Jan 09, 2020 how to free format exfat to fat32 or ntfs in windows 7810. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac easily recoverit. Should you choose fat32 or ntfs while formatting the usb flash drive. In the partition information box, enter an appropriate name for. You can reformat disks in mac os x yosemite using the disk utility in the utilities folder. How to format a drive on a mac 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. Mac wont recognize external hd fat32 macrumors forums. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. 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. But if you need to format large drive beyond than 32gb to fat32, its recommended to employ aomei partition assistant. In the resulut, your external hard drive will work just fine with mac and windows. So i hooked it up to my vaio pc, running xp and formated it.
Format your external drive with exfat for both mac and. While you can t select an individual drive letter, this is still an easy way to format any drive into fat32, ntfs, or exfat. Earlier versions of macos don t mount apfsformatted volumes. Now you need to select the usb from the left had side pane. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. By default, windows chooses fat32 file format for your usb drive leaving us wondering what happens if we choose other file formats. If it can t, it chooses mac os extended, which works with all versions of macos. The commandline conduct is the same way to erase data with disk utility. I have a 4tb gpt external usb hard drive that i need to format as fat32.
Whats more, you can share digital files between mac. However there is a simple solution you can format the drive to fat32 or exfat that performs better than fat32. Lets get the ways of formatting usb to fat32 together. So i hooked it up to my vaio pc, running xp and formated it with powerquest partition magic to. Want to format pen drive on mac, but can t seem to find a feasible solution.
How to format a flash drive with a mac to fat32 techwalla. Plugin the usb drive to your windows pc go to my computer and locate the usb drive there now right click on it for options and sele. For instance, is the hard drive internal or external. External data storage devices such as usb flash drives, external hard disk drives hdds, and solid state drives ssds provide one of the easiest ways to transfer files between separate computers without accessing the internet. To format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. Jan 30, 2019 when we want to format a volume that is larger than 32gb, windows default format option in the file explorer rightclick context won t list fat32 in the dropdown menu of the file system, youll only see ntfs and exfat, but how can we create a fat32 volume on a 64gb or larger usb drive.
Jul 24, 2017 for whatever reason, the option to format usb drives larger than 32gb with the fat32 file system isnt present in the regular windows format tool. It is due to the presence of a built in utility application named disk utility. For apple mac users, there are two ways to format usb flash drive to fat32, including disk utility and terminal command line. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x. As kryptonhite mentioned above, you can format it to fat32 with the mac os. The only hard drive format that can be reliably used by both is called fat32, or msdos fat as its called on mac computers. Jul 08, 2019 i don t know why i am so amused that you can format a drive for fat32 much more easily on a mac with a utility that comes included with every mac when the format is not one that you would normally use on a mac. If you want to format your wd my passport to fat32, you must make sure that the size is smaller than 32gb. Feb 25, 2019 did you notice, whenever you format a usb drive with windows, it always give you three different file systems options to choose ntfs, fat32 and exfat. Easily format a sd card in osx to fat32 michael crump. Select the mbr or gpt partition table format and click ok to create a partition table for the disk.
Both fat32 and exfat have advantages and disadvantages. Go to applications utilities double click and open disk utility. For instance, some of the modern video doorbells you buy require your storage devices to be in the fat32 format. Today, we are sharing how to format your usb or external hard drive to fat32 or exfat on mac os x. The main distinction is that it may well retailer data over 4 gb. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os atto digital. How to format usb drives larger than 32gb with fat32 on. Difference between usb drive file systems ntfs vs fat32 vs. Here are the step by step instructions to format your usb drive on windows system. A drive can be formatted with exfat using either a windows or a mac computer. Pull the microsd card from the wyze cam, and plug it into your mac if you don t. You can format it with a mac or pc if you want to use it as storage for a mac or pc, or even for linux, but if youre putting an sd card into a camera or something then i always do the formatting on the device. You can use apples builtin disk utility before you format the drive, make sure theres nothing valuable on it thats not also backed up elsewhere, since all data will be lost. Both operating systems use different formats for reading and writing to a hard drive.
Disk utility tries to detect the type of storage and show the appropriate format in the format menu. Mar 03, 2020 you should go ahead and format your storage drive with exfat instead of fat32, assuming that all devices you want to use the drive support exfat. Ive been working with the raspberry pi 2 and wanted to install noobs on my sd card to play with linux. It makes sense that if i won t use the extra space on the xp partition i could always use it to store osx filesi can definitely use the space in osx. You can find effective ways here to format wd my passport for mac and pc to fat32 or exfat file system with the help of the professional format tool easeus partition master or other solutions. How you format a mac hard drive is entirely dependent on what kind of drive you plan on formatting. Format your removable flash drive to fat32 with your mac if you anticipate using the drive with more than one operating system. Fat 32 format external drives for mac wd community. What is fat32 partition size limit and how to break it. Following this guide includes reformatting your external usb drive, this will erase the data from your usb drive. If youre using a mac, you don t need special software to format a usb drive in the fat32 format. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. The common reason for this problem is unsafe ejection, virus attack that lead to corrupt the files and in some. The other limitation is the total size of the partition.
