May 29, 2020 NTFS-3G is an open-source project from Tuxera, so the public can download this NTFS for Mac free software to write to Windows NTFS drives on your Mac computers Set aside its advantage for being free, NTFS-3G is complained a lot because of its poor performance. Connect the USB thumb drive to Mac computer and install a NTFS driver on the computer. Click Applications Utilities Disk Utility, it will show all internal and removable disk on your Mac computer. Click the USB drive and click Erase tab select NTFS under Format pull-down menu.
May 06,2020 • Filed to: Mac Recovery • Proven solutions
'Is it possible to format FAT32 and NTFS drives on Mac by myself?' A user asked us about this question.
Certainly you can format the drives yourself by directly setting in the 'Application' on Mac. Many people think it is hard to format the windows drive on Macintosh. No worry, actually it is not impossible to realize it no matter you use an external or internal drive of your windows system. We here will show you the full guides on how to format FAT32 and NTFS drives on Mac as an example.
Part 1: Format FAT32 Drive on Mac
First, let us look on how to format FAT32 drive on Mac (macOS Sierra). You could be wondering what FAT32 is. It is a file system in Windows 95, 98, and windows Millennium Edition.
One major advantage about this file system is that nearly all the operating systems can read and write from it. On the contrary, it just accommodates files less than 4GB. So if you have a drive that you want to format ensure it is smaller size. Nevertheless, if you have a drive that is more than 4GB, you can download software known as Swissknife. After installing it, it will be much easier to format large files.
How to format FAT32 drive on Mac
Step 1. Now here is how to format your FAT32 external drive on Mac. Go finder window on you Mac then click on Applications the image right.
Step 2. From there, you need to open disk utility. Therefore, scroll down until you see a folder Utilities Double click on it.
Step 3. What you have to do is scroll down through the icons until you find an icon labelled Disk Utility again double click on it.
Step 4. When it opens at the centre, it will command you to select a disk, volume, image that you want to format.
Step 5. From there, you need to open disk utility. Therefore, scroll down until you see a folder Utilities Double click on it.
Step 6. Move the cursor to the top left and choose the disk you want to format. To achieve this you have to double click on your external drive and click the Erase icon, which is at the top of your Mac screen. After doing so, a command dialog box will be displayed that give you options of formatting your drive.
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Step 7. Your problem is almost getting a solution if you still keeping track to these steps. Next, go to Format at the centre of the screen and select MS-DOS (Fat) file format system that allows compatibility with your windows drive.
Below that, you will see Name this allows you to change the name of your external drive if you wish to. From there, click Erase at the bottom of the screen. Immediately you will get a warning but go ahead and click, Erase.
When you here just relax and wait until the process is over before you remove the drive. When reformatting process is over your drive will beFAT32 and you can now use it.
Part 2: Format NTFS Drive on Mac
The second task is how to format NTFS drive on Mac. NTFS is built for windows operating system therefore it is not supported by Mac. For this case, it is advisable to install programs called NTFS 3G, which works in, handy with MacFuse. Both of these are first installed in the computer. It is easier and faster to install despite having using some cash to purchase these NTFS apps such as Tuxera or Paragon NTFS. When both are installed to the PC, they will enable the user to read and write on the drive that is after following these steps.
How to format NTFS drive on Mac
Step 1. Follow the similar procedure that is used in formatting the FAT32 above. Go to finder window in your Mac, and then click on Applications at the left hand side of your screen.
Step 2. Then double click on Utilities icon, which will appear at the screen along other applications you have installed in your computer.
Next, click on Disk Utility. As the NTFS 3G is free program most users have noted bugs despite of its success. Since you had inserted your external drive, hence it will pop up at the top right of your screen. Select that drive you want to format by first choosing the NTFS 3G format that will be displayed. You can also opt to rename your drive if you wish. Once again at the bottom of your screen to the right you will see Erase option. Click it. A warning will be displayed to you that require you simply click Erase .Be patient as the drive is formatted when it is done you are good to go. You can now read and copy paste items on your drive. Another alternative to Tuxera is Paragon NTFS. This program gives a user a room for modification and deletion of items on windows NTFS. As you have seen the NTFS formatted drives should not worry since you have a way out.
You may have encountered a case where you insert an external drive in your Mac and you cannot copy items on your Mac but you can read them. It is because your drive is using the NTFS windows system. Therefore, this leads to our third point of discussion on how to format any drive on your Mac. Disk utility is the vital application in Apple product. It makes the Mac world to be easy and interesting to use as it removes the obstacles between NTFS and HFS+. As usual, insert the drive let us say the hard disk or USB drive.
Step 3. In the finder window click Applications, go to Utilities, scroll down the screen and double click on Disk Utility. Click on the drive that you want to format. At the centre, you click on the icon Erase. A dialog box will be seen at the bottom of it with a round four commands. Select an option in which you want to format your drive. For instance, if you select an option MS DOS FAT, it will well suit with windows as well as Mac. On the other hand, if you choose MAC OS Extended (Journaled) your drive will only harmonize with Mac.
Anyway, that is not the case since everyone has his or her own preferences. Whichever option you want to choose you will still format your drive to suit your desires. From there, you click Erase and upon completion of that process, your drive will be formatted successfully.
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PAGE CONTENT:
- What are file systems?
- FAT32 vs NTFS: What's the difference?
- What's the best Windows USB format tool?
