How To Format G Drive For Mac Into Exfat

Plug-in your drive into the computer’s USB port. Open up File Explorer and right-click on the drive. Choose Format.; In the File System dropdown, choose exFAT. Possible you might get NTFS or FAT32.
May 14, 2015 Hey guys this is how you fix your exfat drives on mac! Boot into single user mode using command s at boot Connect disk after boot fsckexfat /dev/disk1s1.

Whether you’re formatting an internal drive, external drive, or USB flash drive, Windows makes it possible to choose between NTFS and exFAT formats. In this guide, we’ll go over the simple steps to formatting a USB drive and which format is best for certain situations.

exFAT is a file system optimized specifically for flash drives. Introduced in 2006, it’s designed to be a lightweight file system like FAT32 without the extra features of NTFS and without the FAT32 limitations. exFAT has very large file size and partition size limits so files larger than 4GB a piece can be stored on a flash drive formatted with exFAT. It makes very few unnecessary writes, and stores files throughout the drive in order to maximize the lifespan and speed up transfers.

The other is to format your drives with the exFAT file system. This file system can be read and written by both Mac and Windows with support for single files of up to 128 petabytes! Even better, it’s freely included in both operating systems. A drive can be formatted with exFAT using either a Windows or a Mac computer. Aug 28, 2020 Here’s the procedure to format USB Drive to NTFS / FAT / FAT32 / exFAT: Step 1: Plug in the memory stick into your computer and allow it to be detected. Once it is recognised, you should see an Autoplay dialogue box pop up asking you to choose the next action.

NTFS however, is not a flash drive’s best friend. It makes many extra disk writes and, as a dynamic file system, can also write without your knowledge. If one of these writes is taking place and a drive is pulled out, corruption and a reformat is required to get things back in order but your data will have been lost. Additionally, NTFS has read-only compatibility with Mac devices, a flaw not shared by the exFAT format.

Before we get started make sure to back up all data. Reformatting will result in a wipe of the drive so backing up on another device is vital to keeping your data.

Step 1: Plug the USB drive into your computer and allow it to be detected. Once it has been recognized, open up your standard File Explorer.

Step 2: Locate the drive under Computer. Right click and select “Format”. This opens a dialog box with formatting options.

Step 3: On the “File System” dropdown, select the desired format. In this case, we’ll be formatting to exFAT. Our backups are created and our format type is set so click “Start” to initialize the process.

An alternative method is formatting USB drives using the Command Prompt. Some may find this method to be easier or more intuitive but it’s simply typing out the commands instead of using the tools in your Explorer.

How To Format G Drive For Windows And Mac

Step 1: Plug the drive in and make sure it has been detected. As with our previous steps, backing up to save your data is still necessary.

Step 2: Open the Command Prompt. To do this, open your “Start” menu and type “cmd” into the search box. Multiple choice test maker. “cmd.exe” should appear so open it up.

Step 3: Your USB drive will have an assigned letter, for example “F”. Typing the following will bring up the formatting prompts
â€ƒ “format F: /fs:EXFAT”

Press Y or N to continue or stop the formatting respectively.

With these methods you’ll be able to optimize your flash drive’s format or save some hardware that has seen better days. For more How-To’s and tech related news, make sure to Follow Us On Twitter to receive the latest updates!

Cyrus

Cyrus is currently getting his bachelors degree in computer programing. As a part time job, Cryus writes contributing articles and content for GetUSB.info. He is an avid swimmer, loves Minecraft and prefers to program in Python.

Erasing your disk: For most reasons to erase, including when reformatting a disk or selling, giving away, or trading in your Mac, you should erase your entire disk.

Erasing a volume on your disk: In other cases, such as when your disk contains multiple volumes (or partitions) and you don't want to erase them all, you can erase specific volumes on the disk.

Erasing a disk or volume permanently deletes all of its files. Before continuing, make sure that you have a backup of any files that you want to keep.

How to erase your disk

Start up from macOS Recovery. Then select Disk Utility from the Utilities window and click Continue.
If you're not erasing the disk your Mac started up from, you don't need to start up from macOS Recovery: just open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
Choose View > Show All Devices from the menu bar in Disk Utility. The sidebar now shows your disks (devices) and any containers and volumes within them. The disk your Mac started up from is at the top of the list. In this example, Apple SSD is the startup disk:
Select the disk that you want to erase. Don't see your disk?
Click Erase, then complete these items:
- Name: Type the name that you want the disk to have after you erase it.
- Format: Choose APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Disk Utility shows a compatible format by default.
- Scheme: Choose GUID Partition Map.
Click Erase to begin erasing your disk and every container and volume within it. You might be asked to enter your Apple ID. Forgot your Apple ID?
When done, quit Disk Utility.
If you want your Mac to be able to start up from the disk you erased, reinstall macOS on the disk.

How to erase a volume on your disk

Start up from macOS Recovery. Then select Disk Utility from the Utilities window and click Continue.
If you're not erasing the volume your Mac started up from, you don't need to start up from macOS Recovery: just open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
In the sidebar of Disk Utility, select the volume that you want to erase. The volume your Mac started up from is named Macintosh HD, unless you changed its name. Don't see your volume?
Click Erase, then complete these items:
- Name: Type the name that you want the volume to have after you erase it.
- Format: Choose APFS or Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Disk Utility shows a compatible format by default.
If you see an Erase Volume Group button, the volume you selected is part of a volume group. In that case, you should erase the volume group. Otherwise, click Erase to erase just the selected volume. You might be asked to enter your Apple ID. Forgot your Apple ID?
When done, quit Disk Utility.
If you want your Mac to be able to start up from the volume you erased, reinstall macOS on that volume.

Reasons to erase

You can erase at any time, including in circumstances such as these:

You want to permanently erase all content from your Mac and restore it to factory settings. This is one of the final steps before selling, giving away, or trading in your Mac.
You're changing the format of a disk, such as from a PC format (FAT, ExFAT, or NTFS) to a Mac format (APFS or Mac OS Extended).
You received a message that your disk isn't readable by this computer.
You're trying to resolve a disk issue that Disk Utility can't repair.
The macOS installer doesn't see your disk or can't install on it. For example, the installer might say that your disk isn't formatted correctly, isn't using a GUID partition scheme, contains a newer version of the operating system, or can't be used to start up your computer.
The macOS installer says that you may not install to this volume because it is part of an Apple RAID.

About APFS and Mac OS Extended

Disk Utility in macOS High Sierra or later can erase using either the newer APFS (Apple File System) format or the older Mac OS Extended format, and it automatically chooses a compatible format for you.