Looking to share an external hard drive between a Mac and PC? The best way to do it is with a drive formatted as FAT32. Though this format has some limitations, it enjoys nearly universal support from active platforms, including Mac and Windows operating systems, and many gaming and Linux OSs. The chief drawbacks of FAT32 involve file and partition size limitations.
I have a SanDisk Cruser drive that was formatted for a Mac and now I want to use it for a PC (and I don't have access to the Mac. How do I format a usb drive on a PC that was formatted on a Mac? Ask Question 100. Which is essentially a newer version of the same format.
FAT32 imposes a size limit of 4GB on single files. So if you work with bulky video clips, for example, adopting FAT32 may not be a good idea. When formatting partitions, Windows 7's Disk Management utility won't let you create one that's larger than 32GB, whereas Mac OS X Lion can create partitions as large as 2TB using its Disk Utility application. Finally, Mac OS X's Time Machine backup utility won't work with FAT32. Windows prefers to use NTFS (which stands for New Technology File System, though it has been around for nearly 20 years now). Macs running Snow Leopard or Lion can read from drives formatted as NTFS, but they can't write to such drives unless you install a third-party driver or muck about in the Terminal.
Conversely, Windows 7 can't read and write to drives formatted as HFS+-also known as Mac OS Extended (journaled)-unless you install third-party software. Formatting From a Mac To format a drive as FAT32 from a Mac, follow these simple steps. Set up your drive following the manufacturer's instructions.
Connect the power supply (if necessary), connect to the Mac via USB or FireWire, and turn on the drive. The drive should automatically mount on your Mac's desktop (if the finder preferences are set to show external drives). If the drive is not formatted, you may get a message saying that the drive is unreadable by Mac OS X and asking you whether you want to format it via Disk Utility. We're going to do this anyway, so open Disk Utility from the prompt or by navigating to /Applications/Utilities. Select MS-DOS (FAT) as the format. Mac OS X won't let you create a FAT32 partition larger than 2TB; so if your drive is larger than that, you'll need to divide the available drive capacity into multiple partitions. You can format the remaining space as a second FAT32 partition or as an HFS+ partition, or you can leave it as unallocated space.
To create a new partition, click the drive in the list on the left side of the Disk Utility menu. Click the Partition button in Disk Utility's main window. By default, Mac OS X will use the GUID partition table to format the drive.
You can use this and still share FAT32 volumes with a PC, but if you'll primarily be using the drive with Windows, and if the full capacity of the drive doesn't exceed 2TB, the wiser course is to wipe the drive and then use Windows' Master Boot Record (MBR) partition scheme. Establishing the partition layout. Click the Partition Layout drop-down menu in Disk Utility, and select the number of partitions you want to create.
By default, Disk Utility will divide the available space in half. You can resize the partitions by clicking the line between the partitions and dragging it up or down to increase or decrease the capacity of one or the other side. Click on whichever partition segment you want to format as FAT32. Type a name for that partition in the Name field and choose the FAT32 option from the Format drop-down menu. Once everything is arranged as you want it, click apply. A progress bar will appear at the bottom right of the window as Disk Utility creates the requested partitions. Once it finishes creating them, you can move the drive between Macs and Windows PCs, and move files back and forth easily.
Formatting From a PC Select your hard drive, and choose 'Convert to MBR Disk'.Here's how to create a FAT32 partition from a Windows 7 PC. Open the Disk Management utility. To do so, select Start, Control Panel, System and Security, Create and format hard disk partitions. Alternatively, press the Start button and start typing partitions. Find the drive you'd like to format; in my case, it was Disk 5. Click the disk number, and select Convert to MBR Disk ('MBR' stands for 'Master Boot Record'). Right-click the unallocated segment in the next field over, select New Simple Volume, and click Next when the wizard launches.
Change the value in the Simple Volume size field to 32,768MB or less-it needs to be under 32GB, to satisfy the format's file limit. Assign a drive letter, and click Next. Formatting the partition. Choose the drive letter to be assigned and click Next. Select FAT32 from the File System drop down menu, label the volume however you like, check the box next to Perform a quick format, and click Next. The resulting window tells you that you have successfully completed creating the volume. Click Finish and you're ready to go.
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. 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.
That is to say, you cannot use Diskpart to format volume larger than 32GB. Therefore, if you need to format the USB drive which is larger than 32GB, you can use a third party free software – AOMEI Partition Assistant. Format USB drive for Mac and PC via freeware, a free powerful format tool, is specially designed for Windows operating systems.
It can support almost all file systems including Ext2, Ext3, NTFS, FAT32,exFAT, etc. You can use it to format USB drive quickly and securely. With this software, you can format USN drive to FAT32 without the limitation of 32GB partition size. Let’s see how to format USB drive for Mac and PC on Windows. AOMEI Partition Assistant and launch the software. In the main interface, locate the USB drive, right click it and choose Format Partition.
Step 2. In the pop-up window, choose exFAT or FAT32 among the listed file systems. Then, click OK. Step 3. You’ll return to the main interface. Click Apply to submit the operation. Conclusion You can use both Diskpart and AOMEI Partition Assistant to format USB drive for Mac and PC on Windows.
It is obvious that you can have less limitation to format USB drive with AOMEI Partition Assistant. You do not need to worry the 32GB partition size limitation with AOMEI product when you format USB drive to FAT32. The Pro edition has more advanced features, you can format USB drive using CMD, migrate OS from MBR disk to GPT SSD or HDD, convert system disk between MBR and GPT partition style, etc. You can to it if needed.