How To Format A Flash Drive On A Mac For Windows
Step 4: If you haven’t already plugged in your USB flash drive in to your Mac, please do so now before going on to Step 5. Step 5: Look for the Disk Utility icon and double click it. Note: From this step on please be careful. Once the drive is formatted it will be compatible to be read and written to on both a Mac and PC, and the resulting FAT file system is compatible with all versions of Mac OS X, Windows 95, 98, Windows XP, Vista, 7, Windows 8, even Windows 10, it’s one of the most widely recognized and usable file system formats. The formatting process will format the selected drive by creating a partition map, and apply an appropriate file system that your Mac can work with to the drive. While you can format a drive to contain multiple file systems, volumes, and partitions, our example will be for a run-of-the-mill drive, with a single partition formatted with the standard OS X Extended (Journaled) file system.
So, you just bought an external hard drive 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. Scx35xx v2.o usb sc reader for macbook. The operation will erase all data and your files will be gone for good.
You could use a recovery program like 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. Text editor for mac os x.
How To Format A Flash Drive On A Mac For Windows
I'll also show you how to do that below. 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 to backup my MacBook Pro before I updated to the latest macOS, 10.13 High Sierra (also see I encountered). When I connected the Seagate to my Mac, the drive icon showed up like this. What is NTFS? I'm not going to explain here; you can read more on.