Once you have every option how you want it, click “Start” to begin the formatting process. Unchecking “Quick Format” makes Windows check the disk sector-by-sector with a low-level format that takes much longer, but it will also wipe all traces of any old data completely. If you want the drive to be compatible with Mac and PC, you will need to format the drive for both systems. The data is still on the drive but all references to it are lost, so it will be overwritten as you use the newly formatted drive. The best file formats supported on Mac and Windows are exFAT and FAT32. Format Options (Quick Format): If the drive is in good working order, you can select “Quick Format,” which performs a high-level format and finishes quickly.Volume Label: This is the drive name that will appear when you see your formatted drive in File Explorer.In the search results, select 'Create and format hard disk partitions. Generally, you never need to modify this setting, so use the default allocation unit size that appears (usually 4096 bytes for NTFS) when you select the file system you want. In the Start button search box, type 'Disk Management.' 2. Allocation Unit Size: This is the basic block size used by the file system when you format your drive.If you want the drive to be readable and writable on a Mac as well, choose exFAT. In general, you’ll want to select NTFS if the drive will only be used with Windows. Depending on the drive’s size, your options will be FAT, FAT32, NTFS, or exFAT. File System: A file system is a data structure that tells an operating system how to save and load files to or from a disk.Click the Erase button to format the drive for Mac. Click the pulldown menu alongside Format and select MS-DOS (FAT). Click the drive name on the left side list in Disk Utility, and then click the Erase tab. Warning: The contents of the drive will be erased when you click Format Disk. If Windows says that it doesn’t recognize the drive (and you’ve already backed up any data on it), click Format Disk, and then skip the next step. Formatting takes up some of the raw disk space because of how file systems work. Connect the drive you wish to format for dual compatibility to the Mac. First, plug the USB drive that you’d like to format as a universal Mac/Windows drive into your Windows machine.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |