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How to Format USB Flash Drive for Mac & PC Compatibility March 3, 2020 March 3, 2020 It’s no surprise that PCs and Macs do not work well with each other, due to differences between the two operating systems (Windows vs. How to Format USB Flash Drive from Command Prompt, Learn how to format USB flash drive using cmd in Windows 10, 8 and 7. By using the command prompt, you can format any USB flash drive, pen drive or memory stick that is write protected, corrupted, damaged, unreadable, unrecognized by PC and Mobile.

It’s exactly the same procedure if you need to reformat a flash drive on a Mac. How to format a USB drive on a Mac. Plug the drive into a USB socket (if you have a recent MacBook or MacBook Pro that only has USB-C connectors, you’ll need a USB-C to USB-A adaptor). Open a new Finder window and click on the drive. In that case, using a small flash drive or an online cloud storage provider might be the better option. External Drive for Mac and PC Compatible: What to Look for in 2020? The number one consideration when buying an external drive is how much space it has to offer.

By Adela D. Louie, Last updated: August 27, 2019

In today’s technology, if you buy a USB hard drive, you can just simply use it directly using your Mac. However, there are instances that not unless that your flash drive is build to use for your Mac, you will not be able to format it.

Why is this so? The answer to this is because most of the computers actually run on Windows and they actually use a different file format which is known to be the Fat32.

Those drives that are formatted in Fat32 can be used in your Mac for reading and writing but there might be an instance that you might experience some trouble once that you use your macOS native format.

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.

Format Flash Drive For Mac And Pc 2019 Windows 10

Part 1: How To Format Flash Drive On Mac

Here are the steps that you need to follow. Do these steps and you will then be able to format your flash drive on your Mac.

Step 1: Go ahead and plug in your flash drive in the USB port on your Mac.

Step 2: After that, go ahead and launch the Finder and click on your flash drive detected by your Mac.

Step 3: See to it that there are no files saved on your flash drive that you no longer need. This is because formatting your flash drive will remove all the data that is stored in it. If there are some files that you want to remain, simply copy these files to your Mac.

Step 4: After getting all the files that you need from your flash drive, go ahead and click on “Applications” and then click “Utilities” and then choose “Disk Utility”.

Step 5: And then, go ahead and click on your flash drive from the sidebar.

Step 6: Once that you have chosen your flash drive, go ahead and click on the “Erase” button located at the toolbar at the top of the window.

Step 7: On the next window that will appear on your screen, go ahead and key in a name for the flash drive that you are formatting from the box next to the “Name” option.

Step 8: And then select a format that you want from the drop-down menu.

Step 9: No, if you have previously stored a data on your flash drive that is highly sensitive, just go ahead and click on the Security Tab.

Step 10: From the security tab, go ahead and choose the level of the security that you want. The more that you move to your right, then the more “passes” the deleted tool will be but it will securely delete your files. However, doing to so will take more of your time to format your flash drive.

Step 11: After that, go ahead and click on the “OK” button and then click on the “Erase” button.

Part 2: Choosing the Right Format

There are formats that you need to choose from depending on the Mac that you are using. If you are using the macOS Sierra or a later version, then you have to options to choose from. One is the AFPS and the other one is the Mac OS Extended. The question now here is that which one should you choose.

You have to keep in mind that once you have formatted your flash drive into AFPS, then those Macs that are running on macOS that is older than the High Sierra will not be able to recognize it.

So, if you would want to use your flash drive on Macs that are running on High Sierra, then you have to choose the Mac OS Extended format.

However, you also have to know that AFPS is actually optimized for SSD or “solid state drive” and it includes flash drives.

That is why if you are going to reformat a flash drive on your Mac, then you should definitely choose the AFPS format as it is known to be the most reliable and faster than the Mac OS Extended. But again, that is if you do not have any plans in using it on a pre-High Sierra course.

And lastly, if in case that you would want to use your flash drive as one of your backup options in Time Machine, then you should definitely have it formatted in Mac OS Extended.

This is because Time Machine does not have the ability yet to backup flash drives that are formatted in AFPS. So, if you are using an AFPS formatted flash drive on Time Machine, it will just ask you to format your flash drive into Mac OS Extended.

Part 3: How To Format Flash Drive To Fat32 On Your Mac

Once that you have a flash drive, then what you would need to do is to have it formatted into Fat32. Why? This is because once that you have formatted your flash drive into Fat32, then you will be able to use it on both Windows and Mac PC when you want to save or transfer files with either of the two.

The Fat32 format can be used – read or write – with both Mac and Windows PC and because of this, it makes the device more versatile.

However, there are some limitations that you should need to know such as an individual file should only have a maximum size of 4GB. But do not worry because there is still something you can do about it and that is by formatting it to exFAT.

The exFAT format will not give any limitations on the file size that you are going to store on your flash drive and you can still use it on both Windows and Macs that are running in Mac OS X Snow Leopard or later version. For you to be able to format your flash drive into Fat32, here is what you need to do.

Step 1: Go ahead and connect your flash drive to your Mac.

Step 2: And then, go to Application and then click on Utilities.

Step 3: After that, go ahead and launch Disk Utility.

Step 4: And then, go ahead and click on your flash drive located at the sidebar in Disk Utility.

Step 5: After that, click on 'Erase' in the Disk Utility window.

Step 6: After that, go ahead and enter the name for the flash drive that you formatted.

Step 7: And then, choose the Format menu and then select MS-DOS (FAT32) or the ExFAT.

Step 8: After that, go ahead and click on the 'Erase' button.

Once that you are done with the provided steps for you, your flash drive will then completely wipe out all the data stored and it is re-formatted into either an ExFAT or FAT32 depending on what you have chosen on the previous steps.

Part 4: Getting Your Mac System Run Fast

Now that you have known with how you can format your flash drive on your Mac, now it is time for you to get your Mac cleaned up.

Getting your Mac clean on a regular basis after doing tasks can help your Mac maintain its speed and will also give you more space for your storage.

There is one great option for you to clean up your Mac in no time and this is by using the software called the FoneDog Mac Cleaner.