Fat32 format free download fileplanet fat32 format. It does not offer the ability to format a drive larger than 32gb to fat32, the only available choices are ntfs or exfat. Once the drive is wiped clean, you can give away your mac or reinstall macos. You can format the drive from either the mac or the windows machine. If you find fat32 formatting a bit fiddly to use or these instructions a bit hard to follow you should try the replacement for fat32 format. The format apple support for mac owners for time machine is mac os extended journaled. How to format wd my passport for mac and pc easeus. Fix can t format sd card on mac causes of failing to change sd card to fat32 on mac. Fat32 is a universal format that is compatible with mac os x, windows, linux and dos systems. Follow the steps below to change the file format type of the portable drive for it to be compatible with both mac and windows. Fat file allocation table file system is created in 1977 by microsoft, and fat32 file allocation table 32 is the most popular version of fat. For apple mac users, the easier way to format usb flash drive to fat32 is using the disk utility. Unforunately, the sd card that i had would not format to fat32. Fat32 format is an aptly named tool that can format a storage device in the fat32 file system.
Disk utility on mac supports several file system formats. Its much simpler to format any drive thats isnt running the operating system such as the c. How to free format exfat to fat32 or ntfs in windows 7810. For whatever reason, the option to format usb drives larger than 32gb with the fat32 file system isn t present in the regular windows format tool. The latest macbook pro or macbook air have only usbc type connectors, so if you have the recent macs, you will require an adaptor to convert from usbc to. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Fat32 allows you to use the drive on both mac and windows allowing you to add and remove files in either operating system pretty much. How to format a hard drive on windows or mac avast. Format an external hard drive to fat32 using command prompt. Highlight the sd card device upper icon, not the sd card volume lower icon click erase at the top of the window. How to format usb drives larger than 32gb with fat32 on windows.
Rightclick the volume that you want to format, and then click format. Mac os extended format hfs plus volume and file limits. Enter a name for the disk or volume, such as macintosh hd. I don t know why i am so amused that you can format a drive for fat32 much more easily on a mac with a utility that comes included with every mac when the format is not one that you would normally use on a mac. You can format your external hard drive from either the pc or mac. How to format external ssd for mac time machine mashtips. Fat32 has several limitations, including a 4 gb perfile limit. How to format a flash drive on macos erase usb macmetric. In order to find the cards device name do the following. Dec 29, 2015 how to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. File system formats available in disk utility on mac. Just because you don t see the option to format your hard drive to fat32 in windows user interface doesn t mean the ability is gone completely. The limitation about fat32 filesystem is it doesn t allow files which are bigger than 4 gb in size and also you cannot create a startup drive unlike mac os extended journaled.
Better still, it can be read from and written to on any mac running mac os x snow leopard or later and on windows. Mac systems have a different os to windows and this is where most of the problems like. How to share an external drive between a mac and a pc. How to format external hard drive to fat32 in windows. Easily format a sd card in osx to fat32 less than 1 minute read the problem. Just because you dont see the option to format your hard drive to fat32 in windows user interface doesnt mean the ability is gone completely. If your mac just isn t up to date to high sierra, macos extended is obtainable as commonplace. You need to connect your hard drive usb to your mac system and then open disk utility application. The format is good for handling the files between both os under 4gb size. Mac os extended journaled this format is considered as default file system format of the mac os x drives. Read this step by step tutorial on how to format a thumb drive or reformat it in mac. This version is designed specifically for the windows 2000, xp, and vista operating systems and will not work with newer versions, such as windows 8, 8.
Select your macs hard drive in the lefthand column, to reveal more options, then select the partition button. Another way to format drives is to go to windows explorer, rightclick on the drive to format and select format. Use the wizard to create a partition with the ntfs or fat32 file system. Such fat32 formatter download is available on the web and reading the best six downloads can help you take an informed decision in selecting the right one. As long as we format the external hard drive to one of these 2 file systems, it can be shared between mac and windows. From what i understand, windows doesn t always like the way mac s do the formatting on some larger drives, though, so give it a try and if your windows machines don t like it, just format the drive with windows. Go to applicationsutilities and launch disk utility. Windows, macos, and linux can all read and write to fat32 drives without an issue. How to format a large capacity usb flash drive, fat32.
