A drive with two partitions, for example can have one partitioned in ExFAT and another in a Mac OS Extended format, so you can use the same drive on a Mac and a Windows computer. Select a format for each partition. APFS: The proprietary Apple file system developed as a replacement for HFS+, with a focus on flash drives, SSDs, and encryption. APFS was released with iOS 10.3 and macOS 10.13, and will become the mandatory file system for those operating systems. If you're looking for an iPhone flash drive that transfers your files super fast, is built to withstand the wear and tear of everyday life, and can instantly add a nice dose of storage for your iPhone, then check out the HooToo iPhone iPad flash drive. It depends on which Mac and PC OSs are involved, but generally speaking, NTFS or exFAT. FAT32 (File Allocation Table). Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.

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Macs support a variety of file systems. By default, they format disks with the Mac-only OS X Extended file system. But, if you plan on using an external drive with both Macs and PCs, you should format the disk with the exFAT file system instead.

How to Check a Drive’s File System

RELATED:What File System Should I Use for My USB Drive?

So how do you know if your USB drive is using the right format? You don’t need to do anything special with Disk Utility–just plug in your USB drive and open the Finder. Right-click or Control-click the drive’s icon in the Finder’s sidebar (or on your desktop) and select “Get Info.”

You’ll see the drive’s file system displayed to the right of “Format” under the General heading. In the screenshot below, the drive is formatted with the exFAT file system.

How to Format a Drive on a Mac

If you want to use a different file system on your USB drive, you’ll need to “format” it. Again, formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep.

To format a drive on a Mac, you’ll need the built-in Disk Utility application. Press Command+Space to open the Spotlight search dialog, type “Disk Utility”, and press “Enter” to launch the app.

You can also open a Finder window, select “Applications” in the sidebar, and head to Utilities > Disk Utility.

Your connected drives will appear under “External” in the Disk Utility’s sidebar. Select the drive by clicking its name.

Click the “Erase” button after selecting the entire drive to erase the entire drive and create a single partition on it.

You’ll be asked to provide a name for the disk, which will appear and identify the disk when you connect it to a Mac, PC, or another device.

You’ll need to choose between several file systems:

RELATED:What’s the Difference Between FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS?

• OS X Extended (Journaled): This is the default, but it’s only natively supported on Macs. It’s also known as HFS+. This file system is necessary if you plan on using the drive for Time Machine backups–otherwise, you’ll want to use exFAT for maximum compatibility.
• OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled): On a case-sensitive file system, “file” is different from “File”. By default, Mac OS X doesn’t use a case-sensitive file system. This option exists because it matches the traditional behavior of UNIX and some people might need it–don’t select this unless you know you need it for some reason.
• OS X Extended (Journaled, Encrypted): This is the same as the standard OS X Extended file system, but with encryption. You’ll have to enter a password, and you’ll need to provide that password whenever you connect your drive to your Mac.
• OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted): This is the same as the standard OS X Extended (Case-senstiive) file system, but with encryption.
• MS-DOS (FAT): This is the most widely compatible file system, but it has some limitations–for example, files can only be 4GB or less in size each. Avoid this file system unless you have a device that requires FAT32.
• ExFAT: ExFAT is almost as widely compatible as older FAT file systems, but doesn’t have the limitations. You should use this file system if you may share the drive with Windows PCs and other devices like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles. ExFAT is the ideal cross-platform file system. It’s not natively supported on many Linux distributions, but you can install exFAT support on Linux.

For external drives, it almost always makes sense to format in ExFAT, unless you’re using the drive for Time Machine.

RELATED:What’s the Difference Between GPT and MBR When Partitioning a Drive?

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You’ll also be asked to choose between a partition scheme: GUID Partition Map, Master Boot Record, or Apple Partition Map. GPT is more modern, while MBR is older. Both also work with Windows PCs. APM is an older, Mac-only partition scheme.

This choice doesn’t really matter if you don’t plan on booting from the drive. If in doubt, just select the default GUID Partition Map (GPT) scheme. Avoid the Mac-only Apple Partition Map (APM) scheme.

Click the “Erase” button when you’re done and Disk Utility will format your disk with the settings you specified. This will erase all the files on the drive!

You’re now done–be sure to eject the disk before you remove it from your Mac. You can do this by clicking the eject icon to the right of the disk in the Finder or Disk Utility windows.

You can also right-click or Option-click the drive in Finder or on your desktop and select the “Eject” option.

