How to format USB to FAT32? If the USB flash drive is within 32GB, the native Windows File Explorer and Windows Disk Management are good FAT32 formatter. However, if you want to format 64GB or 128GB USB to FAT32, you can only depend on CMD (Usually diskpart and powershell) and a third-party FAT32 format tool.

• Format Thumb Drive Mac Fat32 Ntfs
• Format Large Flash Drive Fat32
• Format Flash Drive To Fat32

*EaseUS Partition Master Free is an all-around FAT32 format utility that breaks the limit of the 32GB capacity on a USB flash drive, pen drive or memory card. You can apply the software to format any drive from 2GB to 256GB or even bigger to FAT32 without limitation. Read on and get to know the FAT32 file system and how to choose the right tool to format USB to FAT32.

• Find out How to format USB to FAT32 on Mac easily? How to format flash drive on Mac? How to format pendrive on Mac?Be Anonymous on the Internet!
• Format USB Flash Drive to Apple File System. First, plug in your USB drive. Press “Command +Spacebar” to access Spotlight, then type “Disk Utility”. You can view the current file system of the USB drive. In our example, we have FAT32 file system which is compatible on Windows. You need to erase and format the USB to be compatible.
• After making a Bootable USB drive for installing Operating Systems like Ubuntu via Pen drive using softwares like PowerISO, when you format your pen drive using Windows or Ubuntu it will show about only 2 MB of memory in a 4 GB pen drive. Follow the steps to format the pen drive properly and restore it back to its original condition.

Because your USB size is more than MAX Volume size of FAT. FAT/FAT16: Max volume size 4GB, Max file size 2GB. FAT32: Max volume size 2TB, Max file size 4GB. ExFAT: Max volume size 128PB, Max file size 16EB. It mean if your USB flash drive is 8GB or more, it will not support FAT format.

Why Do We Format USB to FAT32?

Related topic:Should you format USB to FAT32 or NTFS?

What's FAT32? FAT32 is regarded as the default file system for external drives, especially the removable USB flash drives and SD memory cards. It's the most compatible file system that can be used on major devices and operating systems like Windows and macOS. So, the advantage of using FAT32 is portability.

However, FAT32 has some disadvantages, or let's say limitations as well. First and foremost, if you use a single file over 4GB in size, you'll need to convert FAT32 to NTFS or exFAT; What's more, due to the manufacturers' specifications, FAT32 can only be used to format drives between 2GB and 32GB, and that's why native tools on Windows have that limit, too. When you try to format a USB drive over 32GB in Windows Explorer, there is no 'FAT32' option at all.

How to Format USB to FAT32: Windows Tools or Third-party Formatter?

According to the previous FAT32 analysis, 32GB is the watershed when it comes to deciding how to format your USB flash drive to the FAT32 file system. In a word, when the USB drive is within 32GB, you can choose any tool mentioned on this page to make it. Otherwise, once the USB drive capacity exceeds the 32GB limit, you'll need to turn to more advanced solutions, including:

1. 1. EaseUS FAT32 formatting software

1. 2. Diskpart & PowerShell command

Next, we'll cover all free solutions to let you format 2GB, 8GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, or 256GB USB flash drive to FAT32 with success.

#1. Format USB (Under 32GB) to FAT32 via Windows 7/8/10 File Explorer

Connect your USB drive to a Windows PC or laptop and let Windows recognize your drive and assign it a drive letter. Check it in Windows Explorer and follow the steps to format the drive to FAT32 as you want.

Step 1. Press Windows + E keys and open File Explorer.

Step 2. Right-click on your USB drive and choose Format.

Step 3. Choose FAT32 as the target file system, tick Quick Format and click Start.

#2. Format USB (Under 32GB) to FAT32 via Windows 7/8/10 Disk Management

Disk management is a free Windows built-in utility that is designed to help users deal with common disk partition related jobs. It is ready to help whenever you want to format a small USB drive to FAT32.

Step 1. Right-click This PC in Windows 10/My Computer in Windows 7, and choose Manage.

Step 2. Choose Disk Management under Storage.

Step 3. Right-click on your USB drive and select Format.

Step 4. From the File system drop-down list, choose FAT32 and click OK.

#3. Format USB (32GB, 64GB, 128GB) to FAT32 with EaseUS FAT32 Formatter

Since the FAT32 option is not available in the regular Windows formatting tools when the USB size is over 32GB, you need other capable USB format tools to get around that. Here we recommend you try EaseUS Partition Master Free, a free partition manager that can help you format your hard drive and USB devices without size limitations. In addition, it also lets you easily resize, create, delete, merge, split, copy partitions, convert MBR to GPT drive and vice versa, and many other things you cannot realize in the default Windows programs.

Now you can download the program and follow the simple steps to format the USB flash drive in any size to FAT32.

Step 1: Launch EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the partition you intend to format and choose 'Format'.

Step 2: In the new window, enter the Partition label, choose the FAT32 file system, and set the cluster size according to your needs, then click 'OK'.

Step 3: Then you will see a warning window, click 'OK' in it to continue.

Step 4: Click the 'Execute Operation' button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click 'Apply' to start formatting the partition to FAT32.

Smaller cluster size makes less waste of disk space. The smaller cluster size is, the bigger the file allocation table (FAT) will be. The bigger the FAT is, the slower the operating system works with the disk.

#4. Format USB to FAT32 Using CMD

Though Windows Command Prompt is the other attainable way that enables users to format a storage device to whatever file system, it's kind of higher-leveled and risker for average persons.

If you are with solid computer skills and familiar with the command lines, you can try the diskpart and powershell command to format your USB drive to FAT32 like the third-party EaseUS format tool does.

Diskpart Command Line:

list disk
select disk *
list volume
select volume *
format fs=ntfs quick

PowerShell Command Line:

format /FS:FAT32 X:

Are You Able to Format USB to FAT32 Now?

Regarding the topic 'how to format USB to FAT32', we analyzed the FAT32's advantage and disadvantage, and clearly know that the regular Windows File Explorer and Windows Disk Management can only deal with the USB drive under 32GB. If you're trying to format a large USB drive that is 64GB or 128GB, you'll need to download the third-party formatting software - EaseUS Partition Master Free, or challenge yourself to learn the Diskpart or PowerShell commands.

All in all, no matter how large your USB flash drive is, EaseUS FAT32 format software is the optimal choice to format your USB drive to FAT32. It doesn't require the USB storage size, and most of all, it's user-friendly that everyone can benefit from it.

Not every USB drive can be used on Mac out of the box -- you need to format the drive to make sure it's compatible with the MacOS extended file system. And here in this article, we'll offer you a full guide on how to format a USB Drive on Mac. Besides, in case you lose important data due to formatting, we have a professional data recovery tool to help you recover data from a formatted USB drive on Mac.

• Bonus: How to Recover Lost Data After Formatting USB Drive

Part 1. What You Should Do First Before Formatting USB Drive on Mac

Make sure that уоu know clearly whаt уоu are doing whеn you begin the whole formatting process, which will еrаѕе your еntirе hаrd drivе.

To avoid formatting the wrong disk, firstly remove the USB drive from Mac, check the title of other storage disks, then insert the USB disk again and note the name of the disk. Next, drag the USB data to a safe location for backup/recovery measures before formatting it. Then you are set to get it done!

Part 2. What Is the Best Format for USB Drive on Mac?

You'll be given several format options when you try to format a USB drive on Mac, including Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), Mac OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled), Mac OS X Extended (Journaled, Encrypted), Mac OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted), MS-DOS (FAT) and ExFAT. If you are using macOS 10.13 or later, you'll also see an option named APFS, which is the default file system of macOS 10.13 and later.

1APFS (Apple File System)

APFS is a new file system for macOS. It's the most appropriate format for SSD. However, you need the latest macOS to write to this file system. If you're sure that you don't need to use it on a Mac running old version in the future, then you can format your USB drive to APFS.

2Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) & Mac OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)

Mac OS X Extended, aka HFS+, is the default file system before APFS for macOS 10.12 and earlier. It doesn't put a limit on the size of files you can save on the drive, which is the greatest advantage. Windows-running computers can read the files formatted to Mac OS X Extended but can't write to them. And this file system is necessary if you plan on using the drive for Time Machine backups.

The biggest difference between Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) and Mac OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) is the latter one is case-sensitive to folder names. For example, 'file' is different from 'File'. Therefore, if you do not have special needs, just ignore this option.

3Mac OS X Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) & Mac OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted)

These two are basically the same with the previous two but with encryption, which means you have to provide the password whenever you connect the drive to your Mac.

