Ms dos fat16 format mac

Otherwise, you may need to consider one of the file formats discussed below. FAT32 offers near-universal interoperability with virtually every computing system on the planet. A drive formatted this way can easily transfer files between Macs and PCs.

Formating FAT16

You can also move files to video game systems like the PlayStation 3, Xbox , and Wii. Virtually all cameras and videocameras support FAT32, too.

It's the closest thing we have to a universal file system format, which is why most flash drives are formatted this way right out of the box. FAT32 doesn't support files larger than 4 GB, and that's its greatest drawback. You also can't create a startup drive for your Mac using this format. Furthermore, FAT32 doesn't support OS X Lion's Versions feature -- something users have discovered the hard way when working directly off of files stored on a USB flash drive something we recommend against doing.

However, those downsides may be more than outweighed by FAT32's near-universal support, and if you don't think you're going to be dealing with files bigger than 4 GB, this may be the optimal choice. It has one big advantage over FAT If you won't be dealing with older Macs or PCs, this may not be a problem. Of greater issue is that most consumer electronics cameras, camcorders, video game systems don't support exFAT, either. If you need to transfer files between your Mac and one of these non-PC devices, you're almost certainly going to have to format your flash drive in FAT32 instead.

Here's a basic rundown of which format we recommend for your USB flash drive, broken down by use case. If you absolutely, positively will only be working with Macs and no other system, ever: The Buyer's Guide. US Edition. Log in. Sign up. Show More Results. Write only? I assume you mean read-only. If it is read-only then there is nothing else you can do with it, by definition. But are you sure it is read-only? Have you tried selecting the volume and the disk in Disk Utility? Of course with Flash drives so cheap, you might not want to even bother if this one is old.

Durrr, yes you are right Gary, I meant read only, and yes have tried selecting volume and disk, with no joy. Thanks for responding. Personally I think it is better to leave it to FAT 32 especially if you only use it for backup, no matter if you only have Macs. I use a flash drive to backup my Tax.

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When I take it to the accountant, who only has Windows, he plugs in the drive and can read it, no need to reformatting. On occasion, I want to give a file to or get file from a windows user. One advantage of using the Mac formatted flash drive, if it is lost, it is less likely someone finding it would be able to see the contents. What does this mean, and what do I do now? Search discussions. Let us know what worked for you. Question on external hard drive; bought a 1T WD external drive for back-up 2 yrs ago. Based on the video, it seems like I could have.

Time Machine needs the drive to be formatted for Mac OS. All Rights Reserved. Flash Drives also sometimes come with specialized Windows software that Mac users don't need. Formatting cleans off these files to get it ready for you to use. Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.

On today's episode let's look at how to format a brand new USB thumb drive. So say you have just purchased a new USB flash drive.

MSDOS FAT16 Utility | MacRumors Forums

You got it in a store or ordered it online and you want to start using it with your Mac. Now the problem is that most of these drives you are going to get are going to be already formatted but for Windows. This will be great if you actually want to use it to go between Mac and Windows.

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You can keep it formatted Windows, access the files on your Mac and on Windows as well. But if you only use Mac, like I do, then you want to reformat it to use just for Mac.

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So, I'm going to show you what happens when you first plug in one of these USB drives and then how to get it reformatted so it's ready for your Mac. I've just got a plain Finder window open here. It's pointed to my Documents folder but that doesn't really matter. On the left side I can see on the sidebar Favorites and Devices. I have two external drives hooked up and now when I plug in the USB flash drive I'm going to see that appear here as well.

You can see there it appears. It is called No Name. So this is right from the factory. I just took it out of the packaging and I can now select it and see what's on it. Now, what's on it is, you can see right here, a dot exe file. This tells me right away that this is a Windows formatted drive and everything that they have included here is meant for use in Windows.

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So it's got some software and things like that. Special offers that they've got. But I don't need any of that. I just want to use this for plain, regular storage. Actually on this one, if I click on it here, I can see that there is information about how to download their software for Mac. But I don't want to use any of that. This is just going to be a flash drive that I'm going to use to temporarily store things. I just want it formatted normally.

So in order to do that I'm going to run Disk Utility.