- How To Change Usb Format Machines
- How To Change Usb Format To Exfat
- Mac Bootable Usb Windows 10
- How To Change Usb Format Mac
This step-by-step guide shows How to Format USB to FAT32 on any Windows PC or Mac computer.
The process of formatting a USB drive to the FAT32 format is simple and takes less than five minutes.
Click Applications Utilities Disk Utility, it will show all internal and removable disk on your Mac computer. Click the USB drive and click Erase tab select NTFS under Format pull-down menu. If you want to know more methods to convert an FAT32 drive to NTFS, please go to this page: Convert FAT32 to NTFS. How to Format USB Drive on Mac. To format a USB drive on your Mac, first connect it to your computer using a USB port or an appropriate adapter. Here is a list of disk or usb formatting tools for mac or ways of formatting disk/usb flash on MAC to get it done. Tool 1 - Disk Utility provided by Mac OS, the best free tool to format device. This post shows you how to format a USB drive on Mac using Disk Utility and how to recover data from a formatted USB using third-party data recovery software.
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We hear of many individuals struggling to connect their USB drives to Amazon Firesticks and other Android-powered devices.
The main reason for this is that they haven’t formatted their devices as FAT32.
FAT32 stands for “File Allocation Table” with 32 referring to the 32-bit version of the FAT file system.
The FAT32 format is one of the most popular formats used on USB drives, external hard drives, and memory cards to ensure compatibility between all platforms.
IMPORTANT NOTE: When you format a USB drive you are erasing everything. If you have important files on your USB drive make sure you back them up prior to formatting as FAT32.
The Windows PC disk utility only allows for formatting as FAT32 if a USB drive is 32GB or smaller. This tutorial will show you how to get around that constraint.
We also show you how to use Disk Utility in Mac computers to format any size of the USB drive as FAT32.
TROYPOINT TIP: We suggest watching the video below for important details about the FAT32 format.
In the tutorials below, we are using a SanDisk 3.0 USB Drive on a Windows 10 PC.
Table of Contents
- 2 Format USB Drive to FAT32 on Windows PC
- 4 Frequently Asked Questions
How to Format USB to FAT32 – Video Guide
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Install VPN on Firestick/Android Guide
SanDisk 3.0 256 GB USB Drive
Format USB Drive to FAT32 on Windows PC
Follow the step-by-step screenshot guide below for formatting your USB drive to FAT32.
The first example is for those using a 32GB USB drive and following that you will find instructions for a 256GB USB drive.
32GB USB Drive
1. Insert your USB drive into your Windows PC and Windows File Explorer should automatically open.
2. Locate and click your USB drive. In my case, the USB drive is labeled “SANDISK32.”
3. If your USB drive is 32GB or less, you can easily format your drive through Windows Explorer.
To do this simply right-click your drive and then left-click Format.
4. Change your File system from “exFAT” to “FAT32” from the dropdown menu. Then click Start.
5. You will be prompted with a warning message. As mentioned previously, changing your USB drive to the FAT32 format will erase everything. Click OK.
6. The format has been completed. This disk is now in the FAT32 file system. Click OK.
How To Change Usb Format Machines
7. Next move your cursor to the bottom right-hand corner and click the up arrow. Then click the USB icon.
8. Then select “Eject Cruzer Glide.”
9. Now you can safely remove your USB drive.
That’s it! Your 32GB USB drive is now formatted to FAT32. Continue below for those using a 256GB USB drive.
256GB USB Drive
1. Insert your 256GB USB drive into your Windows PC and Windows File Explorer should automatically open.
2. Right-click your drive from the menu and then left-click Format. In this case, the USB drive is labeled “SANDISK32.”
3. Click File System and you’ll notice that FAT32 isn’t available within this dropdown list.
Note: This is because Windows won’t format drives larger than 32GB, at least not through this basic formatting tool.
4. To work around this issue, we need to install a free drive utility called “Rufus.”
Visit the official website for Rufus, which is https://rufus.ie.
5. Scroll down and select the latest Rufus release which is 3.12 as of this writing.
6. Save this to your Downloads folder and click Save.
![How To Change Usb Format Mac How To Change Usb Format Mac](https://integralmemory.com/sites/default/files/uploads/screen2.jpg)
7. When Rufus is finished installing click the Rufus icon in the bottom left corner and click Yes when this message appears.
8. After the Rufus tool opens, click Boot Selection.
9. Choose Non-bootable from the dropdown menu.
10. Then click File System and you will notice the Large FAT32 format is now available. Choose that.
11. Next click “show advanced format options” and uncheck the box that says “Create extended label and icon files.”
12. Then click the Start button.
13. When this warning message appears click OK.
14. That’s it! Your 256GB USB drive is now formatted as FAT32. Exit out of the Rufus program.
15. You can now safely eject your 256GB USB drive by clicking the icon on the bottom right of the screen. Choose Eject Ultra.
Format USB Drive to FAT32 on Mac Computers
For those using a Mac computer, follow the step-by-step instructions below for formatting any USB drive to FAT32.
The nice part about formatting USB drives on a Mac computer is its built-in disk utility tool. This will allow you to easily format any size USB drive to FAT32.
1. Open and click Applications from the left menu.
2. Open the Utilities folder.
3. Click Disk Utility.
4. Highlight your USB Drive.
5. Then click Erase in the top menu.
6. Change the format to MS-DOS (FAT) which is actually FAT32.
7. Then click the Erase button.
8. Next click Done.
9. You will notice the USB drive is now formatted to FAT32.
10. As seen in the screenshot below, click the Eject button next to Drive prior to removing your USB drive from your Mac computer.
