Any changes you make on files on this system is permanent. The only drawback of exFAT is that it doesn’t support Journaling, i.e., cannot keep track of file changes. So youll need to reformat your drive if it uses NTFS format. From this application, select your USB drive from the sidebar to reveal the drive format beneath its name. You can have a maximum of 4GB size limit per file which is not ideal. To check the USB drives format, press Cmd + Space to open Spotlight, then type Disk Utility and hit Enter to launch the Disk Utility. Now you can plug into any OS – even Linux, and it will work in reading and write mode. You might argue why not use FAT32 which works for both the OS’s.

Click Start and close this window when finished.

In the File System dropdown, choose exFAT.Open up File Explorer and right-click on the drive.Plug-in your drive into the computer’s USB port.After these steps, everything will be lost forever. It is where exFAT or Extended File Allocation Table comes into the picture. If you don’t know, exFAT was created to be used on flash drives like USB or SD cards. So the question is how do you format a hard drive using exFAT? The answer is even more straightforward.īefore we go ahead, if you have anything on your drive, make sure to backup everything.

So I needed a format which is both read and write on both the systems. Under the External column, left-click on the USB stick you wish to format on your Mac PC and then click on the Erase button: Find the USB stick that you want to format and then click on Erase to clear it. Recoverit even supports data recovery from over 500 real-life data loss scenarios, including accidental deletion, virus infection, computer crashes, etc.I am the kind of person who needs to switch between both the OS daily. You can use Wondershare Recoverit for not just the FAT32 file system but also others, including APFS, HFS+, NTFS, FAT16, exFAT, RAID, EXT4, EXT3, and EXT2. It has installer packages on the official website for both macOS and Windows. Wondershare Recoverit is a reliable option. There is data recovery software available that can help you do that with relative ease. In case you macOS format USB drive FAT32 and accidentally delete files without a backup, there is still a chance to recover them. How to Recover Lost Data After Formatting USB to FAT32 on Mac? So, it is best to study its specifications beforehand and not have any other disk partition with the same configuration. Warning: The process requires you to identify the correct slot for your flash drive carefully. Those will remain editable when you access the device with a Windows computer. Once it’s done, you can access the partition and use it to store the necessary files. It should be over soon, depending on the size of your flash drive.

Format usb mac