#Format a flash drive for window and mac how to#

Right-click the USB flash drive to select Format then click Start in the pop-up window to format the USB flash drive. Connect the USB to the computer click Computer to select the target USB flash drive. Formatting an external disk or flash drive in macOS Sierra is little different that formatting it in Mavericks and lower versions of OS X.

Format an External Disk or a Flash Drive for Mac using Disk Utility in OS X El Capitan and macOS Siera. You can do that by typing 'disk format' or 'disk management' in Windows search or going to Control Panel Administrative. It’s exactly the same procedure if you need to reformat a flash drive on a Mac.Ĭonnect the drive to your Windows PC.

#Format a flash drive for window and mac how to#

So, if you’ve bought a USB drive that’s formatted as Fat32, or any other format other than Mac OS Extended (also known as HFS+) or APFS, here’s how to format a USB drive on Mac. Drives formatted as Fat32 can be read from and written to by macOS, but it’s not optimal and you’re more likely to run into problems than if you use macOS’ native format.

That’s because most of the computers in the world run Windows, and Windows uses a different file system, usually one known as Fat32. However, unless it’s been designed for use with a Mac, it won’t be formatted using macOS’ preferred file system (either Mac OS Extended or APFS, depending on which version of macOS you’re running). Nowadays, when you buy a USB drive, you can use it right out of the box with your Mac.