Format Usb For Mac
Posted : admin On 11/25/2019- Format Usb For Mac Use
- Format Usb For Mac And Pc Exfat
- Format Usb For Macbook
- Format Usb For Mac And Windows Disk Utility
If you have a Mac and use storage devices like a USB drive of a different format than that recognized by Mac, you pretty much know that it is difficult to format it. The reason behind this is that most USB drives are designed to work on Windows OS, which runs on the FAT32 system. The Mac devices run on either APFS or Mac OS Extended.
So, if you have a drive that is Mac OS extended or APFS format, you can easily reformat your drive, but if the drive has a FAT32 file format, then you might be in problem. Mac can read and write on the FAT32 file format, but it will definitely give you some quality issues.
Format Usb For Mac Use
But not worry if you have bought a flash drive that runs on a different format than what is preferred by Mac. Below are some easy steps that will guide you to format these drives to Mac OS and APFS.
Format Usb For Mac And Pc Exfat
Nov 21, 2017 Format USB Drive Mac using Terminal. We also have a Command Line Disk Utility interface in Mac. And we can use it to format the USB on Mac as well. Now lets see how we do this. First open the terminal (Again press command + space, write terminal and hit enter). In terminal now type the following command. HFS+: The Hierarchical File System (HFS+) is the file system modern macOS versions use by default. APFS: The proprietary Apple file system developed as a replacement for HFS+, with a focus on flash drives, SSDs, and encryption. APFS was released with iOS 10.3 and macOS 10.13, and will become the mandatory file system for those operating systems.
How To Format A USB Drive On A Mac?
To format a USB drive, follow these steps: –
Format Usb For Macbook
- To format pendrive on Mac, Connect USB drive into the given socket. The latest MacBook Pro or another MacBook has only USB-C type connectors, so if you have the recent Mac’s, you will require an adaptor to convert from USB-C to USB-A.
- Click the fresh Finder window. Then select the drive.
- Next navigate to Applications and select Utilities, then select Disk Utility by double-clicking on it.
- From the sidebar menu, select USB drive. Now select Erase from toolbar that is situated at top of window.
- Next a window will drop down; here type a specific name for formatted drive.
- Next from the drop-down menu, select the type of format you want.
- If the USB flash drive, has some sensitive data, click on Security tab. This will let you choose how securely you want the files to be deleted.
- Just move the slider to right, the further it moves, the more passes the erase feature will make meaning that the files will be removed discreetly. But keep in mind this step will increase the time of the format.
Note: – Formatting will wipe the entire data, so make sure the drive contains no important data on it. Copy any crucial data on your Mac. - Finally, click on OK and then select Erase.
This is a complete process of formatting a USB drive on Mac.
While Reformatting A USB Drive, Which File Format Should Be Used?
Depending on the currently running version of Mac- MacOS high Sierra or older, there are two available choices for file format- Mac OS Extended and APFS. Now, below are some pointers that will help you to select the best format according to your requirements:
- If you have a Mac that runs the operating system (macOS) older than High Sierra, then it is crucial to format a thumb drive using the Mac OS Extended format. The reason behind this is that a reformatted disk in the APFS file format, will not load in the Mac.
- If you are planning to format a flash drive on a Mac, select the APFS format as they are SSD (solid state drive) optimized. Even if you consider reformatting a hard drive, APFS is a better option as it is fast and reliable.
- If you are going to utilize USB drive for Time Machine backups, then go for Mac OS Extended. This is because APFS disk doesn’t support Time Machine backup and even if you use this file format, it will give the option to reformat USB drive with Mac OS Extended.
- However, any APFS formatted drive can be backed up to a Mac OS extended Time Machine drive.
Steps To Format A USB Drive To Fat32 On Mac:
Before we learn how to format a USB drive to FAT32 on Mac, it is necessary to learn why to do? And the reason behind this is as follows: –
- FAT32 format can be read and written to on both the operating system- Mac and Windows.
- There are many people who like to use the drive on both Mac and Windows, and others use it as a device for storage for TV shows and thus reformatting to FAT32 is necessary.
- The only limitation with FAT32 is that the individual files should have a 4GB size and not more which poses a problem when USB drive has bigger size files.
- However, in such cases, exFAT can be used as it no such limitation and can run on OS.
Here Are The Steps You Should Follow To Format USB Drive On Mac : –
- Into your Mac, plug in the USB drive
- Next, select Applications>Utilities and then launch Disk Utility
- From the disk utility sidebar, select the USB drive
- From the disk utility toolbar, chose Erase
- Give the formatted disk a name and select either MS-DOS (FAT32) or ExFat from the format menu.6
- Finally, select erase. Now your disk/drive will be reformatted to either FAT32 or ExFAT depending upon your selection
So, these are steps that you will need to follow while reformatting your USB drive. Remember that before formatting; check the drive for important data so that nothing crucial is deleted. For clarity on any doubts, feel free to connect with us in the comments section below.
