I did this for making a macos high sierra usb drive, and later i was successful in reinstating my imac. Click on the usb drive in the sidebar in disk utility. Format external hard drive or usb drive for mac easeus. To format a usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x follow these steps. Usb drives can be formatted on your mac using the disk utility application. This will launch apples startup manager which shows bootable devices connected to the machine. Select mac os extended journaled, or your preferred format type. The hp usb format tool allows you to format the usb flash drive in the mac os x. Install the parallels desktop emulator on your mac os.
Tried 4 times, each time it came back mac os extended journaled. The videos below demonstrate the complete process of formatting an external hard drive for full mac os x compatibility, this uses the. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmaclinux. My following tip can help you easily download and create usb installer for os x. It is the best way to ensure full mac compatibility of a new external hard drive or flash disk. In your applications folder there is a folder called utilities. However, remember that since iso is not native to apple products, you could face some issues when. Creating a gpt partition to build a mac os x bootable drive on windows 10. Both windows and mac os offer builtin disk formatting tool. As it is my only mac, i had no option left, until i found the method to use a windows pc to create a mac os bootable usb installer. The release date of usb disk storage format tool for mac is unknown and we cannot say for sure if it will be released at all. Now, click on the erase button and the disk utility will prepare the usb stick for the next steps youre going to follow.
This is one of the final steps before selling, giving away, or trading in your mac. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos. If your mac runs on macos sierra or lower, this format is suitable. I havent tried this one, but it should also do the job. Better still, it can be read from and written to on any mac running mac os x snow leopard or later and on windows. If you only use a mac computer, you can format your thumb drive so it can work on windows systems. So, if users anticipate using the flash drive with more than one operating system, they will definitely benefit from the fat32 file system.
This article will show you how to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmaclinux and format usb for mac and windows. The older versions of os x are still supported by apple, but it should be more difficult to download. By default, they format disks with the mac only os x extended file system. After that, rightclick the usb drive and select restore with disk image. The command line approach to disk erasure in macos is a bit different and it requires precise syntax to insure that you are erasing the proper disk. Usb flash drive formatting software for mac can help us format, reformat or erase usb flash drive on mac. Launch the program and click on the burn module on the home screen. Connect the usb flash drive or other volume that youre using for the bootable installer. Once you open the disk utility app, you can see all the drives on your mac are listed on the lefthand sidebar. If youre lucky, you can just rightclick each partition on the mac drive and select delete volume to remove the partitions. However, mac os extended works with high sierra and higher. After that transmac will create bootable mac os usb within few minutes.
Best usb format tools pen drive stick formatters for. Disk utility shows the recommended mac format by default. The overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. The mac drive may have an efi system partition on it. Go to applicationsutilities and launch disk utility.
How to create a bootable mac os usb on windows isoriver. And we can use it to format the usb on mac as well. Internet recovery was showing up, but it kept on failing to download the os files from the servers. Just select the one you want to format and click on the erase tab. All you need to do is to open your mac and insert the usb flash drive n one of the ports. Go to the applications folder on your macs hard drive, then go to the utilities folder, and launch disk utility. Its exactly the same procedure if you need to reformat a flash drive on a mac. Type or paste one of the following commands in terminal. For apple mac users, there are two ways to format a usb flash drive to fat32, including disk utility and. Smaller external hard drives, ssds, and usb flash keys format quickly, while a larger hard drive may take a while longer. How to format a write protected usb on pc or mac with pictures.
In order to create a bootable usb drive for mac, you need download mac os installer. Download disk formatting software for mac doyourdata. For apple mac users, the easier way to format usb flash drive to fat32 is using the disk utility. The file system column on the storage sidebar displays the current file format. Feb 21, 2020 its a universal format that is compatible with mac os xmacos, windows, linux and dos systems. Usb disk storage format tool by authorsoft corporation is a free utility that allows you to easily format your usb flash drives. Simply erasing a usb drive in disk utility will automatically format it too. Developers of the program claim that the fat is the best format for usb drive to avoid conflicts with other operating systems. How to format a write protected usb on pc or mac with.
