Best Format for USB Flash Drive for Mac?

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Best Format for USB Flash Drive for Mac?

I went to order an 8GB USB thumb-drive for my PowerBook to back up photos in the field, but read of folks warning others about how a thumb-drive comes formatted -- FAT32 or NTFS. This is Greek to me. How should the thumb-drive be formatted for the Mac and how is it done? Thanks.

12" G4 PowerBook w. 768 RAM; AlphaSmart NEO; PowerMac G4 MDD dual 1 MHz;, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 2 Gb RAM, Radeon 9800/256DDR, SATA Card and drive, PCI Fan

Posted on Apr 4, 2009 1:16 PM

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Answer 1

Niel

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Apr 4, 2009 1:23 PM in response to Photon3

Use the DIsk Utility in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder to erase it in the MS-DOS format if you need to access it from a PC and Mac OS Extended (Journaled) otherwise.

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Answer 2

Photon3 Author

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Apr 4, 2009 1:36 PM in response to Niel

Thanks Niel, but I don't quite understand all of what you said. I am familiar with using Disk Utility to erase a drive, which I assume will show up in D.U. if I have it plugged into a USB port.

So then how do I proceed in D.U. to format it and what type format do I choose for just using on a Mac, not a PC, for data only?

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Answer 3

Niel

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Apr 4, 2009 1:40 PM in response to Photon3

So then how do I proceed in D.U. to format it

The same way you erased drives before. The process of erasing a disk gives the option of choosing a format.

what type format do I choose for just using on a Mac, not a PC, for data only?

Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as stated above.

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