WD Quick Formatter, also known as WD Advanced Format Drivers (AFDs), is an external hard drive format utility for Windows and Mac, developed by Western Digital Technologies, Inc. External drive like WD Elements, My Book and My Passport can be formatted to FAT32 via this tool. Here we would like to introduce you EaseUS Partition Master Free. We recommend it as the best FAT32 format tool for two reasons. First, it is free, powerful, safe, and easy to use. It can help you format external hard drive, USB flash drive or SD card into FAT32 in just simple steps. First, let us look on how to format FAT32 drive on Mac (macOS Sierra). You could be wondering what FAT32 is. You could be wondering what FAT32 is. It is a file system in Windows 95, 98, and windows Millennium Edition.
How to Format USB Flash Drive to FAT32 in Mac OS Posted on November 24, 2016 by adm Posted in MacOS — 27 Comments ↓ To format a USB Flash Drive to FAT32 in Mac OS X follow the next steps. In Disk Utility, selecting the disk, going to Partition, selecting '1 partition', then choosing options, 'Master Boot Record' did the trick but 10.6.3 really should change this [back] to the default behaviour since choosing a FAT32 file system when using a Mac normally means you need maximum compatibility.
https://mobikeen839.weebly.com/what-mac-tool-is-used-for-backups.html. At times, you may have the need to erase and re-use a hard drive, solid state drive, or even a USB flash drive so it can be used for alternative purposes. Fortunately, your Mac comes with all the tools you’ll need to do this, making it super simple for you to erase and format that drive for your needs.
In this tutorial, we’ll show you how you can format a USB flash drive using the Disk Utility built into your macOS operating system. This process also works with external hard drives, internal solid state drives, and any other drive that doesn’t contain your operating system on it.
Why format a drive
In some instances, before you can properly use a drive for the new purposes you plan to give it, you will need to format it using the proper file system. For a drive that you will use as a universal sharing drive, such as a USB flash drive that you intend to use on macOS, Windows, and/or Linux systems, you want to use a universal file system, such as ExFAT.
Other file systems are also available for drives, such as FAT32 and NTFS, but FAT32 has a strict limitation that says no single file can be larger than 4GB, and NTFS is intended for Windows machines only and is great for hand-me-down hard drives that you want to re-purpose for a Windows PC you’re building.
So with that in mind, we’ll be formatting our USB flash drive with the ExFAT file system today, because it’s a universal file system that is compatible with most modern operating systems, and moreover it doesn’t have the silly 4GB file size limit.
Just a word of warning: formatting a drive will erase all of the contents of the drive, whatever style it may be (USB, internal, external, etc.), and it will henceforth be treated like a completely new drive being set up for initial use. You should back up all important files before proceeding to the next part of this piece, where we will take you through how to format your drive.
How to format a drive on Mac
https://mobikeen839.weebly.com/is-there-a-quick-analysis-tool-in-excel-for-mac.html. So now that you’ve decided to format your drive, you’ll need to know how. It’s a very easy process and we’ll take you through each of the steps below:
1) Launch the Disk Utility app on your Mac and select the drive you wish to erase and set up as a new drive from the sidebar. In our case, we’ll be formatting the PNY USB 3.0 drive we’ve plugged into our Mac.
2) With the right disk selected (be careful not the choose the wrong one), click on the “Erase” button at the top center of the Disk Utility app.
3) A pop-up box appears; enter a name for the drive as you want it to be known as henceforth, and then click on the “Format” drop-down box to see a list of options.
4) Pick the format you would like to use; in our case, we’ll be choosing ExFAT because it’s a universal format and works great for USB flash drives.
5) With your options configured how you would like them (you don’t have to modify the Scheme), go ahead and click on the blue “Erase” button.
![For For](https://www.admfactory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Fat32Format002.png)
![Fat32 Fat32](https://www.admfactory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Fat32Format001.png)
6) Disk Utility will begin un-mounting your drive and formatting it to your desired settings.
7) After you’re finished, you’ll receive a confirmation alert telling you the format is complete. Click on the blue “Done” button to finish.
Congratulations! Your drive is now fully erased and should be like new. You can now re-purpose it for anything you need, whether it’s more internal storage, a new USB drive, or something else.
Wrapping up
Formatting a drive is a great way to remove unwanted files from a drive and to get it working like new again. If you have no use for a Windows-formatted drive that you want to use your Mac, or a bootable drive you’d rather use as a USB flash drive instead, formatting is the answer because you can set up that drive tailored around your personal needs.
Related:
If you found this tutorial helpful, leave us a comment below!
For whatever reason, the option to format USB drives larger than 32GB with the FAT32 file system isn’t present in the regular Windows format tool. Here’s how to get around that.
RELATED:What File System Should I Use for My USB Drive?
FAT32 is a solid file system for external drives, so long as you don’t plan to use files over 4GB in size. If you do need those larger file sizes, you’ll need to stick with something like NTFS or exFAT. The advantage to using FAT32 is portability. Every major operating system and most devices support it, making it great for drives you need to access from different systems. Specifications put out by manufacturers on file systems as they pertain to drive size created the myth that FAT32 can only be used to format drives between 2 GB and 32 GB, and that is likely why native tools on Windows—and other systems—have that limit. The truth is that FAT32 has a theoretical volume size limit of 16 TB, with a current practical limit of about 8 TB—plenty for most USB drives.
We’re going to show you two ways to format larger USB drives with FAT32. One method uses PowerShell (or the Command Prompt), the other a free, third-party tool.
Format Large USB Drives with FAT32 by Using FAT32 Format
RELATED:What Is a “Portable” App, and Why Does It Matter?
Download Fat32 Format Tool
The easiest way to format larger USB drives with FAT32—if you’re willing to download a free, third party app—is to use the GUI version of FAT32 Format by Ridgecrop Consultants (click the screenshot on that page to download the app). It’s a portable app, so you won’t need to install anything. Just run the executable file.
In the “FAT32 Format” window, select the drive to format and type a volume label if you want to. Select the “Quick Format” option, and then click the “Start” button.
A window pops up to warn you that all data on the drive will be lost. Click “OK” to format the drive.
Formatting with this tool is much quicker than the command line method described in the next section. This tool took a few seconds to format our 64GB USB drive that took us over an hour in PowerShell. Snipping tool for mac os.
One thing to note here: you’ll need to close any open File Explorer windows before you format the drive. If you don’t, the tool will interpret the drive as being used by another app and formatting will fail. If this happens to you, just close the File Explorer windows and try again. No need to relaunch the tool or anything.
Format Large USB Drives with FAT32 by Using PowerShell
Mac Os Fat32 Format
You can format USB drives larger than 32GB with FAT32 by using the
format
command in PowerShell or Command Prompt—the command uses the same syntax in both tools. The downside to doing this is that it can take a long time. Formatting our 64GB USB drive took almost over an hour, and we’ve heard some people complain that it can take many hours for bigger drives. Aside from the length of time, you also won’t know if formatting failed—unlikely but possible—until the process is done.Windows Xp Fat32 Format Tool
Still, if you don’t want to—or can’t—download a third-party app, using the
format
command is pretty straightforward. Open PowerShell with administrative privileges by hitting Windows+X on your keyboard, and then selecting “PowerShell (Admin)” from the Power User menu.At the PowerShell prompt, type the following command (replacing
X:
with whatever drive letter you want to format), and then hit Enter:Like we said, it can take a long time to format a drive this way, so if you can use the third-party download we described in the last section, you should.
Format Flash Drive To Fat32 On Mac
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