Fat format tool for mac mac os#
Fat format tool for mac drivers#

This is supported by all versions of Windows and OS X (as well as Linux), but it has the drawback of not supporting individual files larger than 4GB вЂ“ which can be a pain if you work with large video files or databases. If you need compatibility with systems that are older than this, youвЂ™ll need to fall back to the ancient FAT32 format. In most cases we recommend you select MicrosoftвЂ™s exFAT format: this will give you full read and write access in both Windows (Vista or later) and OS X (Snow Leopard 10.6.5 or later). You can choose this from the drop-down menu in WindowsвЂ™ Format dialogue, or in the Erase pane of Disk Utility. To use your USB disk on both Windows and OS X, therefore, youвЂ™ll need to use a different filesystem.

Fat format tool for mac drivers#

There are free drivers available, but again these are limited to read-only access. However, neither is suitable if you want to move files back and forth between Macs and PCs: OS X can read NTFS volumes, but it canвЂ™t write to them, while Windows in its default configuration canвЂ™t access HFS+ disks at all. These formats are sensible defaults because they support all the features of their respective operating systems, such as native compression and encryption.

Fat format tool for mac mac os#

If you follow the instructions above then Windows will, by default, format your disk using MicrosoftвЂ™s NTFS filesystem, while a Mac might suggest the Mac OS Extended filesystem. To reformat your USB disk, click on its name in this pane, then switch to the Erase tab in the main interface (if itвЂ™s not already selected) and hit Erase to wipe the Drive just as we did above. When Disk Utility opens youвЂ™ll see a list of drives in the left-hand pane, with the partitions on each one nested beneath each entry. YouвЂ™ll find this tool in your Applications folder, within the Utilities subfolder вЂ“ or simply search Spotlight to find it (press Cmd+Space, then type its name). To format a USB on a Mac, you can format your drive using Disk Utility. If you donвЂ™t have the issue described above, simply follow these steps: Let the process complete and your USB Drive will appear.