In the Erase dialog box, enter a meaningful name for the drive, then select ExFAT under the Format dropdown.

In the left-hand sidebar, select the disk you've just attached to the Mac.

Open Disk Utility, which can be found via the Launchpad or by using Spotlight with Command-Space followed by searching for the term 'Disk Utility.'.

It will usually appear as a drive on the desktop.

Plug the drive into an appropriate port on the Mac, or a connected dock's ports.

How to format a flash drive in macOS to use on Windows What follows are instructions for formatting the drive on both platforms. You can use either macOS or Windows to format the drive into exFAT, as it's equally usable by both platforms, regardless of which formatted it in the first place. However, as we're seeing fewer sub-32GB thumb drives in regular use, it's not a bad thing to stick to using exFAT in such cases. Handily, both Windows and macOS play nice with exFAT, with each reading from and writing to partitions using the file system.Īs a general rule, if the flash drive you are using is 32GB in capacity or lower, you should set it to be MS-DOS(FAT), and save exFAT for drives above 32GB in capacity. See 'disadvantages' for details.Formatting a drive in macOS is easy, and is all done via Disk Utility. You can use this format if it is supported by all computers with which you intend to share the drive.AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT.Not all Windows versions support exFAT.Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later.You can use this format if you only use the drive with Mac OS X, or use it for backups of your Mac OS X internal drive, or if you only share it with one Windows PC (with MacDrive installed on the PC).To Read HFS+ (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer.Required for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! backups of Mac internal hard drive.Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Don't use case-sensitive) HFS+ ((((MAC FORMAT)))) (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. You can use this format if you routinely share a drive with multiple Windows systems.AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS.Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and Lion, but is not advisable, due to instability.

For Mac OS X 10.4 or later (32 or 64-bit), install Paragon (approx $20) (Best Choice for Lion).To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X, here are some alternatives:.You can use this format if you share the drive between Mac OS X and Windows computers and have no files larger than 4GB.Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.Format flash drive in Exfat for transferring files between Mac and Pc.

Best flash drive format for mac and pc