format thumb drive for mac and windows on mac

If you know you’ll only ever be using it on a Mac, you could use macOS and OS X. If you’re looking at how to format SD card on Mac, for example, you’ll probably want to go with ExFAT, as it’s the most compatible format. Second, the desired format will depend on the type of device you’re using. That’s not a problem if the device is new, but means you’ll need to take some precautionary measures if it’s not. Give the device a name and choose the desired format (more on that below)įirst of all, let’s cover the obvious point above: when you format USB drive on Mac, or any similar device for that matter, you need to erase everything that’s on it in order to do so. Select the relevant device or drive in the left sidebar and click Erase

Go to Applications ➙ Utilities and launch Disk Utility Likewise, you can use this tool to format Micro SD cards, hard drives, and so on, getting your new device into the right condition: Thanks to Disk Utility, the issue of how to format USB on Mac is fairly straightforward. How To Format Micro SD Cards And USB Drives The reason? Mac and Windows each use different file systems.Īfter unboxing a new storage-based item, it’s a wise move to look into how to format a hard drive for Mac (or SD card, flash drive, etc.) to reduce the likelihood of unexpected corruption, data loss, or other performance issues. Out of the box these devices may function unreliably or even fail to work on Macs at all. Besides hard drives, two other notable examples of this hurdle are SD cards and USB sticks.

Format thumb drive for mac and windows on mac