When using a brand new external hard drive or flash disk, it is vital to ensure compatibility by formatting the drive to the Mac OS Extended filesystem.
Essentially, it is vital for those who are using generic PC drives which are pre-formatted to be Windows compatible instead for the Mac OS.
Linking an external hard drive or USB flash disk to a Mac usually works fine since the Mac OS can easily decipher other types of filesystem formats including Windows MS-DOS, FAT, FAT32, NTFS, and ExFAT formats. So, how to format USB on Mac?
If you want to learn how to format USB on Mac for Windows, the steps are relatively easy to do. Just move onto the first part in this post, then you will get what you want.
TIPS:
- How to Encrypt Files on Mac
Part 1. How to Format USB on Mac?
It is important to note that drives formatted as FAT32 can be read from and written to by a Mac OS, but it is not considered optimal and you might face issues in the long run.
If you have a USB drive formatted as FAT 32 or any other format other than the Mac OS Extended (HFS+) or APFS, it is best to format the drive.
Unless you are planning on utilizing the drive between a Windows and Mac, it is recommended to format it entirely on a Mac compatible filesystem.
You can easily work your way on how to format USB on Mac. It can be achieved in the same manner for all types of drives and through all connections. Generally, formatting a drive will remove all data and any partitions present on the disk.
- Link the hard drive or USB to your Mac
- Open Disk Utility that you can find in Applications > Utilities
- Find the drive name from the left side of Disk Utility and tap on it
- Tap on the “Erase” tab that you can find across the top
- Just next to the “Format” option, tap on the contextual menu and choose “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”
- Provide a name that you want for the drive. You can change at any point.
- Tap on “Erase” and authorize again on the next window that will pop up
The steps on how to format USB on Mac is relatively easy. Your USB drive will now format and erase everything on it.
The smaller external hard drives such as USB flash keys and SSD’s format quickly while a bigger drive might take a longer time. Once the formatting is completed, the drive is formatted to the Mac OS compatible filesystem.
Bonus Tip: How to Use NTFS Tool with iMyMac PowerMyMac
Though couldn’t help format USB on Mac, the NTFS tool in the Toolkit module of iMyMac PowerMyMac can help read and write files from SSD, HDD or a flash drive that has been formatted under Windows.
By the way, iMyMac PowerMyMac is an all-around software for Mac that provides you with a variety of tools for maintenance and optimization.
Tip: The current version does not support the following function temporarily, but a special software that supports the following function will be released in the future.
Let us take a close look at the steps on how to use NTFS tool with iMyMac PowerMyMac.
- You will find the NTFS tool in the ToolKit module of PowerMyMac. Simply tap on the ToolKit and pick NTFS.
- On the interface of NTFS, tap on the “Write” button to start to copy, edit or delete or initiate other instructions on your files from SSD, HDD or a flash drive that has been formatted under Windows on your Mac. In case a pop-up window that shows “Fail” appears on the screen, you must install NTFS – 3G and Osxfuse before you can utilize the tool.
- You will be provided with USB information on the left side while the files and folders in the USB are listed on the right column. At this point, you must move one of the files from the USB to the upper blank site.
- Tap on the “Write” button and the file that you dragged is being transferred in your USB. Once the chosen file disappears in the site or a message shows up, the process to write is finished. Furthermore, you will also find the icon of your USB different from the moment when it was inserted into your Mac. It is also an indication of successful writing.
- Once the writing is finished, tap on the “Unmount” button so that you can remove your USB from your Mac.
