DVD’s are out of the game now. Today flash storages are ruling the world. SSDs USB and M.2 these are the kind of storage that is broadly being used today, and the growth of these are unimaginable in our modern world. The Operating Systems, without an operating system the computer is just a piece of machine. There are more operating systems available; the top 3 are Windows, Mac OS, and Ubuntu. To install these on our computer, we were using DVD in past couple of years and Damm it is too slow. Here, the flash storage takes the lead because they can transfer files faster than DVDs and Mechanical Hardrive. Now we are using USB to install operating systems. We can also carry the operating systems on our Pendrive and use it on every computer. To install OS, we had to make Bootable USB that is why this article is here.
- Format Sandisk Usb For Mac And Windows
- Best Format For External Hard Drive
- Format Usb Flash Drive For Mac And Windows
- Format Usb For Both Mac And Windows
Installing Windows and Ubuntu is easy. The benefit of using USB for installing an operating system is that it is faster and error free. There are various types of USB is available such as USB 2.0, USB 3.0, USB 3.1 and USB-C. USB 2.0 is very slower device whereas USB 3.0 and above is very faster so here I recommend you to use USB 3.0 and above to install the Operating System. To install an OS, we need to create a bootable pen drive else it will not detect on the computer BIOS. So here we walk through the steps to make bootable USB on both Mac and Windows operating systems.
What We Need To Create Bootable USB
Jul 05, 2017 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. Every newer file system handily whips FAT32 in the file size department, allowing for sometimes ridiculously large files. And when you look at volume size limits, FAT32 still lets you format volumes up to 8 TB, which is more than enough for a USB drive. Mar 12, 2018 Mac OS Journaled is the formatting option for Mac and NTFS or MS-Doc is the formatting option for PC. But to get a hard drive to be compatible for.
- A computer that has Windows or Ubuntu or Mac installed in it.
- 8GB or above Pendrive
- Operating System Files(That can download from their official websites)
- Two applications(Rufus and UNetbootin)
Precautions
- Backup all your files from the pen drive.
- Make sure that The OS files are verified (Damage, file missing, Unknown format)
- Download Rufus and UNetbootin only from the given links or from their official sites.
On Windows OS
To make bootable USB drive we need an application called Rufus. It can create bootable USB for both BIOS and UEFI systems also it can create bootable USB of several operating systems such as Windows, Ubuntu, Linux, etc. Creating bootable USB using Rufus is a natural process because it is a portable application so that we don’t have to install it on our computer. UNetbootin is also supporting in Windows, but I found that Rufus is far better than UNetbootin on Windows but in Mac, UNetbootin shows off. Let’s begin.
- Download Rufus and ISO file on your computer.
- Connect USB Drive on the computer.(Make sure to copy all the files from your pen drive else Rufus will delete the files.)
- Open Rufus. Here you can see your pen drive that is selected
- Select Your ISO file from the app. Click on the little Disk icon to select your ISO.
- Choose the BIOS mode to install. To install in UEFI mode with GPT partition scheme then select GPT partition Scheme for UEFI. If you don’t need UEFI, then choose the first option.
- Click on start button; it begins the process.
- After the progress bar reached at the end, You can remove your pen drive, and it is ready to Go.
Note – When using UEFI partition the whole HDD must be formatted in the targeted system so make sure to backup your HDD before installing Windows.
Format Sandisk Usb For Mac And Windows
On Mac OS
You can install Windows on your Mac without creating anything, for that Mac has an application called Bootcamp. If you want to install windows on another system so here we have to use UNetbootin application. UNetbootin can make your pen drive bootable for any operating systems also it provides a download option for downloading open source operating systems such as Ubuntu, FreeDOS, etc. UNetbootin won’t support for making bootable USB for macOS. To install Mac OS on Intel-based PC’s we should use the Hacintosh version of Mac OS. Let’s begin the process.
- Connect USB to the computer
- Open UNetbootin and Select an operating system (You can download it or manually choose an OS image.)
- If you are downloading, then it will take a while to complete.
- When the process is completed, you can remove the pen drive and install it on your system.
Note – In UNetbootin you can’t select boot option. It already has both UEFI GPT and BIOS MBR mode built into it, so you have to manually turn on UEFI in your BIOS settings to boot USB into UEFI mode
Conclusion
Best Format For External Hard Drive
These are the best way to make bootable USB for media installation. There are more apps available for creating bootable USB drive, but the easiest and fastest way is to use these apps. If you have any suggestions or doubts mention me in the comment box below, Have a nice day.
Electronics manufacturers are trying hard to convince us that we live in the world of wireless technology. However, nothing has come up with anything better than the old proven flash drive.
For fast data transfer from one device to another, for communication on different operating systems, it is still convenient to use external data storage devices for reliable data storage.
The only problem is to properly format the USB flash drive or disk. Now I will tell you how to make it so that both macOS and Windows can work with such a flash drive without any problems later.
What File System to Choose?
Among the many existing file systems at the moment, the most popular are considered to be: FAT32,NTFS, exFAT, APFS(Apple File System), HFS+(Mac OS Extended Journaled)
Out of the box, Windows fully supports FAT32,exFAT and NTFS, when macOS supports FAT32, exFAT, HFS+ and APFS. Of course, with the help of third-party drivers and utilities, you can teach Windows to work with HFS+ and APFS, or add NTFS support to macOS, but often these drivers not free and looks like a complicated solution.
Read more:How can you Clear Application Cache and Temporary Files on your Mac?
Note: Access to APFS-formatted disks is currently possible only from Mac computers running the Sierra or High Sierra operating systems. I don’t recommend use it, if you want to share data on an external drive with multiple systems, it is better to leave the drives formatted in a more common file system, such as HFS+, FAT32 or ExFAT.
Format Usb Flash Drive For Mac And Windows
Keep it Simple
For cross-platform USB-drive using (macOS, Windows, Linux), ExFAT will be an optimal solution. In this case, it will be possible to both read data from the drive and write to it without limiting the file size to 4 GB.
Format USB for macOS and Windows
Attention! When formatting a flash drive or other drive, all data on it will be deleted, save everything you need in advance.
- Launch the “Disk Utility” application via Spotlight or Launchpad;
- On the left panel, select the drive you need to format;
- Click Erase button;
- Specify the exFAT file system and confirm the action.
- Rename drive and click “Erase”;
![Usb Usb](/uploads/1/3/4/2/134299199/644525916.jpg)
- Done.
Format Usb For Both Mac And Windows
Is NTFS Compatible with Mac?
This file system is more universal, but macOS does not know how to work with it, therefore, to clean up the drive you will have to download a special driver. Advantages are less need for fragmentation and compression efficiency.
- Download the NTFS Paragon or Seagate NTFS drivers for macOS, install them;
- Properly restart your Mac;
- Plug the drive into the USB port, then open the disk utility;
- The NTFS option will appear in the list — select it to perform a forced formatting operation and confirm the action.
Conclusion
As you can see, the choice of the file system of the drive depends on the devices with which you will use it. If only with Mac and other Apple device, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
But if you want to use USB drives in cross-platform mode, I strongly recommend you using exFAT file system. The finished flash drive in exFAT format will be recognized by both a Windows PC and any Mac.