Any changes you make on files on this system is permanent. In the sidebar, select the disk you want to format to use with Windows computers. The only drawback of exFAT is that it doesn’t support Journaling, i.e., cannot keep track of file changes. In the Disk Utility app on your Mac, choose View > Show All Devices. You can have a maximum of 4GB size limit per file which is not ideal. Now you can plug into any OS – even Linux, and it will work in reading and write mode. You might argue why not use FAT32 which works for both the OS’s.

Click Start and close this window when finished.

Most modern Mac computers, from your basic MacBook and MacBook Pro to your iMac, iMac Pro, and Mac Mini’s, all have SSDs in them now. First, APFS was designed with flash storage Solid-State Drives (SSDs) in mind.

In the File System dropdown, choose exFAT. While divisive at first, APFS has proven itself to be a powerful drive format for Mac users for a variety of reasons.

Open up File Explorer and right-click on the drive.

Plug-in your drive into the computer’s USB port.

After these steps, everything will be lost forever. Obviously, using AOMEI Partition Assistant has fewer restrictions on formatting USB drives. It is where exFAT or Extended File Allocation Table comes into the picture. If you don’t know, exFAT was created to be used on flash drives like USB or SD cards. So the question is how do you format a hard drive using exFAT? The answer is even more straightforward.īefore we go ahead, if you have anything on your drive, make sure to backup everything. You can use Diskpart and AOMEI Partition Assistant to format USB for Mac and PC on Windows.

So I needed a format which is both read and write on both the systems. I am the kind of person who needs to switch between both the OS daily.

Best usb format for mac and pc