Sharing a hardflash drive across windows, os x, and linux. One thing you need took care of that the usb drive needs in gpt partition in order to work on a mac computer otherwise it wont boot. Create bootable usb for mac on windows 10, mac and windows file system is completely different, so you are not able to create bootable usb for mac with powershell, cmd or rufus. 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. If you are techy and use windows and mac computers frequently, then you might need to transfer data between mac and pc.
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. This cnet tv video gives you stepbystep instructions on how to set up your external hard drive so it can. If you plan to use the usb drive on linux computers, you can format it to this file system. Use the restore disk image to drive dialog box to browse for the dmg file with the installation files for mac os x yosemite in this case, and click the ok button to create a bootable usb of the operating system. If you only use a mac computer, you can format your thumb drive so it can work on windows systems. Best usb format tools pen drive stick formatters for. Mac os x dmg iso files and a usb pen drive with minimum. Both windows and mac os x have full readwrite support for exfat drives without any additional thirdparty software. Os x can default read ntfs disks, but not write to them. A window will pop up where you can choose the format ntfs, fat32, or exfat. Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. 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. Choose the name as untitled, format as os x extended journaled and select scheme as guid partition map. So, if users anticipate using the flash drive with more than one operating system, they will definitely benefit from the fat32 file system.
Click continue, you then are asked for admin and password wait for a while until the process is finished completely. It could take one or two hours to complete the process depending on your computer. Click on erease to format the usb and create the disk. How to quickly create a macos bootable usb on windows 10.
If you want to insure full mac compatibility of a new external hard drive or flash disk, youll want to format the drive to the mac os extended filesystem. Unlike fat32, exfat doesnt have a maximum file limit. Download hp usb disk storage format tool on mac, install it on emulated windows. But, if you plan on using an external drive with both macs and pcs, you should format the disk with the exfat file system instead. If you remembered, till macos sierra the apple file system was hackintosh, but macos 10. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos. Again, formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep. How to create mac os x bootable usb pen drive on windows.
If this is the case, chances are that its using a mbr partition, and the usb drive needs a gpt partition to. How to format internal andor external drive to work properly on mac and windows computers. On windows 10, the ability to format a usb flash drive can come in handy in a number of scenarios. Install the parallels desktop emulator on your mac os. How to quickly make a mac os x bootable usb on windows. How to format usb drives on windows 10 make tech easier. Regardless of whether your block device is a hard drive or flash drive, and regardless of its logical block size, formatudf will produce a udf drive that can be recognized automatically on windows, os x, and linux. Most external hard drives and usb drives are compatible for use on mac computers as long as you format the devices for use with mac os x. 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. When trying to format the apple usb restore stick however, youll notice that its a readonly stick, so how can we format this usb stick for normal use. How to format a hard drive for both windows and mac. To format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the.
The hp usb format tool allows you to format the usb flash drive in the mac os x. Make sure that it has at least 12gb of available storage and is formatted as mac os extended. If the drive comes formatted in ntfs, which is the default file system for windows, youre going to want to reformat the drive because mac os x. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos. How to format a usb drive for mac and pc compatibility youtube. This is the easiest way and simply requires you to plug in your usb drive, open the windows file explorer and right click your drive to view a number of actions that you can perform. Connect the usb flash drive or other volume that youre using for the bootable installer.
You can format a hard drive or usb flash disk specifically so that it will be compatible with both mac os x and windows pc computers. On the left, rightclick the usb flash drive, select the format disk for mac option. Whether you want to format a flash drive on your mac or convert a. On os x, linux, or any environment with bash, you can use the open source formatudf as a onestop udf formatting tool. Select the usb volume name, then select choose this disk. Exfat is not compatible with computers older than windows vista or mac os x 10. Better still, it can be read from and written to on any mac running mac os x snow leopard or later and on windows. How to format usb flash drive on mac stepbystep tutorial. Use your usb drive rightclick on it and select format disk format this will format the usb drive so that it can be used to store the mac os operating system. However, when we connect a ntfs formatted disk to mac, mac os x doesnt allow us to write files to the drive neither edit files, though it can read a ntfs drive. Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmac. How to create bootable usb for mac on windows 10 in 4 ways.
If you want to use a different file system on your usb drive, youll need to format it. Open terminal, which is in the utilities folder of your applications folder. You want to do this before creating the bootable media because there is a good chance that the drive was formatted using a windows device. The best thing to do is download it once and create a bootable install usb drive from the file for all of your macs. If you have a usb drive, and you plan to use it on both a mac and pc, things can get a bit tricky here. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. Its a universal format that is compatible with mac os xmacos, windows, linux and dos systems. For apple mac users, there are two ways to format a usb flash drive to fat32, including disk utility and. If you move a hard drive between the two operating systems, heres what you need to know. How to create a bootable installer for macos apple support. This is particularly necessary for purchases of generic pc drives, which almost always come preformatted to be windows compatible rather than for mac os x. How to format a usb flash drive on windows 10 windows.
How to access a mac drive from a windows or linux system. How to create mac os x bootable usb pen drive with windows 10 7. However, for this you need to follow the next steps. Im here to use a windows 10 based hp laptop to format my lexar drive. How to create a bootable usb drive for macos sierra. For example, in windows xp my computer is equivalent to this pc on windows 10. If you are on an earlier operating system like windows 7, xp, etc. In order for this to work you should have a usb flash drive. Dont click the format disk button or windows will erase the contents of the driveclick cancel. Now, lets take a look at some ways you can format your usb drive on windows 10. However, you might choose instead a format you can use easily with os x, windows, and linux. The mac os x image is required in order to proceeding further steps i. Connect a usb drive to your device and launch recovery disk assistant.
Windows 10 boot drive changed to x stuck in windows. 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. We all make mistakes, and you wouldnt be the first person in the world to accidentally format a usb flash drive. Click on the usb drive in the sidebar in disk utility. Quickly format an external hard drive for mac and windows pc. This option is used for all intelbased mac computers. By default, they format disks with the maconly os x extended file system.
Yet when you connect a macformatted drive to windows, youll be informed that you need to format the disk in drive x. Go to applicationsutilities and launch disk utility. Type or paste one of the following commands in terminal. This tutorial will help you create a bootable usb flash drive for your mac on a windows computer. So, if youre using the usb drive to store large video files, you may run into trouble. Select your drive from the list and rightclick on it. Rightclick on the drive you want to format, click on format. Format a usb drive as exfat for mac and windows compatibility. You will need to agree to the terms and conditions and wait until the wizard detects the external drives. Have you ever ran into a problem where youre trying to use a flash drive on both windows and mac. How to make an os x recovery usb drive wondershare. When the driver is installed, you format your ntfs disks with disk utility where you select windows nt filesystem as the format. How to format external hard drive to use on mac and pc. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os.
You can format the external hard drive or usb drive to make it compatible with both mac and windows machines. Usb drives can be formatted on your mac using the disk utility application. How to create a bootable install usb drive of mac os x 10. Obviously, after upgrading to a newer mac os x version, this stick has become kind off useless. Make sure the allocation unit size is set to default and type in a volume label. A drive formatted in this fashion can be swapped between a mac and windows pc. The extended file system ext was the first file system created specifically for linux. Under file system box, select exfat for this drive.
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