A western digital external hard drive can be used on both windows and mac. Seagate backup plus desktop user manual optional formatting. Its slow because it uses a slow storage format like fat32 or exfat. If you need to format to fat32 on a windows platform and would like to create a partition larger than 32gb, then use this simple utility by. For a hard drive to be able to be read and written to in both a pc and mac computer, it must be formatted to exfat or fat32 file format. You can format usb drives larger than 32gb with fat32 by using the format command in powershell or command promptthe command uses the same syntax in both tools. Connect the usb fash drive to the mac os x computer. How to format external hard drive to fat32 in windows. No permissions problems and accessible by mac, linux, and older. The overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. How to format a usb stick for fat32 using windows manhattan tv. Select the drive you want to format and click erase button.
Mac systems have a different os to windows and this is where most of the problems like. Fat32 has several limitations, including a 4 gb perfile limit. The easiest way to format the drive to fat32 or exfat is by using macoss built. Lacie porsche design mobile drive user manual optional. How to open and convert files with npdf file extension. A fat32 partition can reach up to 32gb when formatted on a windows pc. Click on the usb drive in the sidebar in disk utility. Go to applicationsutilities and launch disk utility. However, if necessary please see formatting instructions for windows on page 2 and mac on page 3. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos.
No, ext3 or ext4 is only recognized by the synology nas. Plug the drive into the mac system choose applications utilities then disk utility from the sidebar pick usb drive from the toolbar select erase name the formatted disk and choose either exfat or msdos fat32 from the menu select erase to format your drive depending on the selection you have picked fat32 or exfat. Fat32 is the most widely used file system for usb flash drives. Current digital cameras using fat32 will break the video files into multiple. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac easily recoverit. I tested this with a usb flash drive under windows 7 pro and under. You can re format it to ntfs to get faster write times, but. While mac os x can read hard drives formatted as ntfs, write access is not. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os x. The downside to doing this is that it can take a long time. Seagate backup plus hub user manual optional formatting and. A fat32 partition can reach 2tb when formatted on a mac.
Fat32 is not recommended for modern operating systems and computers. For apple mac users, there are two ways to format usb flash drive to fat32, including disk utility and terminal command line. Note that there is another file system called fat32 that pretty much does the. Your usb drive isnt slow because you have too much stuff on it. Go to applications utilities double click and open disk utility. Many sticks will be formatted with fat32 out of the box. Format an external hard drive to fat32 using command prompt.
If you ever want to divide a drive into two partitions, one formatted as mac. To format the usb drive to fat32, follow the next steps. Heres how to format a usb flash drive so it works on both macs and pcs. Join digital dj tips today and get your free 50 ways to get gigs pdf guide. Format large usb drives with fat32 by using powershell. How to format a wd hard drive to exfat or fat32 file system. If you would like to read data directly from your external disk with a pc and mac, choose fat32 format. How to format usb drives larger than 32gb with fat32 on. I believe that mac files saved to fat32 will not have versions saved a. Navigate to applications utilities, and click it twice to open it. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac easily.
How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x. Programs supporting the exension npdf on the main platforms windows, mac, linux or mobile. When you buy a usb flash drive, also called a jump drive, thumb drive. Select your usb flash drive on the sidebar, choose erase. Some earlier programs used the npdf file extension to label normal pdf files to distinguish them from other variants of this popular format. You can use lacie setup assistant to format your lacie hard drive when it is first connected to a.