Jun 08, 2020 • Filed to: Partition Solutions • Proven solutions

USB Flash Drives are the new file briefcase in this world of technology. It allows you store as much files you want within a little device. It makes files very compact, easily transportable and organized. However, just like with a filing system used in paperwork, USB drives also make use of file systems. The most common file systems used are NTFS, exFAT and FAT32. If you’ve been using flash drives and other external storage devices for a long time, you may be already familiar with this. Each file system has its own pros and cons. Many PC users are opting to format or change their file system to NTFS. If you’re unfamiliar with the file system and have no idea why this needs to be done, keep on reading. In this article, we will provide you with three easy ways you can format your USB drive to NTFS.

Jun 16, 2019  To get started, click the Spotlight icon at the top right of your screen and enter ‘Disk’ to launch Disk Utility. Insert your NTFS drive or USB stick and click to highlight the disk name in the. Jul 22, 2019  Prepare a Thumb Drive for Both Windows and OS X On Windows, connect your thumb drive. Click Start File Explorer This PC. Right-click your flash drive and then select Format. Jan 09, 2020  In this article, we are taking a closer look at the Disk Utility, which comes with all recent versions of the Mac OS X operating system and how you can use it to format USB drive on Mac. Format Flash Drive Mac with Disk Utility. Your Mac computer comes with a handy utility appropriately called Disk Utility, which can be used to format any. Change the drive format from NTFS to exFAT ExFAT is a kind of drive formatting that is neither default in Windows nor Mac but it is supported by both platforms. MacOS High Sierra will be able to read and write the drive in this formatting and so will Windows. To format / reformat the drive in Mac OS X Mavericks and below: Connect the External disk drive or Flash Drive and open Disk Utility.app from /Applications/Utilities/ folder. Select the External drive or Flash Drive on the left that shows the capacity. Click on the Erase option across the top in the main window. By default, Mac OS X can only read, not write to NTFS disks. Some Linux distributions may include NTFS write support; others may be read-only. None of the Sony PlayStation consoles support NTFS. Even Microsoft's own Xbox 360 cannot read NTFS drives, although the new Xbox One can. Other devices support NTFS even less. Compatibility: Works with.

Why Do You Need To Format a USB Drive to NTFS?

The default format used by most USB flash drives and other external storage media is FAT32. Some people are fine with keeping this format. But for most users, they always find the need to convert or format their USB drive to NTFS. This is for many reasons. With a USB drive that uses FAT32 file type, you can only copy or add files less than 4GB. This may be a hassle for some users who want to transport large files like movies, program installers, etc. Meanwhile, NTFS doesn’t have this limitation. You can copy or add files of any size and the partition sizes usually have large capacity.

What is NTFS?

NTFS is a type of file system. It stands for NT File system and is also called New Technology File System. It’s a way of organizing files within a flash drive. It’s a new improvement from previous file types like File Allocation Table (FAT) or Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT) previously used by Microsoft Windows. Because it’s a relatively new file type, it has an increased security from its new features like file permissions and encryptions. NTFS also has a Change Journal where the drive keeps track of the changes made within the drive. This means that if ever your PC unexpectedly shuts down or you experience a system crash, you have the ability to recover files that were lost during the event.

Here are three proven methods on how to format USB flash drive to NTFS.

Format Hard Drive To Ntfs

Method 1. Format USB Flash drive to NTFS using Disk Management

1.Find My Computer in the Start menu or by typing it in the Search bar. Right-click on it and click on Manage.

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2.In Device Manager, look for your USB drive in Disk Drives tab.

3.Right-click on your drive and choose Properties.

4.Under Policies tab, click on Optimize for performance. Select OK.

5.Go to My Computer and look for your drive. Right-click and choose Format in the drop-down menu.

6.In the format options that will pop-up, select NTFS to convert your drive to NTFS.

7.Select Start and wait for the process to finish.

Method 2. Format USB flash drive to NTFS using Command Prompt

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With using Command Prompt, make sure to type in the exact commands to avoid unexpected errors.

1.Launch Command Prompt by typing in cmd in the Run tool or typing Command Prompt in the Search bar. Select Run as administrator.

2.Type in the command:

convert G: /fs:NTFS

NOTE: In this command, we’re formatting drive G. Change this to whatever drive letter you’re trying to work with.

Method 3. Formatting your USB drive using Windows tools

You can easily format your USB drive with just the built-in features of your Windows computer. Follow the steps below to perform this:

1.Plug the USB drive into the USB port of your computer of laptop.

2.Go to My Computer and right-click on your USB drive. A drop-down menu will appear. Choose Format…

3.The format window will open. Here you will see the device’s capacity, File System and Allocation unit size. You can also rename the volume label. The Restore device defaults button will revert your drive’s settings to default. You can change the file system in NTFS or FAT and also assign the unit size.

4.Select the Start button at the bottom of the window and click OK to begin the format and erase all the data contained in the drive.

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Formatting your USB drive may seem intimidating at first. Formatting changes the file type of your drive and along with this, also wipes out all the data saved within. So it’s important to back up all the files to your computer or another drive before performing any format. With any of the methods previously mentioned above, you will be able to perform a format of your own USB flash drive easily and quickly.

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