.jpg "Switch USB stick between Mac and PC")
Make your USB stick suitable for transferring files between a Mac and Windows computer.
Format USB for Mac and Windows
A Windows PC and an Apple Mac computer handle storage space differently. As a result, it can happen that a USB stick on which files have been saved via a Mac cannot be opened on a Windows computer, and vice versa. You can avoid this problem by setting up (formatting) the USB stick so that both a Windows computer and Mac can handle it.
Below you can read how to format a USB stick. You can choose different file systems during formatting. The file system determines on which operating system the USB stick can be opened. In this tip, we’ll use the ‘exFat’ option. The USB stick can therefore be used on computers with:
- Mac OS X from Snow Leopard,
- most Vista computers,
- and PCs with Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10.
Do you want the USB stick to be usable on all versions of the Mac and Windows operating systems? Then choose ‘MS DOS (FAT)’. The disadvantage of this method is that you cannot store files larger than 4GB.
Format USB on Windows
On a Windows computer, format a USB stick as follows:
- Connect an empty USB stick to your Windows computer. Note: the stick does not necessarily have to be empty, but it will be completely erased during formatting.
- click on Start(s) > (This computer. If you are using Windows 8/8.1 or 10, open the Explorer with the shortcut Windowskey+E and click in the left menu on This PC.
- In the Explorer window, right-click on the drive letter of your USB stick.
- click on Format.
- Under ‘File System’, click the drop-down menu and click exFat.
- To name the USB stick, click under ‘Volume name’ and type the desired name.
- click on Start to format the USB stick.
- You will be warned that files already on the USB stick will be lost. click on OK.
- The message ‘Formatting is complete’ appears. click on OK.
- Finally click Close.
Watch the steps in the video below.
Format USB on Mac
For a Mac computer, do the following:
- Connect an empty USB stick to your Mac computer. Note: the stick does not necessarily have to be empty, but it will be completely erased during formatting.
- In the Dock, click finder.
- click on apps (macOS 10.15 Catalina) or Programs (macOS 10.14 Mojave or earlier).
- Double click on Utilities > Disk Utility.
- Click on the USB stick in the left column (of the two parts that describe the USB stick, choose the top one, which is also the one furthest to the left).
- Click on the tab partition.
- Under ‘Partition layout’, click the drop-down menu and click 1 partition.
- To name the USB stick, click under ‘Name’ and type the desired name.
- Click on the drop-down menu behind ‘Structure’ and click on ExFat.
- click on Options, click on MBR and on OK.
- Finally click Apply to start formatting.
- You will be warned that files already on the USB stick will be lost. click on partition.
Watch the steps in the video below.