So, you just bought an external hard drive or a portable SSD and wanted to use it on your Mac. But somehow, macOS doesn’t allow you to write data to the drive.
That’s all because it’s been initialized with Windows NT File System (NTFS), which is primarily for PCs. Apple Mac machines support a different file system.
In this post, I’m going to show you how to format your external drive for a Mac compatible file system i.e. Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Just follow this easy step-by-step guide and you’re all set.
Important note: If you have useful files stored on the external drive, be sure to copy or transfer them to another safe place prior to formatting. The operation will erase all data and your files will be gone for good. You could use a recovery program like Data Rescue to retrieve them, but the odds of recovery vary.
Pro tip: If your external drive has a large volume, like mine – a 2TB Seagate Expansion. I highly recommend you also create multiple partitions. I’ll also show you how to do that below.
Format Usb For Mac And Windows Disk Utility
Most External Hard Drives Are Initiated with NTFS
During the last several years, I’ve used several removable drives, including a 500GB WD My Passport, 32GB Lexar flash drive, and a few others.
Three weeks ago, I bought a brand new 2TB Seagate Expansion to backup my MacBook Pro before I updated to the latest macOS, 10.13 High Sierra (also see those High Sierra issues I encountered).
When I connected the Seagate to my Mac, the drive icon showed up like this.
When I opened it, the default content was all there. Since I wanted to use it on Mac, I clicked the blue logo with the text “Start_Here-Mac”.
It brought me to a webpage on Seagate’s site, where it clearly indicated the drive was initially set up to work with a Windows PC. If I wanted to use it with Mac OS or Time Machine backup (which is my intent), I’ll need to format the drive for my Mac.
I then right-clicked the external drive icon on Mac desktop > Get Info. It showed this format:
Format: Windows NT File System (NTFS)
What is NTFS? I’m not going to explain here; you can read more on Wikipedia. The problem is that on macOS, you can’t work with files saved on an NTFS drive unless you use a paid app Paragon NTFS for Mac.
How to Format an External Drive to Work with Mac (from NTFS to Mac OS Extended)?
Note: The tutorial and screenshots below are based on macOS Sierra 10.12.5. They might be different if your Mac has a different version.
Step 1: Open Disk Utility.
Command for macbook to projector. I dont want to get information from System Preferences, I want to get it in the terminal like on Windows (if that is even possible).Thanks for any help.Michael.
The quickest way to do this is a simple Spotlight search (click the search icon on the upper right corner), or go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
Step 2: Highlight your external drive and click “Erase”.
Make sure your drive is connected. It should show up on the left panel under “External”. Select that disk and click the “Erase” button, the one highlighted in red in the screenshot below.
Step 3: Select “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” in Format.
A new window will pop up asking which file system you’d like to format the external drive to. By default, it’s the Windows NT File System (NTFS). Select the one shown below.
Pro tip: If you want to use the external drive for both Mac and PC, you can also select “ExFAT”. Learn more about the differences between these file systems from this thread.
By the way, you can also rename your external drive.
Step 4: Wait until the erasing process is complete.
For me, it took less than a minute to format my 2TB Seagate Expansion.
You can also check to see if the format was successful. Right-click on the icon for your external drive on Mac desktop, then select “Get Info”. Under “Format”, you should see text like this:
Congratulations! Now your external drive has been formatted to be fully compatible with Apple MacOS, and you can edit, read, and write files to it as you want.
How to Partition an External Hard Drive on Mac
If you want to create multiple partitions on your external hard drive (in fact, you should for better file organization), here’s a step-by-step guide:
Step 1: Highlight your drive and click “Partition” in Disk Utility.
Open the Disk Utility app and highlight your external hard drive. Make sure you select the disk icon right under “External”. If you select the one below it, the Partition option will be greyed out and become unclickable.
Step 2: Add partitions and allocate volume for each one.
After clicking “Partition”, you’ll see this window. Located on the left is a big blue circle with the name of your external drive together with its volume size. What you need to do next is click the add “+” button to increase the number of partitions on your external disk. Then allocate the desired volume to each partition. You can do that by clicking the small white circle and dragging it around.
After that, you can rename each partition and define a file system for it.
Step 3: Confirm your operation.
Once you hit “Apply”, a new window pops up asking for your confirmation. Take a few seconds to read the text description to make sure it reflects what you intend to do, then click the “Partition” button to continue.
Step 4: Wait until it says “Operation successful.” Google inbox for mac pro.
To check whether the operation is really successful, go to your Mac desktop. You should see multiple disk icons show up. I chose to create two partitions on my Seagate Expansion — one for backup, the other for personal use. You can find more info in this post: How to Backup Mac to an External Hard Drive.
That wraps up this tutorial article. I hope you find it helpful. As always, let me know if you have any issues during the formatting or partitioning process.