4MS-DOS (FAT)

This is Disk Utility's name for FAT32 file system. As the most widely compatible file system, it suits both Windows operating system and macOS. Therefore one can easily transfer data between PC and Mac using a USB drive formatted this way. However, a USB drive formatted to FAT32 doesn't support long file names and an individual file cannot be larger than 4GB.

5ExFAT

ExFAT is the improved version of the older FAT32, which offers larger storage space and supports files larger than 4GB. Of course it also supports transferring files between PC and Mac as a cross-platform file system.

To arrive at a conclusion, if you need to transfer smaller files between operating systems, choose MS-DOS (FAT) or FAT32. And with no doubt, ExFAT will be the best format for USB drive on Mac for larger files.

Part 3. How to Format USB to FAT32/ExFAT on Mac

As earlier stated, you need to first back up your USB drive before formatting it as the formatting operation will wipe all the data. Now, you can follow the steps highlighted below to get the USB successfully formatted.

Method 1: Format a USB Drive on Mac OS with Disk Utility

Step 1: Insert the USB waiting to be formatted to a Mac computer.

Step 2: Navigate to Applications > Utilities, and click it twice to open it.

Step 3: Select the drive you want to format and click on Erase.

Step 4: Rename the USB drive (optional), and choose one file system from the options.

Step 5: Then select Master Boot Record for scheme, hit Erase.

Step 6: Once the process is done, you are ready to use the drive with new file system to store data again.

Method 2: Convert/Format USB Drive to FAT32/ExFAT

Step 1: Connect the USB drive to your Mac computer.

Step 2: Click on cmd + space to run Spotlight, input terminal then tap Enter key.

Step 3: Type diskutil list to find the location of your USB drive (eg: dev/disk2 is the USB drive in the below picture).

Step 4: Type sudo diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 MBRFormat /dev/disk2.

• sudo gives you user right.

• Diskutil calls disk utility program.

• eraseDisk commands the formatting.

• FAT32 sets the file system.

• MBRFormat tells disk utility to format with a Master Boot Record.

• /dev/disk2 is the location of the USB drive.

Note: You can replace FAT32 with ExFAT in the command, and your USB drive will be formatted in that way.

After the process completes, type diskutil list in command once more to check if the USB drive has been formatted successfully.

Bonus: How to Recover Lost Data After Formatting USB Drive

Formatting a USB drive is never an easy task and problems tend to arise from time to time, among which data loss is perhaps the most common one. Users format a USB drive by mistake or directly format it without doing any backup job and both mistakes will cause data loss disaster. This issue will worry us even more when there are important files we cannot offord to lose. If this is the case, you'll need a professional data recovery software to help you get back lost files, and AnyRecover is what you need exactly. With this software, anyone can recover all kinds of data from formatted USB drive on Mac with only 3 simple steps.

As a comprehensive Mac data recovery solution, it handles all data loss scenarios, including formatting USB drive, hard drive failure, and Mac crash.

All-round and deep scan ensures high recovery rate, and sophisticated algorithms contribute to quick scanning speed.

Supports data recovery on all types of USB drives in various file formats like NTFS, HFS+, FAT32, and ExFAT.

Brings back the lost photos, videos, documents, compressed files, etc. - numerous kinds of data from formatted USB drive easily.

Provides preview before recovery and enables selective recovery.

Note

AnyRecover offers free trial for every user, with which one can scan, preview and recover 3 files for free. Just download and have a try! The more time for hesitation, the less possibility for your lost data to get back!

Follow the simple steps below to recover data after formatting USB drive on mac:

Step 1: Make sure you have connected your USB drive to your Mac successfully. Download, install and launch AnyRecover. Then select the formatted USB drive you are trying to recover data from as the location to find data. Press the 'Start' button to initiate the scanning.

Format Thumb Drive Mac Fat32 Ntfs

Step 2: The software will immediately begin the scanning process. You can pause the process at any time and resume from that point later.

Format Large Flash Drive Fat32

Step 3: Immediately after the scanning process is complete, all the files will be listed in their respective file formats and folders. Freely preview and choose what to recover by clicking on 'Recover' button.

Format Flash Drive To Fat32

Final Words

Formatting is a complicated process indeed but by clearing your mind and then follow the steps as listed out in the article, you can successfully format a USB drive on Mac without much difficulty or errors. Loss of data may come as a nightmare but AnyRecover is powerful enough to help you out. In fact, not just after you format a USB drive, it can work wonders whenever you lose data. Try it and you won't be disappointed.