File-format capabilities may seem distant to those who don’t often transfer files between devices. This used to be a topic that was very much in the forefront of everyone’s minds. But it still crops up whenever you’re trying to put files on a USB thumb drive to hand off to someone else. If you’re both Mac users, swell; with Mac and Windows in the mix, you might be tempted to pick FAT32 when formatting that thumb drive.
FAT32 is out of date. Designed for an earlier time, it can’t handle files larger than 4GB. ExFAT, the replacement, is better suited for drives larger than 32GB.
While first ensuring you have a copy of any data on a drive you want to format as ExFAT, as formatting will erase the drive’s contents, follow these steps:
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Attach the drive to your Mac.
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Launch Disk Utility (from Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility).
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Choose the drive from the left-hand sidebar.
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Click Erase.
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Select from the Format menu ExFAT.
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Choose from the Scheme menu Master Boot Record.
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Click EraseFollow the prompts for confirmation.
Foundry
Robin, a Macworld reader, asked this question.
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