To format a drive on a mac, youll need the builtin disk utility application. By default, they format disks with the maconly os x extended file system. How to burn windows iso to usb on mac mojave and high serria. How to reformat mac os x without a recovery disc or drive. You can then rightclick in the empty space and select new simple volume to create a partition and format it with the windows ntfs or fat32 file systems. The 4 disk formatting software for mac above can help you easily format hard drive, usb flash drive, memory card, and other storage media under mac os. Insert the flash drive or hard drive you want to format for windows compatibility. Set the format to mac os extended journaled and the scheme to guid partition map. Some people are asking for a way to format a hard drive for mac. Jesus vigo goes over the steps to create a bootable usb to install os x 10. Or you can recover lost data from the unmountable usb flash drive before you fix the. Create a bootable install usb drive of mac os x 10. Create a portable, fully functional usb version of windows 8.
Format an external hard drive or usb flash drive for mac os x. It can be used for a lot of things, including issuing commands to create a bootable usb on mac. Use these steps to create a bootable media to install mac os x. Download iso burner for mac and install it on your computer. How to create mac os x bootable usb pen drive on windows. Right click on your usb drive option in transmac and select format disk for mac. You want to permanently erase all content from your mac and restore it to factory settings. Even so, its still easy to create a usb installation disk for os x lion if you want to install lion on a freshly formatted hard drive, if youre in an emergency booting situation, or if you need to repair your macs hard drive. If a mac is having some issues a bootable usb of the os can serve as an emergency disk. If you are using a mac, you can run the builtin disk utility to quickly format a hard drive or external hard. Upon completion of the usb formatting, locate install mac os x mountain lion.
How to create a bootable usb drive for macos sierra. As you know, apple releases a new os x operating system every year, and the new os x can only be downloaded via the mac app store currently os x yosemite. If you want to use your usb stick with an apple mac, you will need to restart or poweron the mac with the usb stick inserted while the optionalt. If you want to use a different file system on your usb drive, youll need to format it. To erase and format any drive connected to a mac computer running os x yosemite, use disk utility. So if your system is unstable, you need to run a diagnostic tool on the hard drive, or you just want to load a linux desktop just to see what its all about, lets look at how you start your machine using rescue usb boot media. 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. It will not affect the performance of the flash drive. Download and create usb installer for mac os x yosemite.
Whilst the process of downloading and installing an os through the mac app store is straightforward enough, its painful for people with a slower internet connection, or if theyve. Sep 19, 2011 the overwhelming majority of usb flash drives you buy are going to come in one of two formats. To find out the current format of the drive, you can look into the system information. How to create mac os x bootable usb pen drive with windows 10 7. Now in this interface, you will see a format option. So you might want to use other applications to format your external storage devices. So please back up your important files before you run super eraser for mac to format. Make sure that it has at least 12gb of available storage and is formatted as mac os extended. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x admfactory. Go to partition tab select 1 partition at partition layout. Terminal is the default command line interface for macos and the older mac os x operating systems.
However, for this you need to follow the next steps. For windows, it offers quick format feature when you rightclick the hard drive on the computer. When the driver is installed, you format your ntfs disks with disk utility where you select windows nt filesystem as the format. Top 15 best bootable usb tools for windows, linux, and mac os. Formatting would erase data completely, make sure that you have a data backup. Mar 16, 2020 choose between the format apfs or mac os extended format carefully. Download hp usb disk storage format tool on mac, install it on emulated windows. Getting your mac to load from a usb drive is fairly straightforward. May 01, 2020 click the erase button or tab, then complete these items. Youre changing the format of a disk, such as from a pc format fat, exfat, or ntfs to a mac format apfs or mac os extended.
Connect the usb fash drive to the mac os x computer. Remember the command line is unforgiving, if you are not comfortable at the command line it would be much more appropriate to erase and format a disk using disk utility in the standard interface of mac os x. How to create a bootable usb to install os x techrepublic. If you want to format a hard drive or usb flash drive on your computer, disk formatting tool is the best choice. The thing you need to keep in mind is that reformatting will erase all files on this usb flash drive, which means, you need to make sure an existing file backup. Insert the usb drive into an available, active port and it will automatically be detected and displayed on the software interface. How to choose the best format for usb drive on windowsmac. In this article, we will introduce 5 disk formatting tools for windows and mac to help you securely format hard driveusb flash drive or memory card on a pc or a mac.
