How to format a USB drive on a Windows PC. Formatting a USB drive in Windows is normally very easy, here's how it is done. Open Windows Explorer and simply right-click on the disk. If you have an external hard drive or USB flash drive that you’d like to use on both Macs and Windows PCs, choosing the right file system to format the drive can be confusing. Learn a few ways to make your drive Mac and PC friendly.

Format USB drive for both Mac and PC use I bet some of you have this dilemma: you have a USB drive and want to use it on both Mac and PC. If you format the USB drive to HFS+ File System, it will not be supported by Windows computer. And if you format it to NTFS, it will not be fully supported in Mac Operating System.

Here is a question: how to format USB drive for Mac and PC on Windows? Or in other words, how to make external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC? Format USB drive to FAT32 or exFAT As a matter of fact, there are two File Systems that can be both supported by Mac and PC Operating System: FAT32 and exFAT. Then which File System should you choose? FAT32 is more compatible. Besides Windows and Mac, it can also compatible with various devices like PS3, PS4, Xbox One, etc. However, you cannot store large files over than 4GB on FAT32 formatted USB drive and the volume has 2TB restriction.

As for exFAT, it is less compatible. But it breaks the limitation of 4GB in File size and 2 TB in volume size. Therefore, if you want to use your USB drive with more devices, you can choose FAT32. If you need to store large file over 4GB, choose exFAT. In short, choose one according to your situation.

3 button mouse driver. How to format USB for Mac and PC on Windows 10/8/7? Next, I will introduce you two detailed ways to format USB drive for Mac and PC on Windows.

One is using Diskpart tool and the other is using AOMEI Partition Assistant. Format USB via Diskpart tool Diskpart is a built-in tool that can manage your hard drives. You can use it to format disk including internal or external hard drive. Step 1. Press “Windows” + “R” to open Run dialogue. Type “ diskpart” in the Run dialogue, and hit Enter.

In Diskpart window, input the following commands and hit Enter after each command. • list disk • select disk n, where “n” is the disk number of USB drive. • list partition • select partition m, where “m” is the number of partition going to be formatted. • format fs=exFAT Tips: If you need to format it to FAT32, replace the last command with “ format fs=fat32”. Type “ exit” to close this window. With Diskpart tool, you can format USB drive very quickly. However, if you use it to format partition over 32GB to FAT32, the error message that will appear.