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.īy the way, iMyMac PowerMyMac is an all-around software for Mac that provides you with a variety of tools for maintenance and optimization. Bonus Tip: How to Use NTFS Tool with iMyMac PowerMyMac Once the formatting is completed, the drive is formatted to the Mac OS compatible filesystem. The smaller external hard drives such as USB flash keys and SSD’s format quickly while a bigger drive might take a longer time. Your USB drive will now format and erase everything on it. The steps on how to format USB on Mac is relatively easy.

Tap on “Erase” and authorize again on the next window that will pop up.

Provide a name that you want for the drive.

Just next to the “Format” option, tap on the contextual menu and choose “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”.

Tap on the “Erase” tab that you can find across the top.

Find the drive name from the left side of Disk Utility and tap on it.Open Disk Utility that you can find in Applications > Utilities.Generally, formatting a drive will remove all data and any partitions present on the disk. It can be achieved in the same manner for all types of drives and through all connections. You can easily work your way on how to format USB on Mac. 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. 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. 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. How to Format A USB Drive to FAT32 on Mac? Part 4.

What is The Best Format for USB Drive on Mac? Part 3. Just move onto the first part in this post, then you will get what you want.Īrticle Guide Part 1. If you want to learn how to format USB on Mac for Windows, the steps are relatively easy to do. 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. 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.Įssentially, it is vital for those who are using generic PC drives which are pre-formatted to be Windows compatible instead for the Mac OS.

Format usb as macos extended