Are you looking for a reliable format tool that can format and change the file system of your USB flash drive or external USB drive to make it detectable on Mac computers?

Follow through the below guide, you'll learn how to set a suitable file system for your USB flash drive and make it detectable on Mac:

PAGE CONTENT:
#1. Pick The Best USB Format Tool for Mac
#2. Set a Suitable File System for USB or External USB Drive on Mac
#3. Format USB Drive for Mac on Mac/Windows Computers

Free Edition 12.5. Manage basic disks & partitions in simple steps. Create/resize/format partition, Convert FAT to NTFS on Windows 10/8/7. IPartition is a disk partitioning utility for Mac OS X with the ability to resize Mac OS extended (HFS ) partitions and Windows partitions while keeping their contents intact. Please download the suitable copy of MiniTool software to recover data from various storage devices, manage disks & partitions and back data & system.

This guide also works to format your external hard drive, SD card, hard drive, etc., devices to recognized on Mac computers.

Notice:
Note that formatting USB will remove all saved data on the device. Make sure that you copy and back up all valuable USB files to another secure location before you format the USB.

#1. Pick The Best USB Format Tool for Mac - 3 Top Tools

The first thing that comes up in your mind could be which tool that you can use to format the USB flash drive or external USB drive, right?

Here, in this part, we've collected 3 top recommended USB format tools that can help you fully format and reset the file system of your device to be usable on Mac:

USB Format Tool for MacProsFormat Process
Disk Utility for Mac
  • Free
  • Mac built-in format utility
  • 6 steps to format USB on Mac
Terminal Command for Mac
  • Free
  • Mac built-in format utility
  • 5 steps to format USB on Mac
Format Software for Windows
  • Windows advanced format tool
  • Designed for Windows beginners
  • 4 steps for format USB for Mac

So how to select a suitable tool to format your USB flash drive or external hard drive for Mac? For a quick guide, read the tips here:

  1. 1. To format a USB flash drive on Mac, Disk Utility is better a better choice. The terminal is far more complex for beginners.
  2. 2. To prepare a USB flash drive ready for Mac on a Windows computer, you can try the third-party format software.

After picking the right USB format tool, you can now move to the next guide and decide which format that you should set for the USB flash drive or external hard drive.

#2. Set a Suitable File System for USB or External USB Drive on Mac

Note that Windows uses NTFS but Mac can't write files to volumes with NTFS format. Mac computer can only read NTFS devices.

Here is a list of macOS supported file systems:

  • Apple File System - APFS: Used by macOS 10.13 or later.
  • Mac OS Extended: Used by macOS 10.12 or earlier.
  • FAT32 and ExFAT: Compatible with both Windows and macOS.

Usually, both APFS and Mac OS Extended file systems are mostly used on Mac hard drives, while the FAT/FAT32 and exFAT are common formats for external storage devices.

So how to set a suitable format for your USB flash drive or external USB drive? Here are our suggestions:

  • If the USB drive is less than 64GB, set it as FAT32. If it's larger than 64GB, set its file system as exFAT.
  • If you tend to use it as a Time Machine backup disk, format it as Mac OS Extended Journaled.

#3. Format USB Drive for Mac on Mac/Windows Computers

So how do I format a USB stick on a Mac computer? Here, we'll show you how to format your USB flash drive or external hard drive for Mac usage.

Important Note:

  • If you want to directly format the USB on your Mac computer, follow Method 1 and Method 2.
  • If you want to format USB on your Windows computer and make it usable on Mac, try Method 3.

Method 1. Format USB or External Hard Drive for Mac using Mac Disk utility

Disk Utility offers users similar features in the disk management tool, such as to create, delete, resize, merge and format partitions. You can try the following steps to format USB or external hard drive for Mac with Disk Utility on Mac:

Step 1. Connect the USB or external hard drive to your Mac computer.

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Step 2. On the Apple menu, click 'Go' and select 'Applications'.

Step 3. Double-click 'Utilities' in the Applications window.

Step 4. Double-click to open Disk Utility in the Utilities window to open it.

Step 5. Select your USB or external drive, click 'Erase', then click the Format column and select a format for your USB.

For example, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or MS-DOS (FAT).

Step 6. Reset the drive name and click 'Erase' to confirm the operation on the next pop-up window.

Wait for the process to complete and then you'll get a new Mac compatible file system on your external hard drive or USB, which will make your device detectable and workable on Mac.

