Bootable Format Tool For Mac

Macs support a variety of file systems. By default, they format disks with the Mac-only OS X Extended file system. But, if you plan on using an external drive with both Macs and PCs, you should format the disk with the exFAT file system instead.

Make A Bootable Mac Disk
Bootable Usb Format
Best Bootable Tools
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How to Check a Drive’s File System

A bootable USB flash drive will help you get your Mac back to working condition, by letting you use all of the tools a fully-working Mac has available. In addition to being able to use Disk Utility, the Finder, and Terminal, and have access to the Internet, you can also load some specific emergency tools onto your USB flash drive. A bootable copy of OS X or macOS on a USB flash drive is a great emergency backup tool to have on hand. It allows you to be ready to go almost immediately should anything happen to your existing startup drive.

A bootable copy of OS X or macOS on a USB flash drive is a great emergency backup tool to have on hand. It allows you to be ready to go almost immediately.
You need to create a bootable USB with Stellar Partition Manager to Format, Add, Delete or Resize partitions on a startup Mac hard disk drive. No, need to create a bootable USB for managing non-booting partitions or partitioning external hard drives.

RELATED:What File System Should I Use for My USB Drive?

So how do you know if your USB drive is using the right format? You don’t need to do anything special with Disk Utility–just plug in your USB drive and open the Finder. Right-click or Control-click the drive’s icon in the Finder’s sidebar (or on your desktop) and select “Get Info.”

You’ll see the drive’s file system displayed to the right of “Format” under the General heading. In the screenshot below, the drive is formatted with the exFAT file system.

How to Format a Drive on a Mac

If you want to use a different file system on your USB drive, you’ll need to “format” it. Again, formatting a drive will erase it completely, so make sure you have everything backed up that you want to keep.

To format a drive on a Mac, you’ll need the built-in Disk Utility application. Press Command+Space to open the Spotlight search dialog, type “Disk Utility”, and press “Enter” to launch the app.

You can also open a Finder window, select “Applications” in the sidebar, and head to Utilities > Disk Utility.

Your connected drives will appear under “External” in the Disk Utility’s sidebar. Select the drive by clicking its name.

Click the “Erase” button after selecting the entire drive to erase the entire drive and create a single partition on it.

You’ll be asked to provide a name for the disk, which will appear and identify the disk when you connect it to a Mac, PC, or another device.

You’ll need to choose between several file systems:

RELATED:What’s the Difference Between FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS?

OS X Extended (Journaled): This is the default, but it’s only natively supported on Macs. It’s also known as HFS+. This file system is necessary if you plan on using the drive for Time Machine backups–otherwise, you’ll want to use exFAT for maximum compatibility.
OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled): On a case-sensitive file system, “file” is different from “File”. By default, Mac OS X doesn’t use a case-sensitive file system. This option exists because it matches the traditional behavior of UNIX and some people might need it–don’t select this unless you know you need it for some reason.
OS X Extended (Journaled, Encrypted): This is the same as the standard OS X Extended file system, but with encryption. You’ll have to enter a password, and you’ll need to provide that password whenever you connect your drive to your Mac.
OS X Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted): This is the same as the standard OS X Extended (Case-senstiive) file system, but with encryption.
MS-DOS (FAT): This is the most widely compatible file system, but it has some limitations–for example, files can only be 4GB or less in size each. Avoid this file system unless you have a device that requires FAT32.
ExFAT: ExFAT is almost as widely compatible as older FAT file systems, but doesn’t have the limitations. You should use this file system if you may share the drive with Windows PCs and other devices like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles. ExFAT is the ideal cross-platform file system. It’s not natively supported on many Linux distributions, but you can install exFAT support on Linux.

For external drives, it almost always makes sense to format in ExFAT, unless you’re using the drive for Time Machine.

RELATED:What’s the Difference Between GPT and MBR When Partitioning a Drive?

You’ll also be asked to choose between a partition scheme: GUID Partition Map, Master Boot Record, or Apple Partition Map. GPT is more modern, while MBR is older. Both also work with Windows PCs. APM is an older, Mac-only partition scheme.

This choice doesn’t really matter if you don’t plan on booting from the drive. If in doubt, just select the default GUID Partition Map (GPT) scheme. Avoid the Mac-only Apple Partition Map (APM) scheme.

Click the “Erase” button when you’re done and Disk Utility will format your disk with the settings you specified. This will erase all the files on the drive!

You’re now done–be sure to eject the disk before you remove it from your Mac. You can do this by clicking the eject icon to the right of the disk in the Finder or Disk Utility windows.

You can also right-click or Option-click the drive in Finder or on your desktop and select the “Eject” option.

Macs do have some limited support for other file systems–for example, Macs can read files on Windows-formatted NTFS volumes, but can’t normally write to NTFS drives. Macs don’t have an integrated way to format partitions with NTFS, either. Use exFAT for excellent compatibility with Windows without FAT32’s limitations.

What You Will Need

An 8GB or larger USB drive whose data you don’t mind losing. You can pick up a new 8GB drive for as little as $5.

Your MacBook power adapter should be plugged in. You don’t want the laptop running out of battery in the middle of creating the bootable drive.
This method obviously requires a valid Windows 10 license to activate the operating system.
An active Internet connection to download any updates required.