Today this video will show you how to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. It was formatted on the mac i was working on the hard drive via esata and the express card. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x admfactory. Apr 05, 2006 yes, i chose the fat32 format not the quick format, the long one. If you format your fat32 drive in windows, the drive partition cannot be larger than 32gb. There are basically two general techniques to format sd card to fat 32 in mac. Although other forums suggest starting in os9 and formating to fat32, this option is not listed in the format window. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps. Both windows and mac can read disks formatted with it. The program is portable, which means that you can have it on your person on a usb flash.
In the partition layout dropdown menu, select 1 partition. Format a flash card as fat16 in mac os x arquivo eletronico. Do you know what is the best file system for a usb drive. Mar 12, 2018 fat32 is another option, but it limits file transfer to 4gb, so choose exfat when formatting your drive. Fat32 is the crossplatform format for windows and mac os x. Refer to detailed steps of using both tools for fat32 format. There are several reasons for an sd card, for not been formatted with the methods and techniques, that previously done the task for you. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac computer, it must be formatted to exfat or fat32 file format. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Connect the usb fash drive to the mac os x computer. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos. If it is larger than 32gb, you can only format it to exfat. In the eventuality that you would like to format a drive with a fat32 file system and prevent any potential performance issues or data loss, then perhaps you can consider giving fat32format gui a try.
Unlike fat32, exfat doesnt have a maximum file limit. Here we will explain reasons and give answers to whether you should format usb drive to fat32 or ntfs with the best usb format tool. Formatting sd card to fat32 on mac is an easy process to go with. Click on the usb drive in the sidebar in disk utility. When we want to format a volume that is larger than 32gb, windows default format option in the file explorer rightclick context won t list fat32 in the dropdown menu of the file system, youll only see ntfs and exfat, but how can we create a fat32 volume on a 64gb or larger usb drive. 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. Ntbased windows did not have any support for fat32 up to windows nt4. Again, formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep. Formatting a volume will destroy any data on the partition. Click the erase button or tab, then complete these fields.
Apr 10, 2014 this video will show you how to format a usb on a mac. For mac os users, however, ntfs systems can only be read by mac, while fat32 drives can be both read and written to by the mac os. Even if your external hard drive doesn t come preformatted in fat32, you can format it yourself using either a mac or windows pc. Video tutorial on how to format a usb flash drive on mac recent videos from recoverit.
Unlike fat32, exfat doesn t have a maximum file limit. The method used to reformat the external hard drive can also be used to format a drive. Fat32 has been widely used all through the dos years, and can even be used in mac os x. Many computer users who use a removable flash drive have the demand for formatting it to the fat32 file system. Format a flash card as fat16 in mac os x finding the cards device name. One for fat32 for your private files, and one for hfs for mac os x. I just highlighted the partition in osx and named it windows xp. I have a camera that has a 32gb sd card and if you format it with anything other than the builtin format within the camera settings. The usb drivers come with the fat format by default. Oct 29, 2019 methods to format thumb drive or pen drive on mac want to format pen drive on mac, but cant seem to find a feasible solution. This is a tutorial on how to format an external hard drive to a fat32 file system format using windows 7. How to format an external hard drive on windows and mac. Compare the different options for formatting an external hard drive to work with windows and mac.
However, fat32 now is losing popularity due to fat32 partition size limit why. The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of file systems. Disk management or cmd can help you to format exfat formatted drive to fat32 or ntfs easily. For most reasons to erase, you should erase the disk, which also erases all volumes on that disk. In other words, back up all necessary files, stick in your install dvd, format your whole hd via erase function, create the two partitions, and install leopard afresh.
Usb drives can be formatted on your mac using the disk utility application. So, in case that you have a flash drive that is formatted into fat32 or any type of format rather than having a mac os extended or afps, then we are going to show you in this article how you could possibly format your flash drive using your mac. To format the storage area you can use fat32 formatter. To format the volume, click ok, and then click ok again. This is because an ntfsbased drive can be read by macos but you cant write data to the drive. When youre reformatting a hard drive, windows will ask you what format to use. If the other mac isn t using high sierra or later, choose mac os extended journaled. You may notice that in ntfs is marked partially under the compatible with macos column. If you want to use a different file system on your usb drive, youll need to format it. File system formats available in disk utility on mac apple. How to format internal andor external drive to work properly on mac and windows computers. To format a drive as fat32 from a mac, follow these simple steps. Select the drive you want to format and click erase button.
This means if you plug an ntfsformatted thumbdrive into a mac you can copy the contents from it, but you can t alter the. The best ways to format an external drive for windows and mac. Compare with the other commonly used ntfs file system on a flash drive, fat32 has a compatibility advantage across many operating systems. Rightclick in the unallocated space on the initialized disk and select new simple volume.