Today, the flash card performs the function of storing information: working documents, playlists and movies - each user has his own list. Sometimes you need to clear it of unnecessary files. If Windows has a special command for this, then the formatting of the flash drive on mac happens differently.
How to format a USB flash drive in OS X format
Every day, Apple products are gaining popularity. This is not only the iPad and iPhone, but also Apple iMac computers and MacBook laptops, which have a different operating system than Windows. It's called Mac OS X. Most of the flash drives sold have formatting under Windows in FAT32 format. If you plan to use the media only with MacBook, then you need to convert it to this computer. Format the USB stick to the OS X system using the following instructions:
- Insert the media into the USB port.
- Open the Explorer analog in Windows called Finder.
- Select the menu item "Applications" or Applications, then a section with utilities. The path can be such - "Programs", and then the tab with the service.
- When the list of applications opens, find the disk utility, or Disk Utility.
- On the screen that appears, select your drive, click on the "Erase" tab, before setting the Extended format( journal) in the section.
Formatting a flash drive from OS X to Windows
format If you used the previous method how to format a USB flash drive on a mac, then it does not make sense to connect it to the Windows OS, because it will not open. For such devices, you need to go to one of the supported formats. Among the latter there are several main ones:
- FAT.This is the old format used in the DOS OS.With it, you can not write files larger than 4 GB, but it is compatible with almost all operating systems right up to Linux. The advantage is that you can take a smaller amount of occupied space than NTSF, as well as the ability to reformat under any operating system.
- ExFAT.It is a modern version of the previous one and does not have such restrictions on writing files. It is better for dividing space into several partitions, the size of which can reach 32 GB.
- NTFS.This file system is more versatile, but OS X does not work with it, so you need to download a special driver to clear the drive. Advantages are the smaller need for fragmentation and the efficiency of information compression.
Here's how to format a USB stick for mac on Windows devices:
- Connect the portable drive to your device, follow the instructions above to start the disk utility, and then switch to the "Erase" tab.
- In the format section, select one of 2 - MS-DOS( FAT) or ExFAT.
- Confirm the operation.
How to format a USB flash drive in NTSF from OS X
As mentioned above, MacBook does not have a format function in NTSF.To solve this problem, you have to download special drivers. If you do not know how to format a USB flash drive on an NTFS system, use the simple instruction:
- Download NTFS Paragon or NTFS Seagate drivers for OS X, install them.
- Correctly reboot the computer.
- Plug the drive into the USB port, then open the disk utility.
- The NT Filesystem item appears in the list - select it to perform a forced formatting operation and confirm the action.
How to split a flash drive into multiple
drives If the drive has a lot of space, reformat it into several partitions. Each of them is obtained with its own file system, which is convenient for use, because you do not need to take time to format each time. One section can be made ExFAT, and another - Extended. Please note that during this procedure all data from the media will also be completely deleted. The first step in the instructions, as on mac format the USB flash drive, will be connecting it to the MacBook. Then you need to open the utility to work with the disks. Further actions are:
- In the side panel, switch to the flash card. Here, click not the Erase tab, but the Disk Partition.
- Adjust the number of partitions with the mouse - just pull the partition between them up or down.
- For each part, correctly identify the name and file system. It remains only to click "Apply" and wait for the media to be formatted.