In the top menu bar, go to View, and choose Show All Devices 3. Select the upper level of the drive you would like to format and click the Erase button 4. Choosing the best format to work between Macs and PCs with a flash drive. Choosing the best format to work between Macs and PCs with a flash drive. If you have an old flash drive or one that was formatted to work with Windows or another operating system, you can still format your flash drive to work on a Mac. Volume Format Most manufacturers use the FAT 32 or MS-DOS (FAT) volume format. If you have an old flash drive or one that was formatted to work with Windows or another operating system, you can still format your flash drive to work on a Mac. Volume Format Most manufacturers use the FAT 32 or MS-DOS (FAT) volume format.
Format Hard Drive For Mac And Pc
You can format the external hard drive or USB drive to make it compatible with both Mac and Windows machines. This thing is still unknown for many users but doesn’t worry it’s not complex.
If you are tech savvy and use Windows and Mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between Mac and PC. Windows and macOS filesystems are different and you might need to format the drive every time to use on both platforms. You don’t need to format the hard drive every time you can choose a filesystem while formatting the drive so the hard drive or USB drive work on both Mac and PC
So to get rid of these situations we bring here a guide that will help you to format your drive which works on both platforms and you don’t need to format and backup data every time. After cross-compatible formatting, simply unplug the drive from one machine and then plug it into another. Sounds good to you right? So let’s started, how this works.
Understand file systems for Mac and Windows
There are three common file system types to format an external USB or hard drive, SSD drive, SD card and etc. FAT32, NTFS, and exFAT let’s have a look what’s the difference between these formats.
FAT 32 Format
This format is pretty old but supported and it’s not efficient as compared to NTFS. It doesn’t support big features but offers great compatibility which means it’s compatible with all versions of Windows. It can only support 4GB file size and up to 8TB hard drivers. It’s not capable to store files larger than 4GB.
NTFS Format
NTFS is a modern format system and Windows also uses this format for itself and for other non-removable drives by default. This format is also compatible with all versions of Windows but limited to none Windows OS as FAT32.
exFAT Format
exFAT drives are faster at reading and writing as compared to FAT32. This format can store large files and it’s also lightweight. It’s compatible with all versions of Windows and the best thing it’s along with Windows it’s also compatible with macOS, Linux, and Android, etc.
- If your drive is formatted as Windows default format NTFS then it’s only readable to macOS. You can’t do more than that or you have to install a separate app on Mac to read write the drive.
- Drive with macOS format HFS+ cant readable to Windows.
- FAT32 format works on both Windows and Mac but the problem is you can only work with files with a maximum size of 4GB.
Learn more: Copy data on NTFS drive in macOS
FAT32 is much better than NTFS and HFS+ becuase it works on both operating systems. You can also install drivers on each OS to make work your drive. So exFAT is much better than all of these formats and a simple option but this will not work on Leopard.
Format a USB Drive on Mac
Time needed: 5 minutes.
First, let’s see how to format an external hard drive or USB drive in macOS which works with both Mac and PC platforms, first plug-in your drive into a macOS machine.
- Disk Utility
Open Disk Utility on your macOS, press
cmd + spacebarkeys, and type Disk Utility in the spotlight search. Open Disk Utility from the search results. - Erase Drive
On the Disk Utility interface, select an external drive click on the Erase button from the top of the window (make sure and backup your drive before erasing it).
- Drive format
Now enter the name for the external drive which will be used after formatting and also select the exFAT for Format option and click on the Erase. This will format the drive as exFAT format and your drive is now compatible with both platforms.
Format USB Drive in Windows
The below steps for formatting external drive is for Windows 10 and also works the same with an old version of Windows. To format your external drive hard drive in Windows to use on Mac and PC platforms, first plug-in your drive with a Windows machine.
Format Sandisk Flash Drive For Mac And Pc Computer
Open the Disk Management tool by right-clicking on the start menu icon and then select Disk Management. Now right click on the external drive and click on the format option (double-check the drive name and capacity to make sure you are going to format the right drive.)
Now enter the Volume label as you need and change the File system for exFat and click OK. Now you are done.
Share your experience, how do you use an external hard drive on both Mac and PC. Did you format the drive as exFAT ? or use any utility that helps the system to read another type of file system. Please leave a comment below.
Related Content
'Hi, I will lend my Samsung USB flash drive to my friend. But, I want to format the Samsung USB flash drive on my Mac and erase all the data permanently before I give it to my friend. How can I do that?'
Format Usb Flash Drive Windows
Why a Mac user needs to format a Samsung USB flash drive? There may be many reasons. For example, when the Mac user is going to lend/give away/donate/sell or dispose a Samsung USB flash drive, he or she have to format the Samsung USB flash drive and permanently erase the private data under Mac OS. Or, the user only wants to fix issues of the Samsung USB flash drive. Formatting is the easiest way to solve logical error or file system crash error.
How to format and erase Samsung USB flash drive on Mac? Don't worry, we will introduce secure way to help you format Samsung USB flash drive on Mac and permanently erase data from the Samsung USB flash drive, making data recovery impossible.
How to format and erase Samsung USB flash drive on Mac?
What do you need to format and erase Samsung USB flash drive on Mac?
- The first thing you will need is your Mac computer. Fully charged or connected to a power outlet if it's a laptop.
- The second thing you will need is to connect the Samsung USB flash drive on the USB port of your Mac.
- Making a backup of all your important data, the one you don't want to erase forever.
- Downloading a Mac data eraser.
What is Mac data eraser?
A Mac data eraser is a software that allows you to completely format and erase data from any device, as long as it is connected to a Mac. The particularity on these programs is that they do really erase the data; no traces, no temporary files left behind, completely erased.
There're lots of options available but a good recommendation is AweEraser for Mac. Just remember that you won't ever be able to recover the data, not even with most powerful Mac data recovery software.
Once you've downloaded the software and connected the Samsung USB flash drive you'll have three options:
Completely formatting/erasing the Samsung USB flash drive: this will wipe out all the data on the drive permanently. Everything you've stored on that USB drive will be gone forever.
Selectively erasing files from Samsung USB flash drive: if you don't need to completely format the drive or you know which one is the corrupted file that's causing you trouble, you can erase that one and keep the rest of your data.
Erase deleted data on Samsung USB flash drive: if you already deleted the files from your Samsung USB flash drive but you want them out permanently or the corruption is still a problem, this is your option. This way you'll be able to completely format and erase Samsung USB flash drive on Mac?
It is very simple to format Samsung USB flash drive and erase Samsung USB flash drive under Mac OS with AweEraser for Mac. Once the Samsung USB flash drive is formatted or erased by AweEraser for Mac, all the data on the Samsung USB flash drive will be lost forever. Just like you get a brand new Samsung USB flash drive.