Macs do have some limited support for other file systems–for example, Macs can read files on Windows-formatted NTFS volumes, but can’t normally write to NTFS drives. Macs don’t have an integrated way to format partitions with NTFS, either. Use exFAT for excellent compatibility with Windows without FAT32’s limitations.

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With the advent of OS X El Capitan, Apple made a few changes to how Disk Utility works. The app has a new streamlined user interface, but it's missing a few features that used to be part of Disk Utility before OS X 10.11 came along.

It may be a bit disappointing to find that Disk Utility is missing some basic features, but don’t worry too much. In most cases, the missing features are no longer needed, due to the way OS X and macOS have changed over time.

In this guide, we're going to take a look at formatting Mac’s drives or disks. We think sometime in the near future, Disk Utility will have a name change; after all, the term disc, which refers to rotating magnetic media, will likely not be the primary storage method for Macs pretty soon. But until then, we're going to use the term disc in a much broader definition, one that includes any storage media a Mac can use. This includes hard drives, CDs, DVDs, SSDs, USB flash drives, and Blade flash drives.

Although the changes to Disk Utility occurred with OS X El Capitan, these changes and the new way to work with the Disk Utility app will remain applicable to all newer versions of the Mac OS going forward, which includes macOS Sierra and macOS Mojave.

Format a Mac's Drive Using Disk Utility

Disk Utility supports many different functions, all involving one or more disks, volumes, or partitions. We're going to use Disk Utility to format a drive, regardless of the type. It doesn’t matter if it's an internal or external, or if it’s a hard drive or an SSD.

The formatting process will format the selected drive by creating a partition map, and apply an appropriate file system that your Mac can work with to the drive.

While you can format a drive to contain multiple file systems, volumes, and partitions, our example will be for a run-of-the-mill drive, with a single partition formatted with the standard OS X Extended (Journaled) file system.

Warning

The process of formatting the drive will erase all data currently stored on the device. Make sure you have a current backup if you intend to keep any data already present on the drive.

Steps to Format a Drive With Disk Utility

The process of formatting a drive is often confused with erasing a volume. The difference is that formatting affects an entire drive, including any volumes and partitions that have been created on it, while erasing a volume affects just that volume, and doesn't destroy partition information.

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That being said, the version of Disk Utility included with OS X El Capitan and later actually doesn't use the word format; instead, it refers to both the formatting of a drive and the erasing of a volume with the same name: Erase. So, while we're going to be formatting a drive, we'll use Disk Utility's Erase command.

Format a Drive With Disk Utility

1. Launch Disk Utility, located in /Applications/Utilities.
2. Tip: Disk Utility is a handy app to have easily available, so we recommend adding it to the Dock.
3. From the left-hand pane, which contains a list of drives and volumes connected to your Mac, select the drive you wish to format. (Drives are the top-level devices, with volumes appearing indented and below the drives. Drives also have a disclosure triangle next to them that can be used to reveal or hide the volume information.)
4. The selected drive’s information will be displayed, including a partition map, capacity, and S.M.A.R.T. status.
5. Click the Erase button at the top of the Disk Utility window, or select Erase from the Edit menu.
6. A panel will drop down, warning you that erasing the selected drive will destroy all data on the drive. It will also allow you to name the new volume you're about to create. Select the format type and partition map scheme to use (see below).
7. In the Erase panel, enter the new name for the volume you're about to create.
8. In the Erase panel, use the drop-down Format field to select from the following:
   1. OS X Extended (Journaled)
   2. OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
   3. OS X Extended (Journaled, Encrypted)
   4. OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted)
   5. MS-DOS (FAT)
   6. ExFat
9. OS X Extended (Journaled) is the default Mac file system, and the most common choice. The others are used in specific circumstances that we won’t go into in this basic guide.
10. In the Erase panel, use the drop-down Scheme field to select the partition map type:
    1. GUID Partition Map
    2. Master Boot Record
    3. Apple Partition Map
11. GUID Partition Map is the default selection and will work for all Macs using Intel processors. The other two choices are for specific needs that, once again, we won’t be going into at this time. Make your selection.
12. In the Erase panel, after you have made all of your selections, click the Erase button.
13. Disk Utility will erase and format the selected drive, resulting in a single volume being created and mounted on your Mac’s desktop.
14. Click the Done button.

That's all there is to the basics of formatting a drive using Disk Utility. Remember, the process outlined here creates a single volume using all available space on the selected drive.

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Also be aware that the Format and Scheme types listed in the Erase option of Disk Utility will have changes as time goes on.