Format Flash Drive Mac Exfat

  1. Exfat File Format
  2. Format Usb Drive To Exfat
  3. Format Drive Exfat Windows 10
  4. Exfat Format Download
  5. How To Format Usb Exfat

Whether you’re formatting an internal drive, external drive, or USB flash drive, Windows makes it possible to choose between NTFS and exFAT formats. In this guide, we’ll go over the simple steps to formatting a USB drive and which format is best for certain situations.


exFAT is a file system optimized specifically for flash drives. Introduced in 2006, it’s designed to be a lightweight file system like FAT32 without the extra features of NTFS and without the FAT32 limitations. exFAT has very large file size and partition size limits so files larger than 4GB a piece can be stored on a flash drive formatted with exFAT. It makes very few unnecessary writes, and stores files throughout the drive in order to maximize the lifespan and speed up transfers.

  • How to Format USB Drive in Windows or Mac. After choosing the best format for USB drive according to your needs, you might start to wonder: how do I format USB drive to NTFS/FAT32/exFAT/EXT 2,3,4/HFS+ in Windows operating system or Mac? Well, don't worry. If you need to format USB drive to NTFS/FAT32/exFAT/EXT 2,3,4/HFS+ file system, please.
  • I doubt you'll see any real negatives in terms of performance. ExFAT is the necessary format if you want to transfer files from Mac to Windows and vice versa. Windows can't read/write APFS or HFS+, and MacOS can't write to NTFS. FAT32 is your only other option, but it has file size limitations.
  • It’s exactly the same procedure if you need to reformat a flash drive on a Mac. How to format a USB drive on a Mac. Plug the drive into a USB socket (if you have a recent MacBook or MacBook Pro that only has USB-C connectors, you’ll need a USB-C to USB-A adaptor). Open a new Finder window and click on the drive.
  • The exFAT format will not give any limitations on the file size that you are going to store on your flash drive and you can still use it on both Windows and Macs that are running in Mac OS X Snow Leopard or later version. For you to be able to format your flash drive into Fat32, here is what you need to do.

NTFS however, is not a flash drive’s best friend. It makes many extra disk writes and, as a dynamic file system, can also write without your knowledge. If one of these writes is taking place and a drive is pulled out, corruption and a reformat is required to get things back in order but your data will have been lost. Additionally, NTFS has read-only compatibility with Mac devices, a flaw not shared by the exFAT format.

Exfat File Format

Before we get started make sure to back up all data. Reformatting will result in a wipe of the drive so backing up on another device is vital to keeping your data.

Format Usb Drive To Exfat

ExFAT is a file system optimized specifically for flash drives.

Step 1: Plug the USB drive into your computer and allow it to be detected. Once it has been recognized, open up your standard File Explorer.

Step 2: Locate the drive under Computer. Right click and select “Format”. This opens a dialog box with formatting options.

Step 3: On the “File System” dropdown, select the desired format. In this case, we’ll be formatting to exFAT. Our backups are created and our format type is set so click “Start” to initialize the process.

An alternative method is formatting USB drives using the Command Prompt. Some may find this method to be easier or more intuitive but it’s simply typing out the commands instead of using the tools in your Explorer.

Step 1: Plug the drive in and make sure it has been detected. As with our previous steps, backing up to save your data is still necessary.

Step 2: Open the Command Prompt. To do this, open your “Start” menu and type “cmd” into the search box. “cmd.exe” should appear so open it up.

Flash

Step 3: Your USB drive will have an assigned letter, for example “F”. Typing the following will bring up the formatting prompts
  “format F: /fs:EXFAT”

Press Y or N to continue or stop the formatting respectively.

With these methods you’ll be able to optimize your flash drive’s format or save some hardware that has seen better days. For more How-To’s and tech related news, make sure to Follow Us On Twitter to receive the latest updates!

Cyrus

Cyrus is currently getting his bachelors degree in computer programing. As a part time job, Cryus writes contributing articles and content for GetUSB.info. He is an avid swimmer, loves Minecraft and prefers to program in Python.

Since the PC and Mac are two different operating systems, they use different file systems. By default, Macs use HFS, while PCs use NTFS, which are not compatible with each other. If you plan on using an external drive with both Macs and PCs, you should format the disk with the exFAT file system instead.


You can format the drive on your Mac or Windows computer.


How to format a USB drive as exFAT on Mac

So how do you know if your USB drive is in the correct format? You do not need to do anything special on the 'Disk Utility' - simply insert the USB drive and open Finder. Right-click the drive icon in the Finder sidebar (or on the desktop) and select Get Info. You will see the drive's file system shown on the right “Format”.

Formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep. To format a drive on a Mac, you'll need the built-in Disk Utility application.

Go to Open Disk Utility, which is located under Applications in the Finder menu. If you have a USB flash drive inserted in your Mac, you can see it under the External in the Disk Utility. Select your flash drive from the list. Go to the Erase tab. You will be asked to provide the disk name and then select the file system as exFAT.

Then select the default GUID Partition Map (GPT) scheme. Click the Erase button when you are done and the Disk Utility will format your disk with the settings you specified. This will erase all the files on the drive.

You're now done. Be sure to eject the disk before you remove it from your Mac.

How to format a USB flash drive as exFAT on Windows PC

Format Drive Exfat Windows 10

There are several ways to format drive in Windows PC, you can do that in This PC or in Disk Management.

Note: If you have important data on your USB flash drive, you should backup your drive before formatting it.

Option 1: Format a USB drive as EexFAT in This PC.

Press Windows logo key + E to open File Explorer. Right-click on the drive you want to format, click on Format. Under File system box, select exFAT for this drive. Then click Start button to go on.

Exfat Format Download

Option 2: Format a USB drive as EexFAT in Disk Management.

Press Win+X, then hit K key to open Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc).

How To Format Usb Exfat

Right-click on the drive you want to format, select Format to see the list of configurations including file system. Select exFAT for this drive. Then click OK button to go on.

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