Format a drive using Disk Utility on a Mac. Launch Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities). Select your external hard drive or USB flash drive from the list on the left.For Windows Operating Systems. For Mac OS X.Select your USB flash drive on the sidebar, choose Erase. Name the USB drive, choose the MS-DOS (FAT) for Format, Master Boot Record for Scheme.
Best Flash Drive Format And Pc Install The SeveralProcedure to format on Windows PC, for 16GB/32GB model.It is vital that we are aware that each developer implements a series of file systems for their operating system, for example, we have the following: Windows: When you get a new USB drive and are about to format it before its first use, you may be wondering which of the available options, a.k.a. APFS (Present in the new edition of macOS High Sierra)Each system manages its file system and in this way, USB drive with NTFS can only be recognized in Windows environments but not in Linux or macOS environments, even if it is accepted in macOS we can not make changes to it.At this point, another question arises, what type of file system to use that is compatible with these three operating systems?In technical terms, it has been recommended that the file system of the USB drives be FAT32 thanks to the fact that it is an old file system and that it has evolved to FAT32 at present, but there is a format that is much better regarding security, reliability, and compatibility: exFAT.Let’s see in detail what is and what covers each of these file systems. FAT32:This format is one of the most compatible, but due to its useful life, it has been in force since the 90s, it has a series of limitations that can affect the pace of updates we are experiencing today.Being a format with so much active time is compatible with virtually any operating system.As mentioned, it has its limitations such as the inability to host files larger than 4 GB or that partitions with this file system cannot have more than 8 TB capacity. ExFAT:ExFAT is in a way a more modern and dynamic FAT32 which was developed in 2006 and is present in most modern operating systems.By default, all traditional operating systems, Windows, Linux or Mac OS are compatible with exFAT, and its use is highly recommended for external drives, such as USB devices or external drives, thanks to its simplicity and multiple features.Now we will analyze a little more in detail the fields of action where these two file systems are compatible to know which is the best option to choose. Device SupportThis is the first fundamental field since if the USB device formatted with FAT23 or exFAT is not compatible with the device where it has to be connected it will be impossible for it to be recognized and to access its contents.In this field, we can say that FAT32 has an advantage over exFAT because, being an old file system, it is compatible with all operating systems and devices such as game consoles, Smart TV, multimedia players and others.ExFAT, although it is currently compatible with more than 95% of the devices on the market, can still find individual limitations in some Linux distros or Android devices.In some Linux distros the exFAT file system will not be recognized immediately, so we must install the several utilities by executing the following line: sudo apt-get install exfat-utils exfat-fuseThen update the packages running the line: sudo apt-get update Reading & Writing SpeedAnother of the pillars in a file system is the ability with which this can access the content and read or write it since this depends on optimal performance which is a highly required value today. Undoubtedly in this regard exFAT outperforms FAT32 to be a much more recent technology which is compatible with USB 3.0 which can have a transfer rate up to 5 Gbps.In the previous graphic of flexense we can see the performance of exFAT on FAT32, and in the following link we will be able to look in detail multiple operations carried out by this software developer called FlexsenseUndoubtedly on this field wins exFAT because, as we mentioned above, FAT32 only allows files with a maximum capacity of 4 GB in partitions that do not exceed 8 TB of storage while exFAT is virtually unlimited in this aspect to support 16ZB files. Click the Erase button and the drive will start formatting.A file system is a method and structure of data used by an operating system, called Windows, Linux or Mac OS, for reading media files such as disks, removable drives, etc.![]() If you will be using the drive on Linux devices only, you can add its native EXT 2, 3, or 4 to the mix. FAT32 and NTFS run with Linux, too, but exFAT requires additional tools. How Do You Plan to Use Your USB Drive?Basically, the most important considerations regarding your choice of a file system for your USB drive are which operating systems you plan to use it with and how large the files you will most likely transfer are.If you will be using your USB media mostly on Windows devices, you can go with FAT32, exFAT, or NTFS. Windows, MacOS, Linux) can work with various file systems (natively or through third-party tools).Related: How to Repair a Corrupted USB Drive in Linux2. Excel for mac data analysis toolpakNTFS supports journaling, large file sizes, file compression, long file names, access control, etc. NTFS, short for NT File System, is the default file system for Windows partitions. EXT 2, 3, and 4There are really many file systems out there, and if you are curious, you can try a few of them before you land on the familiar ones.However, your choices for a USB file system basically boil down to these: They are not interchangeable and have their differences, as I will explain next – the main point here is the file size of the files you will be transferring because FAT 32 is limited to 4GB per file.Related: How to Format Your USB Drives in Windows 10 3. ![]() The extended file system is the native for Linux. HFS+ can be used with Windows and Linux, but if you need a multi-OS file system, you definitely have better choices. If you are going to use your USB drive on Mac devices mainly, choose this file system. The Hierarchical File System (HFS+) is the default file system in the macOS world. It doesn’t have the 4GB limit per file restriction like FAT32. It’s compatible with Microsoft and MacOS but needs additional tools with Linux. And if it turns out your first choice of a USB file system wasn’t the best, you can always reformat the drive, provided there is no valuable data on it, of course. If speed of transfer isn’t a top priority either, there are even more choices. If you don’t have large files to deal with, you have even more options. Windows, macOS, Linux, etc., – so usually your choice isn’t limited to just one USB file system. Use this file system if you are using the USB device on Linux computers mainly.Most of these USB file systems run with multiple operating systems – e.g.
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