How to format bootable usb flash drive to normal in windows 7. You can use this format if you share the drive between mac os x and windows computers and have no files larger than 4gb. In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in a volume label. How does one use windows 7 to reformat a mac usb drive for. I have a 16 gb flash drive and speed is not a critical factor. Rightclick on the device you wish to format and select format. However, once in a while, windows was unable to format flash. Mine displays as 2 gb smi usb disk media, then underneath it you will see usb disk. Install win 7 on macbook air from a usb drive cnet. This is usually assigned to the last drive letter and may show multiple drives if multiple devices are plugged in. Installing windows 7 with usb flash drive on macbook air. Generally, the formatting process can go smoothly via file explorer, disk management or diskpart command. Cant read macformatted fat32 flash drive windows 7. Rightclick your flash drive and then select format.
How to format usb flash drive on mac free mac data. Volume format most manufacturers use the fat 32 or msdos fat volume format. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. We all make mistakes, and you wouldnt be the first person in the world to accidentally format a usb 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. Following are the top features of this usb flash drive. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. Connect an external usb drive or insert a flash drive into the usb port on your mac. The overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos. Windows 7 forums is the largest help and support community, providing friendly help and advice for microsoft windows 7 computers such as dell, hp, acer, asus or a custom build.
When you click on usb disk you will see a few tabs. Moving from windows to mac transferring your documents. In order to format c youll need to boot an operating system from another source this can be a cd drive, flash drive, or even a floppy drive if necessary. This bootable flash drive format utility can assist you format usb drive to ntfs, fat32, ext 2 or ext3 for different uses. To do this on windows 8 or windows 7, press the windows key once, type. Although it is possible to create multiple partitions on a flash drive via thirdparty tools, windows will only read and show the firstprimary partition. Flash no pun intended forward to today when i wanted to use that same usb drive on my windows 7 system. To put it simply, if you want to share external hard drive between mac and pc, you need to format an external hard drive for mac and pc. Install windows from a usb flash drive microsoft docs. It recognizes the drive, installs the drivers, yet never shows up as an active drive under computer.
Windows cannot read a macformatted disk, but macs can read a windowsformatted one. Among many quality flash drives, sandisk extreme pro 128 gb drive is considered the most popular usb flash drive for windows and mac. Open up your my computer or computer in vista from the start menu and look for the drive that has a removable disk icon. Disk drill, a premium data recovery solution for mac os x with support for all popular file formats and common storage devices, is here to help you recover deleted files from usb flash drive. Now, when you are formatting a usb drive on mac, you have an important decision to make. Macs and pcs use different file systems, which can make it tricky to put data from your mac on a flash or hard drive and give it to a windows. In the dialog, enter a name for the drive, choose msdos fat from the format popup menu, choose master boot record from the scheme popup menu, then click erase. Learn how to format your usb flash drive or usb external drive so you can use it on both mac os x and windows computers.
However, os x and windows both can read and write to a format called fat32, which used to be used for windows all the way back into the msdos. Developers of the program claim that the fat is the best format for usb drive to avoid conflicts with other operating systems. When you have a flash drive, the first thing you may need to do is format it in such a way so it can be read by both mac and windows machines. Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility. Why need to format external hard drive for mac and pc. This is to ensure that you will be able to access the files stored in the flash drive should it happens again. How do i format a usb drive on a pc that was formatted on a mac. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. Flash drive not recognized issue on windows and mac. Under file system box, select exfat for this drive. When youre asked to allow boot camp to make changes to your device, click yes.
Sometimes, you might have to format your usb flash drive to either wipe it or fix errors, etc. Download and install windows support software on your mac. Select the option that boots the pc from the usb flash drive. How to format a hard drive with windows 7 digital trends. How to format a usb drive for mac and pc compatibility youtube. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. Fat32 file allocation table readwrite fat32 from both native windows and native mac os x. Now that the flash drive not recognized problem is solved on your windows or mac computer, make sure you had backup all important document in the flash drive. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. Go to the applications folder on your mac s hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility.
The program is able to format and repair usb flash drives under windows 7, windows 10 and earlier versions of the os. If you want the windows to read a certain partition of the flash drive, then you will need a thirdparty tool to set that partition as. I have a usb flash drive which was formatted for a mac. You can then rightclick in the empty space and select new simple volume to create a partition and format it with the windows ntfs or fat32 file systems. It will not affect the performance of the flash drive. I formatted a 64gb flash memory stick on a mac with msdosfat32 format and copied some files to it just fine. Whether the usb should be readable by windows machines and mac machines or just by mac and not readable in windows. How to format flash drive on win7 when it was formatted on. Install windows on your older mac using boot camp apple.
Ntfs windows nt file system readwrite ntfs from native windows. To format the drive in windows, rightclick it in the file explorer window and select format. The instructions below are for windows 10, but other versions of windows from windows 7 and up can also format an external drive as exfat for use with mac as. On windows 10, the ability to format a usb flash drive can come in handy in a number of scenarios. I put it in my win 7 pro machine to format it for win7. In the file system list box, choose exfat, type in.
In disk utility on your mac, you can format an external disk for a windows computer. To share a usb drive between a mac and a windows pc, there are two disk formats to choose from. So, if it needs to be formatted at all, you need to format it as fat32. From file explorer, open the usb flash drive, then open setup or setup. If you want the usb device to be readable by the both mac and windows devices, then you have three options ntfs, fat or exfat. Read only ntfs from native mac os x to readwriteformat ntfs from mac os x, here are some alternatives. Rightclick on the drive you want to format, click on format. If you are on an earlier operating system like windows 7, xp, etc. This video will show you how to install windows 7 via bootcamp on you macbook air with out a dvd drive.
Format usb flash drives to work with both mac and windows 7. Best usb format tools pen drive stick formatters for. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. Aomei partition assistant professional is reliable and wellknown disk partition manager that allows you to, for example, format sd card for 3ds in windows 10, 8. How to format internal andor external drive to work properly on mac and windows computers. My usb flash drive wont format to ntfs windows 7 help. Format a disk for windows computers in disk utility on mac apple. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows. Rather than use a macformatted drive, you should get the important files off of it and use exfatformatted drives for moving data between macs and pcs. You can format a hard drive or usb flash disk specifically so that it will be.
If you get an alert that the software hasnt passed windows logo testing, click continue anyway. External data storage devices such as usb flash drives, external hard disk drives hdds, and solid state drives ssds provide one of the easiest ways to transfer files between separate computers without accessing the. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. 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. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os. How to format flash drive for pcmac with large file sizes. Formatting a disk or volume erases all the files on it. As a relatively newer file system format, exfat isnt supported in older versions of mac os x anything prior to 10. More importantly i would rather save the room on my hard drive, and i dont like having multiple partitions. Learn how to format usb flash drive using cmd in windows 10, 8 and 7.
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