How to format usb drive on windows 10 portable#
How to format usb drive on windows 10 code#
How to format usb drive on windows 10 mac#

It, UDF, is most widely used for DVDs and newer optical disc formats, can be used on flash drives, but does make it operate like one. Microsoft just doesn’t want you to do it and with good reason.īefore you get too far: If you think formatting a flash drive as UDF will make the thumb drive appear as an optical drive in the computer – you are mistaken!įrom the Wikipedia page about Universal Disk Format, UDF, the specification is governed by the Optical Storage Technology Association and because of that, many believe a UDF anything will work like a disc. During the format process, only the best suited file systems will be displayed in Windows.įirst, let me say it IS possible for Windows to format a USB flash drive as UDF (Universal Disk Format). Windows provides NTFS as an option for USB flash drives, but as mentioned before, NTFS is not the best file system for a USB drive. The proper file systems for a flash drive is: FAT, FAT32 or exFAT. Instead, you should use them for internal or external hard drives you use to boot an operating system and run the computer.When trying to format a flash drive in Windows (7 or 10) you will see the file system options best suited for the device. This will give you the efficiency of exFAT with a much wider range of portability.įIle formats like NTFS or HFS+ aren’t ideal for small storage devices. As long as the storage capacity does not exceed 4 GB, you can safely use FAT32 to format the drive. Unlike FAT32, it is not limited to 4 GB of storage, making it suitable for high-capacity pen drives.įor older USB drives, FAT32 is also a decent choice. It is fast, efficient, and has a much smaller overhead than NTFS. The exFAT format is the best file format for USB drives. Which File Format Should You Use for USB Drives? For Linux systems, you might need to jump through a few more hoops, but it is still doable.

How to format usb drive on windows 10 mac#

Mac PCs can both read and write to exFAT USB drives, allowing portability between it and Windows.

How to format usb drive on windows 10 portable#

This is great for portable storage devices, as it allows them to squeeze out every ounce of storage for actual use rather than getting it tied up in system partitions.Īnother advantage is that it is supported by Macintosh as well. Just as FAT32, exFAT is a very space-efficient file format, requiring minimal system resources to function. It is an extended version of the FAT32 format, supporting storage up to 128 PB (unlikely to be breached by any storage device soon). The exFAT file format was released as the file system of choice for embedded systems. Something more like FAT32, but with a larger maximum storage size.Īnd Microsoft listened. Small storage devices, like USB drives or SD cards, suffered due to the large data overhead of NTFS and wanted something slimmer. Not everyone was enthused when Microsoft rolled out the NTFS file format as a replacement for FAT32. It might not be as secure as NTFS, but it does just fine for a portable storage device.

It is easy to read and write on all platforms, including Windows, Macintosh, and even Linux. With USB drives offering dozens of gigabytes in memory, FAT32 is no longer a viable choice.īut if you are looking to format an old pen drive that does not cross that mark, FAT32 can be a good choice. The reason it fell out of favor is simple it cannot support devices with more than 4 GB of storage. This is great, as NTFS is the most modern file format out there, offering improved security and reliability. If you’re on Windows, your hard disk drive is probably formatted using the NTFS file system. As we will see, exFAT is the best for formatting a small storage device like a USB drive.

It combines the efficient, no-nonsense structure of FAT with modern drive capacities, allowing all manner of portable devices to manage their data with minimal overheads. Unfortunately, file formats like NTFS tie up too much of their limited resources without offering performance advantages. While this naturally makes them superior to FAT32, it also makes them too inefficient for portable storage devices.ĭevices like SD cards or USB drives need a simple file system to write to and do not have a large overhead. A New Generation of File Formatsįile systems like the NTFS (New Technology File System) and HFS+ (Hierarchical File System), developed by Microsoft and Apple respectively for their own operating systems, are specialized to ensure the security and reliability of the data stored in the hard drive. These were critical issues for a hard drive meant to hold system files for an operating system.

How to format usb drive on windows 10 code#

The format was too vulnerable to malicious code and did little to implement redundancies against data corruption. With time, however, the FAT standard started showing its age.