Format usb on mac to fat 32

The process of reformatting it will wipe all the data from it. Click on the USB drive in the sidebar and then choose Erase from the toolbar at the top of the window. Choose a security level using the slider. However, it also increases the time it takes to format the drive quite considerably. You can download CleanMyMac X for free here.

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Which should you choose? The main reason for formatting a USB drive as Fat32 on a Mac is that you want to be able to use the drive on a Windows PC, as well as a Mac — perhaps to transfer files between the two machines. You may also be preparing the drive for use as, say, a storage device for a media player or to record TV programmes on a TV with a USB port.

The fact that Fat32 can be read from and written to on both Mac and Windows makes it very versatile.

A drive formatted this way can easily transfer files between Macs and PCs. 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.

Which format to choose?

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: For instructions on how to do this, please see the instructions below:. Return to Top. You may also wish to post on our Community Forums for assistance from other users of our products who may be able to assist you with your issue.

Answer ID Western Digital cannot assist in acquiring or using third-party software to format a drive as FAT There are many different applications many of them free that can accomplish this. We recommend doing a search on Google or Bing by Microsoft for more information.

Another option is to ask on our Community Forums for community assistance in finding or using a FAT32 formatting application. The FAT32 formatter software is only for older external single drive units and can only format a drive that is 1TB and below. It will not work on an external drive that is greater than 1TB in size. It also may not work on models released after When run, this utility can only create a single FAT32 partition for the full capacity of the hard drive.

In case the answer did not answer your question, you can always visit the WD Community for help from WD users. Return to WDC.

[ Tutorial] How to Format USB Flash Drive to FAT32 on Mac? - EaseUS

This allows the drive to be used on both Windows and macOS. Please select the Operating System OS in which the drive is to be formatted from the list above to display the instructions.

For instructions on how to do this, please see the instructions below: Connect the WD drive to the Mac computer. Double left-click on the Mac HD , the internal Mac hard drive visible on the top-right corner of the desktop screen. Choose Applications from the left-side panel. From the Applications folder, open Utilities , and lastly double-click on Disk Utility. Disk Utility will now be open. From the left-side pane, choose the drive that is to be re-formatted. Typically there are two listings for each drive unless more than one partition exists on a particular drive.

Choose the drive listing that is farthest to the left Not indented for the drive to be formatted.

How to Format USB Flash Drive to FAT32 in Mac OS

It is usually directly above the name of the drive. Erase After selecting the appropriate drive, additional option buttons will become available on the top part of the Disk Utility window.

Click on Erase. The Erase dialog window will now appear. Assign the name that will be given to the drive. Select the Format file system from the drop-down menu. For this article, we chose exFAT , see image below. Select the Scheme Partition Table Scheme from the drop-down menu. See image below. Begin by connecting the WD drive to the Mac computer.

Once the drive appears on the desktop, click on Go on the top tool bar. From the drop-down menu, click on Utilities.