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How to Format a Flash Drive

One of the biggest advantages of formatting your flash drive in MS-DOS (for Mac) or FAT32 (for Windows) is that you can access the stored data on every Windows installed machine regardless of the operating system. Formatting to Ext 2/3 allows you to access the data only on Linux. Here is how to format a flash drive. Instructions Difficulty: Moderately Easy Steps for Windows Platform (OS) Steps 1 Step One Start your computer and plug in the flash drive in the USB port. 2 Step Two Click on "My Computer." Click on "Manage" in the "Explorer" window of "My Computer." 3 Step Three Open the "Device Manager" and locate your USBDrive installed under the "Disk Drives" tab. Right click on "Removable Disk Drive" and click on "Properties" from the menu. 4 Step Four Click on the "Policies" tab and choose "Optimize for Performance" from the options. Click "OK" and continue. 5 Step Five Click on "My Computer" and choose the format on the flash drive. 6 Step Six Choose "NTFS" or "FAT32" depending on the type you want from the dropdown menu box. 7 Step Seven Click "OK" to complete the format. 8 Step Eight Know the other method: Search for tools that allow easy format of flash drives over the Internet. GParted is a formatting tool that you can download from the Internet. Install GParted on your computer. Restart your computer and browse "System: Administration: Gnome Partition Editor." 9 Step Nine Plug in your flash drive and start GParted. Login with password information. 10 Step Ten Select the flash drive from the dropdown menu in the upper right window of the GParted interface. The list contains all the storage hardware installed on your computer. 11 Step Eleven Right click on the display of the drive icon and choose the "Format to" option along with the file system type you wish to format (FAT32, FAT16 and so on). Steps for Mac Platform (OS X) Steps 1 Step One Place the flash drive on the desktop. 2 Step Two Start the "Disk Utility." Click on "Macally" flash drive. Use the "Erase" button. 3 Step Three Select the "MS-DOS File System" in "Volume Format." 4 Step Four Provide a new name for the drive. Click the "Erase" button. 5 Step Five Perform the instructions given on the screen and finish the formatting.