keep in mind, however. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. 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. 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. 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 on mac. Mar 16, 2020 whatever the reason is, the inbuilt disk utility is the only thing you need to carry out the task.
Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility. Some flash drives have to be formatted first before you can store files on them. Whether you want to format a flash drive on your mac or convert a usb hard drive to use as a media player, disk utility makes it easy. Then format your external hard drive or usb flash drive with the file system to make your drive compatible with mac and windows.
But this step can be skipped if you intend to use the usb stick with only generic pc hardware. If youre already on ubuntu, you dont need a windows or mac computer to create a bootable usb drive with ubuntu you can do it straight from your current os. I want to make a backup of my windows partition and mac partition on my macbook pro retina on to one external hard drive. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmac. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. To do so you can either use the disk utility or the terminal command line. This option is used for all intelbased mac computers. Select the hard drive and click erase, then disk utility will help you format and erase the hard drive or device. In this tutorial, well show you how you can format a usb flash drive using the disk utility built into your macos operating system. The 4 disk formatting software for mac above can help you easily format hard drive, usb flash drive, memory card, and other storage media under mac. Disk utility does not show apfs format apple community. And there you have it one read and writable disk ready for osx.
Hook it up to your mac and launch the disk utility app, located in your utilities folder. If you have a usb flash drive inserted in your mac, you can see it under the external in the disk utility. You can also open a finder window, select applications in the sidebar, and head to utilities disk utility. Both fat32 and exfat can be used on windows pc and mac. Insert the usb drive into an open port on your windows computer and then launch the windows disk management utility. Jan 15, 2019 its very easy to format a usb drive on a mac using disk utility. In the disk utility app on your mac, choose view show all devices. This app lets you create a bootable usb drive in a matter of minutes. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac and. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows.
Easeus partition software is a popular disk partition management tool which is available for all hard disk related jobs such as format disk partition, extend system partition, settle low disk space problem. Your mac computer comes with a handy utility appropriately called disk utility, which can be used to format any. 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. Macdisk, utility to manage macintosh floppy disks, cdroms, usb drives and all magnetic media on a pc without any addon. This will just open the menu, and you havent erased anything yet. May 29, 2018 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. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility. 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. And its likely that you can not do it with the windows builtin disk. In the revealed menu, youll see some options about how to format hard drives with disk utility. Mar 15, 2018 when you connect a macformatted drive to windows, youll be informed that you need to format the disk in drive x. Click on the format menu and choose either msdos fat32 or exfat. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc.
Hp usb disk storage format tool is portable freeware, so you can carry it on a usb drive and format other flash drives on any windows pc, or even copy it to a pc, run it, and then just delete it. Dont worry, the following part will show you the solution for windows and mac os users. How to format drive with compatible file system for mac. Then, lets see how to format drive with exfat using diskpart utility. Therefore, instead of downloading any thirdparty write protected pen drive format tool or software, you can simply follow these basic steps. Click the scheme popup menu, then choose master boot record. Formatting your usb flash drive this way will give you full. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps. 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. Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. Jan 18, 2020 formatting a usb flash drive to fat32 on mac is easy as windows.
Insert the usb drive on your mac and follow the below instructions to format. How to format usb drives on windows 10 make tech easier. How to format a usb external disk for mac osx using disk. How do i make ntfs format for partition i apple community. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods revealed. Apr 16, 2020 after making the bootable usb hard drive format utility, you can take the following steps to format your hard disk without running windows.
How to create a windows 10 installer usb drive from a mac. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. This process also works with external hard drives, internal. 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. Click on the usb drive in the sidebar in disk utility. You can format a hard drive or usb flash disk specifically so that it will be. It comes with two types of file format systems, namely, fat32 and ntfs. You can also make the disk bootable by specifying a. In the left sidebar, you should see your hard drive and its partitions.
In this tutorial we look at formatting disks via the gui app called disk utility and its equivalent command line tool diskutil. Lets see how to format usb drive on a windows pc first. Step 1 open finder, applications, then go to utilities and disk utility step 2 follow the steps above to format the drive, and then you can use it with time machine on your mac system. To format external hard drive for mac with time machine, you must follow the steps below. But if you intend to use it afterward, you must gather up some additional information about the mac file format too. Try it to format a writeprotected usb flash drive, format usb drive back to the original size, format usb drive to fat32 or ntfs or deal with other complex usb formatting problems. 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. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Disk utility will show the current file system of the usb drive. Enter the amount of space you want to set aside for time machine. How to format external hard drive mac 2 simple methods.
Dont click the format disk button or windows will erase the contents of the driveclick cancel. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. Go to applications utilities and launch disk utility. The disk manager tool is able to list all hard drives and external devices on your mac. But luckily, there are file systems well supported by both mac and windows pc, and they are fat32 it might be called msdos on mac and exfat. Free bootable usb hard drive format utilitytool easy. Step 1 connect the external hard drive you want to format to your mac, then start the disk utility app that you can find under applications utilities. To find it, type disk management or format disk in windows search and select create and format hard disk partitions. Hp usb disk storage format tool is one of the best free usb flash drive formatter software for windows. Best then to create the backup drive partitions both as mac os extended. How to format a usb external disk for mac osx using disk utility. I havent tried this one, but it should also do the job. Click the drive name on the left side list in disk utility, and then click the. Then you can choose one of the hard drive and format it by click on format button.
Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. If you only use a mac computer, you can format your thumb drive so it can work on windows systems. The usb should be ready to use for both windows and mac without the use of thirdparty software. Jul 05, 2017 to format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. Best usb format tools pen drive stick formatters for. Format hard drives with disk utility in macos apple gazette. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Use disk utility follow the steps to format fat32 with disk utility.
How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x. Insert the device into the usb port of your computer and make sure it shows up either on your desktop or in the sidebar of a. The process for formatting a drive is different depending on the system youre using. Just run it on your mac, it will show all the hard drives and external devices on your mac. Usb drives can be formatted on your mac using the disk utility application. Set the format to mac os extended journaled and the scheme to guid partition map. Apr 30, 2016 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. Usb disk storage format tool by authorsoft corporation is a free utility that allows you to easily format your usb flash drives.
Overall, hp usb disk storage format tool utility will format any usb flash drive, with your choice of fat, fat32, or ntfs partition types. Using another format makes the usb drive unreadable on windows computers. Check the box for create a windows 7 or later version install disk. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple. If you need a simpler format tool to format usb or external hard drive to fat32 to make them work on mac, you can apply a thirdparty format tool to format them on windows pc. To ensure maximum compatibility with apple hardware, were going to first blank and reformat the usb stick using apples disk utility. Format external hard drive or usb drive for mac easeus. Using thirdparty software for formatting andor encryption is not a problem. If youre erasing your startup disk, you might be prompted to enter your apple id. Fat32 and exfat can be compatible with mac and windows and you can choose one after realizing their respective merits and defects based on your demands.
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