Once again, make sure youve backed up all important data stored in the drive. Click OK.

By default, Macs are with HFS (since 2017 theres new Apple File System, APFS, optimized for flash storage), while PCs are with NTFS.

In other words, you can access the drive and transfer data without any hassles.

Note that there is another file system called FAT32 that pretty much does the same thing but with one major flaw.

Therefore, its perfect for a USB flash drive or external disk, especially when you need to save files more than 4GB in size.

You should go ahead and format your storage drive with exFAT instead of FAT32, assuming that all devices you want to use the drive support exFAT.

This is because an NTFS-based drive can be read by macOS but you cant write data to the drive.

Format Usb Flash Drive Waiting For Partitions To Activate How To Format It

How to know what current file system your flash drive is with, and how to format it to exFAT.

That means my Lexar disk is currently with the FAT32 file system.

Note: since Ive formatted my Lexar drive on my Mac, now it shows exFAT.

Because the process of reformatting a disk drive will very likely erase all content and make recovery impossible.

Read this USB drive data recovery guide for more information.

The first part is for Mac users, and the second part is for PC users (Windows 10 based).

The app now has a new user interface that looks slightly different on Yosemite or earlier OS X versions.

The quickest way is to search on Spotlight and click the result under TOP HIT.

Alternatively, you can access it via Finder Applications Utilities Disk Utility.

Note: right below your device name, it also shows information about the drive e.g.

Kind reminder: make sure you have backed up the data before you do this.

It should be very quick (only a few seconds to format my 32GB Lexar drive).

Im showing this to verify that the USB drive has been reformatted to the file system I wanted.

I saved several files to the disk, and open Disk Utility again.

If you are on an earlier operating system like Windows 7, XP, etc.

For example, in Windows XP My Computer is equivalent to This PC on Windows 10.

The only thing you have to check is under File system, make sure you have chosen exFAT.

Once again, make sure youve backed up all important data stored in the drive.

Format Usb Flash Drive Mac Waiting For Partitions To Activate