exfat format for usb for mac and windoes

EXFAT FORMAT FOR USB FOR MAC AND WINDOES HOW TO
EXFAT FORMAT FOR USB FOR MAC AND WINDOES WINDOWS

This Mac 911 article is in response to a question submitted by Macworld reader Robin. New Technology File System, commonly referred to as NTFS, is another brainchild from Microsoft. Your Mac can read the HFS+, NTFS, Fat32, exFAT and ext2 file systems. Select the drive in the left-hand sidebar.įrom the Scheme menu, select Master Boot Record.Ĭlick Erase and follow prompts to confirm. You can use the built-in Disk Utility to format your drives to ensure compatibility. Launch Disk Utility (from Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility). While first ensuring you have a copy of any data on a drive you want to format as ExFAT, as formatting will erase the drive’s contents, follow these steps: Instead, pick ExFAT, its replacement (and still quite old), best used on drives of 32GB or larger capacity. For example, you might want to do this if you use a flash drive to store data files you need to use on your Mac at home and when using a Windows-based computer. (Be careful using these instructions to ensure you are formatting the correct disk.

EXFAT FORMAT FOR USB FOR MAC AND WINDOES HOW TO

Designed for an earlier time, it can’t handle files larger than 4GB. This article will teach you how to format the USB flash drive so both Mac’s and PC’s can read them.

EXFAT FORMAT FOR USB FOR MAC AND WINDOES WINDOWS

If you’re both Mac users, swell with Mac and Windows in the mix, you might be tempted to pick FAT32 when formatting that thumb drive.īut FAT32 is distinctly out of date. If you are not planning to use this drive as the Windows startup disk or use it with the oldest version of the operating system, do not change the Scheme. But it still crops up whenever you’re trying to put files on a USB thumb drive to hand off to someone else. Then click the drop-down menu beside Format and select MS-DOS (FAT) - the FAT32 file format - or exFAT. In the second drop down you can pick the file system. Doing this will cause Windows to begin formatting your flash drive for. If you’ve formatted your drive before and you’re positive that it isn’t broken, you can also check the Quick Format box. Now right click on the drive letter for the USB drive, and click on Format. Note: exFAT format USB flash drives do not work with ClonerAlliance products. This will typically open the Windows File Explorer, but if not, open it. For those of us who rarely transfer files physically across devices, file-format capability may be a distant memory. Windows is the easiest of the three to format a drive for exFAT.

Exfat format for usb for mac and windoes