That’s it! You have successfully formatted your USB drive as the FAT32 format on your Mac computer.
After your USB drive has been successfully formatted to FAT32 you should now be able to use it on Android-powered devices and other systems.
The FAT32 format is an old file system and is recognizable by most Streaming Devices, phones, tablets, and computers.
Using a USB drive with an OTG cable is a great way to Expand Storage on a Fire TV Stick.
This is popular among those using TiviMate and other IPTV players for Recording IPTV.
For more popular streaming tutorials, check out our guides below:
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Frequently Asked Questions
How do you Format a USB Drive to FAT32?
You can format any size USB drive to FAT32 on both a Windows PC and Mac computer by following this step-by-step guide.
What is FAT32?
FAT32 stands for File Allocation Table with 32 referring to the 32-bit version of the FAT file system.
Why do you need the FAT32 Format on a USB Drive?
Using the FAT32 format on your USB drive will allow you to pair it with Android-powered devices and other systems.
Will Changing the USB Drive to FAT32 Erase all Files?
![Usb format download Usb format download](https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/img_573a55eb6246b.png?trim=1,1&bg-color=000&pad=1,1)
Yes. Changing the format on a USB drive will erase all files. It’s important to back up any important files prior to changing to the FAT32 format.
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Macs support a variety of file systems. By default, they format disks with the Mac-only OS X Extended file system. But, if you plan on using an external drive with both Macs and PCs, you should format the disk with the exFAT file system instead.
How to Check a Drive’s File System
RELATED:What File System Should I Use for My USB Drive?
So how do you know if your USB drive is using the right format? You don’t need to do anything special with Disk Utility–just plug in your USB drive and open the Finder. Right-click or Control-click the drive’s icon in the Finder’s sidebar (or on your desktop) and select “Get Info.”
You’ll see the drive’s file system displayed to the right of “Format” under the General heading. In the screenshot below, the drive is formatted with the exFAT file system.
How to Format a Drive on a Mac
If you want to use a different file system on your USB drive, you’ll need to “format” it. Again, formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep.
To format a drive on a Mac, you’ll need the built-in Disk Utility application. Press Command+Space to open the Spotlight search dialog, type “Disk Utility”, and press “Enter” to launch the app.
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You can also open a Finder window, select “Applications” in the sidebar, and head to Utilities > Disk Utility.
Your connected drives will appear under “External” in the Disk Utility’s sidebar. Select the drive by clicking its name.
Click the “Erase” button after selecting the entire drive to erase the entire drive and create a single partition on it.
You’ll be asked to provide a name for the disk, which will appear and identify the disk when you connect it to a Mac, PC, or another device.
You’ll need to choose between several file systems:
RELATED:What's the Difference Between FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS?
- OS X Extended (Journaled): This is the default, but it’s only natively supported on Macs. It’s also known as HFS+. This file system is necessary if you plan on using the drive for Time Machine backups–otherwise, you’ll want to use exFAT for maximum compatibility.
- OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled): On a case-sensitive file system, “file” is different from “File”. By default, Mac OS X doesn’t use a case-sensitive file system. This option exists because it matches the traditional behavior of UNIX and some people might need it–don’t select this unless you know you need it for some reason.
- OS X Extended (Journaled, Encrypted): This is the same as the standard OS X Extended file system, but with encryption. You’ll have to enter a password, and you’ll need to provide that password whenever you connect your drive to your Mac.
- OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted): This is the same as the standard OS X Extended (Case-senstiive) file system, but with encryption.
- MS-DOS (FAT): This is the most widely compatible file system, but it has some limitations–for example, files can only be 4GB or less in size each. Avoid this file system unless you have a device that requires FAT32.
- ExFAT: ExFAT is almost as widely compatible as older FAT file systems, but doesn’t have the limitations. You should use this file system if you may share the drive with Windows PCs and other devices like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles. ExFAT is the ideal cross-platform file system. It’s not natively supported on many Linux distributions, but you can install exFAT support on Linux.
For external drives, it almost always makes sense to format in ExFAT, unless you’re using the drive for Time Machine.
RELATED:What's the Difference Between GPT and MBR When Partitioning a Drive?
How To Change Usb Format To Exfat
You’ll also be asked to choose between a partition scheme: GUID Partition Map, Master Boot Record, or Apple Partition Map. GPT is more modern, while MBR is older. Both also work with Windows PCs. APM is an older, Mac-only partition scheme.
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This choice doesn’t really matter if you don’t plan on booting from the drive. If in doubt, just select the default GUID Partition Map (GPT) scheme. Avoid the Mac-only Apple Partition Map (APM) scheme.
Click the “Erase” button when you’re done and Disk Utility will format your disk with the settings you specified. This will erase all the files on the drive!
You’re now done–be sure to eject the disk before you remove it from your Mac. You can do this by clicking the eject icon to the right of the disk in the Finder or Disk Utility windows.
You can also right-click or Option-click the drive in Finder or on your desktop and select the “Eject” option.
Macs do have some limited support for other file systems–for example, Macs can read files on Windows-formatted NTFS volumes, but can’t normally write to NTFS drives. Macs don’t have an integrated way to format partitions with NTFS, either. Use exFAT for excellent compatibility with Windows without FAT32’s limitations.
Mac Bootable Usb Windows 10
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