Mac OS X and some Linux distributions can only read NTFS-formatted disk without the help of third-party software. The format has even less compatibility than ExFAT. The format is the next generation of file format on Windows, supports big files, and can read and write faster than FAT32 – provided that other factors that influence speed are similar. This file system is perfect for those who only works among Windows computer. But it’s not as compatible as FAT32 as there are devices that don’t support it, such as Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The system is commonly used for shared hard drive(s) that is plugged into computer most of the time. This format works on Windows, Linux (with FUSE), and Mac OS X. If you still need the universal support, but will exchange files bigger than 4 GB, you might want to use ExFAT file system.

If you only deal with simple documents, small movie files, or other kinds of files below 4 GB, and your storage drive is 2 TB or smaller, you should be fine with this file system. The disadvantage of this system is that it doesn’t support files with size bigger than 4 GB and storage partition bigger than 2 TB.

Almost all USB flash drive comes pre-formatted with FAT 32 file system because it virtually works everywhere. This legacy file system is the next generation of FAT that comes a long way from the DOS era. Here are the overview of the commonly used file systems. With several different formats available, which one should we choose? It will depend on your usage. But that trend also makes file system compatibility problem more apparent. It’s a common thing to see people sharing and distributing files using USB drive. The mass adoption of USB drive makes it one of the most used storage media today. If you are a Mac users, here are overviews of different file format systems, and how to choose which format to use for your USB drive to ensure compatibility with other operating systems. Due to the smaller worldwide user-based percentage, Mac OS X users are the ones who would likely stumble into these file format problems. Not many people are aware of these differences until they need to copy files into a storage formatted using the different file system.

Mac os how to format usb drive