- Format USB to FAT32 & NTFS
- Convert FAT32 to NTFS without losing data
EaseUS Partition Master is your optimal choice to format the USB drive to FAT32 or NTFS in Windows 10/8/7:
As a tiny, portable and somewhat capacious removable storage media, the USB flash drive, thumb drive or USB stick seems to be seen everywhere among modern computer users. What are the purposes of owning a flash drive? In general, we use a USB drive mainly for transferring files across operating systems and different devices, or making a bootable USB drive for booting up a failed or crashed computer.
In order to make full use of a USB drive's capacity and performance, it's essential to format it with an appropriate, compatible and efficient file system. Do you know what is the best file system for a USB drive? Should you choose FAT32 or NTFS while formatting the USB flash drive? Here we will explain reasons and give answers to whether you should format USB drive to FAT32 or NTFS with the best USB format tool.
What are file systems?
A file system can be interpreted as an index or database containing physical location of every piece of data on a storage drive. The structure and logic rules used to manage the groups of data and their names is called a file system.
A Windows computer, Mac, smartphone, Xbox and any place that stores data must adopt particular kinds of file systems to read, write, store and organize data on various storage media, including a flash drive, memory card, pen drive, hard drive, HDD or SSD. In simple terms, without a matched file system, the media will be totally useless as it cannot be recognized at all by your certain device.
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There are many different kinds of file systems. Each one has different structure and logic, properties of speed, flexibility, security, size, etc. Following examples are the most commonly acknowledged and used file systems on popular operating systems.
Don't miss: completely free FAT32 & NTFS formatter for USB
NTFS: (NT File System) It's the default file system for all Windows versions.
HFS+: (Hierarchical File System) It's the default file system for macOS versions.
APFS: (Proprietary Apple File System) It's developed as a replacement for HFS+ since the release of iOS 10.3 and macOS 10.13.
FAT32: (File Allocation Table 32) It's an older standard Windows file system before NTFS.
exFAT: (extended File Allocation Table) It's developed based on FAT32 and offers a lightweight system without all the overhead of NTFS.
EXT2, 3 & 4: (Extend File System) It's initially created specifically for Linux.
EXT2, 3 & 4: (Extend File System) It's initially created specifically for Linux.
![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/1/9/8/119844830/234055672.jpg)
FAT32 vs. NTFS: What's the difference?
Now you should have a basic understanding of a variety of file systems in prevalence. When it comes to the final selection for a USB flash drive between FAT32 or NTFS, which one will you choose?
Following is an overall explanation of each.
FAT32 is compatible with all operating systems since it's a simple file system and has been around for a really long time. In contrast, NTFS is more robust and effective than FAT as it adopts advanced data structures to improve reliability, disk space utilization and overall performance. The application of NTFS has grown but FAT32 is still more universal.
What's more, FAT32 can be converted to NTFS but it's getting hard to convert NTFS back to FAT, due to the facts that NTFS has great security, file by file compression, quotas and file encryption.
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FAT32 or NTFS? Which one should you choose?
If you're looking to decide which file system to use when formatting a USB drive, most of all, you should consider two of the most important aspects: portability and file size limits when made your own decision.
As you can judge from the comparison table, FAT32 is almost supported by all operating systems, only to notice that it cannot transfer or store a single file larger than 4GB & max partition size should be under 2TB in size. However, NTFS seems to have no limit in dealing with extremely large files and partition sizes.
In one word, it's a good idea to choose your own format like this:
If you'd like to use the USB on older computers, or non-PC systems like digital picture frames, TV sets, printers or projectors, choose FAT32 because it is universally supported; In addition, if you're using multiple different operating systems in one same computer, FAT32 is also a nice choice.
While if you're using the USB drive as a Windows computer backup drive, to store high-definition videos, movies, pictures and any other large files, at the same time, asking for a high security, choose NTFS.
What's the best USB format tool?
Once made your own decision as above guided, it's time to format your USB drive a desired file system. No matter it's a newly bought flash drive or a used one, you can directly use a capable USB format tool to format the USB drive to FAT32 or NTFS.
As a matter of fact, in Windows OS for example, there are many accessible ways for users to format a disk. The most familiar ones are Windows File Explorer, Windows Disk Management and Windows Command Prompt. Here we introduce none of them. Instead, we show you a third-party Windows USB format program - EaseUS Partition Master Free, which will greatly ease your worry of encountering the problem of 'Format option is greyed out', 'Windows cannot complete the format', etc. What's more, the third-party software is free, user-friendly, powerful and be able to convert FAT32 to NTFS without losing data, which the aforementioned programs cannot handle that.
Guide: format USB to FAT 32 & NTFS
Step 1: Select the USB drive to format.
Connect the USB drive or pen drive to your computer. Download and launch EaseUS partition software. Right-click the USB drive you intend to format and choose 'Format'.
Step 2: Set the drive letter and file system.
Assign a new partition label, file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and cluster size to the selected partition, then click 'OK'.
Step 3: Check the warning box.
Click 'OK' if you see the Warning window. If you have important data on it, back up the data in advance.
Step 4: Apply the changes.
Click the 'Execute operation' button first, and then click 'Apply' to format the USB drive.
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Guide: convert FAT32 to NTFS without losing data
Step 1: Install and launch EaseUS Partition Master on your computer.
Step 2: Select a FAT32 partition, right-click on it and select 'Convert to NTFS'. If you need to convert a storage device such as SD card or USB flash drive to NTFS, insert it into your PC first and repeat the previous operation.
Step 3: Click 'OK' on the pop-up dialog box to continue.
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Step 4: Go to the upper left corner, click the 'Execute 1 Operation' button and you will see the operation details. Click 'Apply' and 'Finish' when the process completes.