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• Formatting a usb drive for pc on mac how to#

Make sure you have backed up your important files first. Warning: The contents of the drive will be erased when you click “Format Disk”. If Windows says it doesn't recognize the drive (and you've already backed up data on it), click "Format Disk," then skip the next step.

Formatting a usb drive for pc on mac how to#

How to format a USB drive to exFAT on Windowsįirst, plug in the USB drive you want to format as Mac / Windows universal drive to your Windows machine. If the USB drive is formatted as a Windows drive, it is probably best to back it up with a Windows machine.

If the USB drive is formatted with the Mac file system, you will need to use a Mac to transfer the data out of the drive. Formatting a drive always erases all data on the drive. If the USB drive you want to use as a universal transfer drive has data that you want to keep, you will need to back up that data to another drive or cloud backup service first. This process of setting up disk preparation is called "formatting." Before you start: back up the USB drive first Below we will show you how to setup USB stick as exFAT for Windows and Mac. This file system is called exFAT and is designed for cross-platform compatibility with flash media. If you frequently use Macs and PCs with the same drive, the ideal solution is to set up a USB drive with a file system that both operating systems can read. And similarly, if you format a USB drive to NTFS on Windows, Macs can read it but not write to it (although there are ways around this). So here's the problem: If you format a USB drive as APFS on a Mac, Windows 10 won't read it without third-party tools (and will actually ask to format it). Windows 10 uses a file system called NTFS, and macOS currently uses APFS by default. A file system determines how an operating system writes data to a hard drive or USB flash drive. Windows 10 and macOS use two different file systems by default.

How to format USB drive to exFAT on Mac.How to format a USB drive to exFAT on Windows.Before you start: back up the USB drive first.