Dec 29, 2015 - How to Format an External Drive in OS X. Connect the drive to the Mac. Open Disk Utility. Select the drive you want to format. Give the drive a descriptive name and leave the default settings: OS X Extended format and GUID partition map. Click Erase and OS X will format the drive. How to format a USB flash drive as exFAT on Windows PC There are several ways to format drive in Windows PC, you can do that in This PC or in Disk Management. Note: If you have important data on your USB flash drive, you should backup your drive before formatting it.
- How To Format Usb Exfat
- Format Usb Drive To Exfat
- How To Format Exfat
- Format Flash Drive Mac Fat32
- Exfat File Format
- When finished, the drive will be formatted and repartitioned successfully. Click the Done button. NOTE: exFAT is used on SDXC card (64GB and higher). NOTE: exFAT can be used on flash drives or memory cards to transfer files larger than 4GB. NOTE: MacOS 10.6.2 or higher is required for exFAT file system.
- The file system exFAT combines the best of both NTFS and FAT for flash drives by reading and writing larger files at a faster speed. Formatting is not complex either. If you have your flash drive and computer system, you already have all the tools you need. Step 1: Right-click on your flash drive under My Computer and select Format.
- As to what you indicate about exFAT format being used as default by flash drive manufacturers for Mac + Windows compatibility, I'd really like to see a verifiable trend (or actual flash drive manufacturer guidelines) before I'd draw any conclusion.
How To Format Usb Exfat
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What Is exFAT?
exFAT is an acronym for Extended File Allocation Table which is a file system introduced by Microsoft in 2006. It is created to be used on flash memory like USB flash drives, SD cards and so on.
The name of exFAT gives a hint for its precursors: FAT file system. exFAT is a newer version of the FAT32 file system, and you can think it this way: it is a middle ground between FAT32 and NTFS file system (New Technology File System).
The Pros of exFAT
exFAT is a file system that is optimized for flash drives. For that purpose, exFAT has some of the main features that distinguish it from other file systems:
Format Usb Drive To Exfat
- exFAT is a lightweight file system that does not require maintenance of a large amount of hardware resources.
- It offers support for huge partitions, of up to 128 pebibytes, while 512 exbibytes is recommended.
- It supports huge file stored that is much larger than the 4GB limit imposed by FAT32. If you're curious, the theoretical file size limit is 16 exbibytes, but this exceeds the maximum partition dimension, so the actual size limit of a file stored on exFAT is the same as the partition limit: 128 pebibytes.
- Cluster size up to 32MB.
- exFAT adopts the remaining space allocation table, the performance of remaining space allocation improved.
- The maximum number of files in the same directory can reach 2,796,202.
- exFAT is more compatible with a lot of devices and operating systems than NTFS.
The Cons of exFAT
exFAT lacks the support of journaling (in fact, to some extent it is not a disadvantage, and we will explain the reasons in the next part). The journaling feature allows the file system to keep records of the changes made to the files stored on it. This is useful when data corruption occurs because the logs can be used to recover corrupted data.
exFAT does not have this feature, which means that data can be more susceptible to corruption in the event of an unexpected shutdown or the inability to safely eject a removable drive formatted in this way.
Its file allocation tables and file allocations themselves do not support multi-user environments and are susceptible to large file fragmentation. Few other file systems have this issue.
It is not quite as widely-supported as FAT32 does.
What’s the Benefits When You Choose exFAT for A Removable Media
We take the USB flash drive as an example to explain this issue. First of all, we mentioned that exFAT is between FAT and NTFS. Though for performance it cannot compare to NTFS, it does have features better than FAT32 which you can find in the pros of exFAT(last part).
Here we list one typical point. The USB flash drive which is formatted with FAT32 file system cannot have a single file over 4GB. Although there are few opportunities for a single file to exceed 4GB, it does not mean that there are not: original files for BD/HD movies, uncompressed audio files for lossless music lovers, ISO files for DVDs, etc., if you want a full backup, you must choose exFAT over FAT32 as the storage format.
Then you might ask why not choose NTFS? Yes, NTFS is a more powerful file system, but it is targeted 'log' file system requires frequent recording of disks during reading and writing, while a USB flash drive has a limit on the number of reading and writing, therefore, theoretically a USB flash drive which uses the NTFS format will have a relatively short lifetime. And the compatibility is a problem too.
What’s more? The exFAT file system is compatibility with both Windows and Mac, so if you want to transfer data between computers with these two different operating systems, formatting a USB flash drive with exFAT is the best choice.
In summary, if you want to format a USB flash drive but don’t know which file system to choose, here are the advices:
- It is generally recommended to use the FAT32 format, which has the greatest compatibility.
- If you want a better performance experience, want to store large files, or use the drive between Mac and Windows, you can choose the exFAT format (might not be recognized by some devices other than the computer).
- NTFS format is not recommended.
Note: Formatting your flash drive will remove all files or folders onthe drive, so make sure you back up your files before formatting yourdrive.
Windows:
Connect the USB flash drive to your computer.
Click “This PC”.
Right-click the flash drive’s icon. It’s beneath the “Devices and drives” heading in the middle of the page.
Click Format. This option is near the middle of the drop-down menu. Doing so opens the Format window.
Click the “File System” box. It’s below the “File System” heading near the top of the page. A drop-down menu will appear with the following options:
NTFS - The default Windows operating system format. If you’re using your drive as a secondary Windows drive, you’ll need to choose this option.
FAT32 - The most widely compatible format. Works with most computers and gaming consoles.
Note: exFAT format USB flash drives do not work with ClonerAlliance products.
Click a format option (FAT32 or NTFS). If you’ve formatted your drive before and you’re positive that it isn’t broken, you can also check the Quick Format box.
Click Start, and then click OK. Doing this will cause Windows to begin formatting your flash drive for you.
How To Format Exfat
Click “OK” when prompted. Your flash drive has successfully been formatted.
Format Flash Drive Mac Fat32
Mac:
Connect the USB flash drive to your Mac.
Note: Some Macs don’t have USB ports, so you’ll need to purchase an adapter.
Click “Go”. It’s a menu item in the top-left side of the menu bar.
If you don’t see Go, first click the Finder icon, which resembles a blue face in your Mac’s dock.
Click “Utilities”. This option is in the Go drop-down menu.
Double-click “Disk Utility”. You’ll likely find this option in the middle of the Utilities page.
Click your flash drive’s name. It’s on the far-left side of the Disk Utility window.
Click the “Erase” tab. This option is at the top of the Disk Utility window.
Click a format option.
Note: exFAT format USB flash drives do not work with ClonerAlliance products.
Exfat File Format
Click Erase, then click Erase when prompted. This will begin the formatting process. Once the formatting is complete, you’ll see an icon for your flash drive appear on your Mac’s desktop.