1. Download the Windows ISO

Microsoft has free downloadable ISO files for Windows 10 on its official site. There are two things to keep in mind when you download:

Make sure it’s Windows 10 version 1511How to Upgrade to Windows 10 Version 1511 NowHow to Upgrade to Windows 10 Version 1511 NowCan't seem to install the Windows 10 Fall Update? It wouldn't be the Microsoft we know and love, if there wasn't some kind of screw-up along the line. Let us help!Read More—you’ll see the digits 1511 in the file name if it is. Older versions don’t let you use Windows 7 or 8 keys to activate it directly.
Don’t worry about “K”, “N”, “KN”, “Simple Language” or other suffixes. Just download the plain Windows 10. Those suffixes are for lighter versions of Windows made for Europe and South Korea, due to anti-trust litigation against Microsoft.

Download:Official Windows 10 ISO

Once you have downloaded the ISO, keep it in a location you can easily find later, like your desktop or downloads folder.

2. Plug in Your USB Drive

Disconnect any other USB hard drive, optical drive, or other storage media you have connected.

3. Start Boot Camp Assistant

Mac OS X’s built-in Boot Camp Assistant (BCA) is capable of creating the bootable Windows 10 installer USB drive, so you don’t need any third-party apps.

To start BCA, press command+spacebarto bring up SpotlightSearch More Efficiently In Mac OS X With Our Top Spotlight TipsSearch More Efficiently In Mac OS X With Our Top Spotlight TipsSpotlight has been a killer Mac feature for years, with Cupertino regularly schooling Redmond in the art of desktop search. Here are a few tips to help you find more on your Mac.Read More, type “Boot Camp Assistant” (without the quotes), and press Enter.

Click Continue at the introduction dialog box.

4. Configure Boot Camp

Check the box for “Create a Windows 7 or later install disk”.

The other options will probably be greyed out, but in case they aren’t, check the second box for “Download the latest Windows support software from Apple”, and don’t check the third box.

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Click Continue when done.

5. Choose Your ISO Image & USB Drive

Browse to and select the Windows 10 ISO file you downloaded.

In Destination Disk, make sure you see your 8GB USB drive.

Click Continue when done.

6. Copy The Image to Disk

BCA will format this USB drive, so again, make sure it has no important data on it that you can’t lose.

All the data will be wiped.Click Continue to proceed. The installation process will now start and you don’t need to interact at all. Just let it run.

Make A Bootable Mac Disk

If you’re on a MacBook, don’t shut the MacBook’s lid! It’s an instinctive act that several of us do when we aren’t using the laptop, but this will put your Mac to sleep and interrupt the process.

When everything is done, you’ll see a window that says “The Windows support software has been saved.”

Click Quit to finish your procedure, unmount and unplug your USB drive. Congratulations! This is now a bootable Windows 10 installer.

While Booting: USB vs. UEFI

When you go to install Windows 10 on a PC with this USB drive, your motherboard might not boot with it, even if you have set to boot with the USB first. It’s a common problem with a simple solution.

Go to your motherboard’s BIOS settingsHow to Enter the BIOS on Windows 10 (And Older Versions)How to Enter the BIOS on Windows 10 (And Older Versions)To get into the BIOS, you usually press a specific key at the right time. Here's how to enter the BIOS on Windows 10.Read More by tapping F2 or Delete as it powers on. In the Boot settings, you will likely see two options for your USB drive that seem similar, titled something like “USB Mass Storage Device” and “UEFI USB Device”.

Choose UEFI instead of USB Mass Storage. Save the new settings, exit BIOS, and restart. This time, your computer should boot into your Windows 10 installer USB drive.

Bootable Usb Format

UEFI is a new type of firmware for motherboardsWhat Is UEFI And How Does It Keep You More Secure?What Is UEFI And How Does It Keep You More Secure?Read More instead of the traditional BIOS, and BCA uses it by default when creating USB installation media. It makes no real difference to a regular user, so just change the setting and you’re good to go.

Alternate Method to Create the Installer

Best Bootable Tools

The Boot Camp Assistant is the easiest way to make a bootable USB installer for Windows 10, but some users have reported problems with it. El Capitan users, in particular, have noted that BCA does not offer the “Create a Windows 7 or later install disk” option at all. In case you face this problem, there is an alternative to create your bootable drive.

Use VirtualBox to create a virtual Windows machine on MacHow to Use VirtualBox: User's GuideHow to Use VirtualBox: User's GuideWith VirtualBox you can easily install and test multiple operating systems. We'll show you how to set up Windows 10 and Ubuntu Linux as a virtual machine.Read More. Then it’s just a matter of using the Windows Media Creation Tool or any of the other methods to create Windows installation mediaHow to Create Windows 10 Installation MediaHow to Create Windows 10 Installation MediaRegardless of how you arrived at Windows 10, there's a way to create your own installation media. Sooner or later you might need it. Let us show you how to be prepared.Read More. It takes more resources and the process has more steps than BCA, so use this as the last option.

This method will usually not use UEFI firmware, so the BIOS settings change won’t be needed.

Are You Dual-Booting Windows 10?

Itool For Mac

With all of these options, you should be able to easily make Windows 10 installation media on your Mac. The question is, are you going to use it?

As the July 29 deadline approaches, we are curious to know how many of you are dual-booting Mac OS X and Windows 10 already, and how many of you plan to do it in the near future? Is Windows 10 better on a Mac than earlier versions of the operating system?

Explore more about: Install Software, USB Drive, Windows 10.

cool
Will this process work for a Windows PC?
Is there a simple way to change my BIOS to recognize booting from a flash drive?
You can also just mount the ISO, format the USB as FAT with MBR and just drag and drop the files from the ISO to the USB. It boots fine with EFI :-)
- Windows 10 is larger than 4 GB. I can't drag it to the USB