Click the quick format option and click OK to start formatting.

Select the formatting option FAT32 or exFAT. Then, right-click on it and select Format. Select the USB drive that you want to format. I switched to Samsung T5 or T7, but SanDisk offers will sure suffice. Right-click on ‘This PC’ and select the Manage option. While I have a variety of “dual” USB-sticks I switched to use ExFat-formatted SSDs to copy data between my iDevices and others - the main observation being, that USB-sticks vary greatly in transfer speeds when connected to iDevices (transfer times are generally significantly slower compared to lap- or desktops). However, you won’t be asked for this option for the already formatted HFS+ disk. Apple lets you format an external drive and choose APFS for Time Machine on macOS Big Sur. I own FE FileExplorer too - I simply didn’t check wether it offers similar reliability when copying data for the latest releases because FB Pro works for me (but FE Explorer offers a much better replay of various common video formats IMHO). An external SSD gives you the best performance over APFS, provided you don’t need to use the drive with other pre-Sierra Macs. There are certain technical differences between NTFS and ExFat and, yes, NTFS has some characteristics that allow much better reconstruction/recovery of the filesystem and its data in case of some destructive event.īut then again ExFat is virtually used on every photo camera on the planet to store and exchange photos and video - and while there are anecdotal references to dramatic disasters- it is reliable. If you need to back up any information on the drive, first connect your drive to a computer that does recognize the drive and transfer the data to a new storage device.”unstable” is clearly overstated. Choose 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)' to use the default Mac file system format. Click the 'Format' drop-down menu and select the format you want to use. Right-click on the flash drive and click on 'Format'. Select your hard drive from the list and click the 'Erase' tab. Open the Windows Search and look for Create and Format Hard Disk Partitions.

Restart 'Disk Utility' if you had to restart your computer to perform a repair and you still don't see your drive. You may need to restart your computer and follow the prompts to complete the repair.Ĭlick the 'Finder' icon in the Dock and look for your drive in the sidebar. If the operating system already mounted the drive, an 'Unmount' button displays instead.Ĭlick the 'First Aid' tab and select 'Repair Disk,' if available. Select your hard drive, optical drive or other attached drive in the sidebar. Click 'Go' and select 'Utilities' from the drop-down list. Click the background to bring up the Finder menu in the the top bar.

Format for mac and pc flash drive