Rightclick the file and select show package contents. Select the drive you want to format and click erase button. So, if you want to use a usb flash drive or an external hard drive with ntfs format on mac, you should first reformat the devices to the mac os extended file system. The first format, fat32, is fully compatible with mac os x, though with some drawbacks. Aug 30, 2016 some mac users may require the ability to erase a disk or erase a hard drive from the command line on mac os, a task which is typically performed through the disk utility application from the gui. Search for macos mojave and click on the get button. Alternatively, you can use a flash drive to back up using time machine. Now, launch the disk utility from the application utilities option. Jul 24, 2015 plug usb into macbook and run disk utility select the usb drive in the left side click on erase choose mac os extended journaled format apply. Format a flash drive for both mac os x and windows duration. Sep 23, 2019 creating a gpt partition to build a mac os x bootable drive on windows 10. Its a universal format that is compatible with mac os xmacos, windows, linux and dos systems.
Make the format mac os extended journaled and use guid partition map as your scheme. How to format a disk to ntfs using mac os x ask different. Jul 05, 2017 macs support a variety of file systems. How to quickly make a mac os x bootable usb on windows. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 on mac os xmacos easeus. How to format a flash drive to work on os x and windows. This will work well if you think you will need to use the drive on an old mac. But dont worry, this page talks about the reasons for this issue, and how to fix usb flash drive not mounting on mac without data loss even if the external drive is greyed out in disk utility. Top 15 best bootable usb tools for windows, linux and mac os. How to format usb flash drive on a mac 2018 youtube. How to burn iso to usb on mac best iso to usb burner.
How to erase a disk from the command line of mac os. After you complete the steps, the usb flash drive from mbr to gpt format, you can use the steps below to create a bootable usb installation media to install mac os x. Whether you are trying to backup mac to an external hard drive, wipe out any personal information and sell the computer, or even use a new operating system, you need to format the hard drive on your mac or pc. How to format usb flash drive to fat32 in mac os x. Dec 05, 2019 right click on your usb drive option in transmac and select format disk for mac. The program is able to format and repair usb flash drives under windows 7, windows 10 and earlier versions of the os. If you want to use the drive between a windows and mac machine, you can format it to fat32. The following steps will help you to understand how to format pen drive in mac. How to convert a macformatted drive to a windows drive. How to format a flash drive for mac and pc compatibility in macos high sierra july 20, 2018 dennis sellers macs and pcs use different file systems, which can make it tricky to put data from your mac on a flash or hard drive and give it to a windows user.
Starting with os x lion, apple did away with dvds and other media as a method of installing software and switched to a download model instead. Jan 15, 2019 better still, it can be read from and written to on any mac running mac os x snow leopard or later and on windows. Open terminal, which is in the utilities folder of your applications folder. It is advised not to change the builtin apfs format into mac os extended under any situation.
Open app store on your mac and search for the latest macos version. However, when you format your hard drive with super eraser for mac, all your data will be permanently lost. How to create a bootable installer for macos apple support. Enter a name that you want the volume to have after you erase it, such as macintosh hd. Remember, app store will only have the latest version which is macos mojave at this point when we write this article. How to format a usb flash drive on a mac techwalla. Most external hard drives and usb drives are compatible for use on mac computers as long as you format the devices for use with mac os x. Run mac os x on an appletv with an external hard drive how to. It is better than os x recovery as you dont have to download the 5gb installer data, first, to reinstall the os or installer disk for macs that does not support os x recovery. Go to applications utilities double click and open disk utility. Let me make you explain, it is basically a type of application that will be very useful when you want to take an operating system with you to use it on another computer, but also when you want to try alternative systems in your computer or pc. Choose either apfs or mac os extended journaled to format as a mac volume. This wikihow teaches you how to remove write protection from a usb drive so you can format it in windows or macos. We also have a command line disk utility interface in mac.
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