Method 2. Format USB Drive for Mac using Terminal Command

Terminal command lines work the same as Disk Utility, however, it's more complex for beginners. If you prefer to use this method, make sure that you follow the steps below carefully:

Step 1. Connect the USB flash drive or external hard drive to your Mac computer.

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Step 2. Press cmd + space to run Spotlight, type: terminal, and hit Enter.

Step 3. Type: diskutil list and find out which disk is your USB drive.

Step 4. Type:sudo diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 MBRFormat /dev/disk2 and press Return.

  • sudo gives you user right.
  • Diskutil calls disk utility program.
  • eraseDisk commands to format.
  • FAT32 is the file system. (You can also replace it with another file system.)
  • MBRFormat tells disk utility to format with a Master Boot Record.
  • /dev/disk2 is the location of the USB drive.

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Step 5. Wait for the process to complete and then close Terminal.

After this, you can use your USB on Mac in a detectable and readable format now.

Method 3. Format USB or External Hard Drive for Mac on a Windows PC

If you need a simpler format tool to format USB or external hard drive to FAT32 on a Windows computer so to make it work on Mac, you can apply a third-party format tool for help.

EaseUS partition software is a popular disk management tool that is available for resolve all types of partition management jobs such as format disk partition, extend system partition, settle low disk space problems.

Partition Magic Mac

It allows you to format a USB or external hard drive on your Windows PC in only 4 simple steps:

Partition tool free mac
  • Right-click the external drive or USB you intend to format and choose 'Format'.
  • Set the Partition label, File system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4), and Cluster size, then click 'OK'.
  • Click 'OK' to continue.
  • Click the 'Execute Operation' button and click 'Apply' to format the hard drive partition.

After this, you can connect the formatted external hard drive or USB drive to your Mac computer and use it to save data by then.

You May Also Interest In:

Note that if you want to transfer a USB flash drive from NTFS to FAT32 without formatting it as you have saved some important data on it, EaseUS Partition Master can help.

Pick a Right USB Format Tool and Format Your USB Drive for Mac Now

On this page, we presented 3 reliable USB format tools for you to format a USB flash drive or external hard drive on Mac or Windows computers, making the storage device usable on Mac.

For Mac beginners, Disk Utility is good for you to try. As for Windows users who want to format a USB drive for Mac, EaseUS partition manager software - Partition Master worths your trust.

After picking the right tool, you can just revert to the right tutorial, take action to format your drive usable for Mac computer now.

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Product Information
  • Product Name:

    MiniTool Partition Wizard

  • Developer:

    MiniTool® Software Limited

  • Upgrade Date:

    Jul. 1, 2021

  • Category:

    Disk Management

  • Operating System:

    Windows

Supported languages:

Free Edition

  • For average users to manage basic disks including disk check, hard drive repartition and file system conversion.
  • Support Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10 (all editions, 32/64 bit).

Pro Edition - Trial

  • For advanced users to manage basic disks and dynamic disks. Covers full features including disk check, hard drive repartition, MBR/GPT disk conversion, dynamic disk management and data recovery.
  • Support Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10 (all editions, 32/64 bit).

Server Edition - Trial

  • For organizations, companies, schools and governments to manage basic disks and dynamic disks on PC and Server.
  • Support Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10 (all editions, 32/64 bit).
  • Support Windows Server 2003/2008 R2/2012 R2/2016/2019 (all editions, 32/64 bit).
  • Support Windows Small Business Server 2003, 2008, 2011 (all editions, 32/64 bit).

Tip: For Enterprise and Tech clients, please download the server trial edition.

Download & Install FAQ

Could you please send your order ID or registered email address and problem details to [email protected], and then we will send you new download link. If you need new download link urgently, you can go to the upgrade page of the program, and then use the order ID or registered email address to get one.

Upgrade page for MiniTool Partition Wizard:

https://www.partitionwizard.com/upgrade-service/upgrade-now.php

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https://www.powerdatarecovery.com/upgrade-service/upgrade-now.php

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You can download MiniTool Partition Wizard Free version from https://www.minitool.com/partition-manager/partition-wizard-home.html

Kindly reminder: if you are using Windows Edge, after hitting the download button, please check the download task list. The download will be pending until you select Run, Save or Save To.

Or, please go back to the previous page, you may be asked to Save, Run or Cancel the download.

However, if your system is running another browser, please check if there is a download task which is located at the bottom of the browser page.

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It reports additional software will be installed. Is it safe? Can I remove it?

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