Format Mac Hard Drive On Windows 10
Format Flash Drive For Mac From Windows
Flash Drive File Format For Mac And Windows
What Format Flash Drive For Windows And Mac

Formatting is the fastest way to prepare the USB flash drive for the initial use. It wipes all the data stored on your flash drive and allows full use of the storage capacity. Meanwhile, it also creates a filing system that can help organizes your data on Windows or Mac. Which File System Should I Choose for a USB Flash Drive? If you want to format a hard drive or USB flash drive on your computer, disk formatting tool is the best choice. 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.

Dec 16, 2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions

Two utilities to format a drive for Mac and Windows From all above, you can have a general idea of FAT32 and exFAT file system. It is time to learn how to format your external hard drive or other external drives to a common file system for Mac and Windows. ✔ Format drive to exFAT via Diskpart. Just like Windows, Mac also allows a seamless solution to do pen drive format. To do this, you can take the assistance of Disk Utility, which is a dedicated system component in Mac. It can help you manage system partitions, erase an external unit like a thumb drive, and even repair your disk. Most manufacturers use the FAT 32 or MS-DOS (FAT) volume format. These are Windows volume formats, but they can be read by Mac OS X. If your flash drive states that it was formatted with one of.

USB drives, pen drives, or thumb drives – no matter what you call them, they all perform the same job related to data storage and management. In a matter of a few years, pen drives have drastically replaced CDs and other storage units. Now, we all use USB drives to transfer our data or maintain its backup. Though, there are times when we wish to format a pen drive on Mac. You can do it to erase drive data, troubleshoot a problem, reformat it, and do so much more.

Since Mac gives a one-stop solution to do it all, you won't face any problem like a pen drive not formatting on Mac. To further help you, we have come up with this detailed guide on how to format a pen drive on Mac with other related solutions.

Part 1. What is a Pen Drive or Thumb Drive?

Thumb drives (which are also known as USB or flash drives) are extensively used to store data via USB connectivity. As almost all the computers (be it Windows or Mac) have a universal USB slot, it makes the use of flash drives so effortless. You can just plug it into any system and access the stored content in no time. A pen drive can also be used as an installer at times or to maintain a backup of your data.

You might like to erase all the data present on your pen drive at once.
Formatting can also help you troubleshoot certain connectivity issues with your flash drive.
If the USB drive has been infected by malware, then formatting it can fix the issue at times.
It can also help you reformat the pen drive and change its file system as well.
It will let you defragment the drive and make more free space in it.

Part 2. How to Format Pen Drive on Mac

Just like Windows, Mac also allows a seamless solution to do pen drive format. To do this, you can take the assistance of Disk Utility, which is a dedicated system component in Mac. It can help you manage system partitions, erase an external unit like a thumb drive, and even repair your disk. To learn how to format a pen drive in Mac, you can follow these simple steps:

Firstly, connect your flash drive to the Mac by inserting it to the correct USB slot. Also, go to Mac's Finder > Applications > Utilities and launch 'Disk Utility' from here.
As the Disk Utility window would open, you can view the connected pen drive labeled under the 'External' devices on the left. Simply select your pen drive to view its storage settings on the right.
In order to format the pen drive, you need to click on the 'Erase' button on its toolbar.
This will open the following pop-up menu. From here, you can change the name of the pen drive, its format, and the scheme. There are different kinds of formats available for thumb drives, which are discussed later in this post.
Lastly, you can change the scheme for the connected pen drive as well. While GUID and Master Boot support both Windows and Mac, the Apple Partition Map would only run on Mac.
After making the appropriate selections, just click on the 'Erase' button, and wait for the pen drive to be formatted entirely.

That's it! In the end, when you are informed that the thumb drive has been successfully formatted, you can unmount it safely from your Mac.

Let's get the ways of formatting USB to FAT32 together.

Video Tutorial on How to Format a USB Flash Drive on Mac

Part 3. How to Check the Pen Drive Format

A lot of users choose to format the pen drive to change its format. If you also have the same requirements, then consider checking the existing pen drive format first. Chances are that it might be of an ideal format beforehand. Here's how you can check the format of thumb drive on Mac.

Simply attach the pen drive to your Mac by inserting it into the USB slot.
Launch Finder once the pen drive is detected by Mac. You can see its dedicated icon on the left panel.
Select your pen drive from here and right-click to get its context menu. Click on the 'Get Info' option to proceed.
This will display a pop-up with crucial details related to the connected pen drive. Here, you can view the format of the selected USB drive.

While formatting a pen drive, users get an option to change its format. Ideally, Mac supports different pen drive formats for a USB drive that you can pick from, as per your convenience.

ExFAT: Extended FAT is one of the most common formats out there. It works smoothly on every major platform like Windows, PlayStation, Xbox, and even Linux.
FAT: While the File Allocation Table format also supports cross-platform compatibility, it is not as reliable as exFAT. For instance, it supports the maximum file size of 4 GB. Ideally, it is best suited for systems with FAT32.
OS X (Journaled): This is the traditional native file format for macOS, which is commonly known as the HFS+ format. Apart from storing data, it can also be used as a Time Machine backup.
OS X (Case-sensitive, Journaled): This is similar to the previous option, with a case-sensitive feature. Although Mac is not case-sensitive, systems like UNIX are.
OS X Extended (Journaled, Encrypted): If you want to protect your thumb drive, then go for this option. It is similar to the OS X Journaled version with encryption. That is, users are required to authenticate (via password) to access it.
OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted): This is an encrypted and case-sensitive version of OS X Journaled.

Part 4. How to Remove History on Mac Firefox

By now, you must be able to reformat thumb drive on Mac without any trouble. If you are finding it hard to access the pen drive content on Mac, then don't worry. The operating system is pretty user-friendly and will let you access the connected pen drive without any trouble.

Firstly, make sure that the pen drive has been properly inserted on your Mac's USB slot. As soon as the pen drive is detected, you will get its shortcut on the desktop. Just double-click it, or right-click and open it.
Alternatively, you can also access the USB drive content via Finder as well. Go to Mac's desktop and click on Finder > File > New Finder Window. This will open a new Finder Window on your Mac.
On the left sidebar, you can see all the shortcuts and partitions. Under the 'Devices' or 'External' tab, you can see your pen drive's icon. Just double-click it to open its file system.
In the end, after when you have finished working with the pen drive, you can unmount it. Select the pen drive's icon and right-click it to get its context menu. Click on the Eject option to safely remove it.

Part 5. How to Recover Deleted History on Mac

If you are lucky, then you would be able to format a pen drive on Mac without facing any setback. Though, chances are that you might get the 'Pen Drive Not Formatting'

Format Flash Drive Mac For Windows