How to Convert a Flash Drive From Mac to PC

Flash drives usually come pre-formatted with a vendor-neutral filesystem such as FAT32. Apple Macintosh computers use Hierarchical File System Plus (HFS+) as their native filesystem. Microsoft Windows uses New Technology File System as its native filesystem. Windows can not read from an HFS+ formatted flash drive without third-party software installed. You can reformat an HFS+ formatted flash drive into either FAT32 or NTFS to make it usable on a PC with Microsoft Windows. This process erases all existing data on the flash drive.

Instructions

1. Insert the flash drive into a USB port on the computer.

2. Click the "Start" button, right-click "Computer" and click "Manage."

3. Click "Disk Management."

4. Right-click the flash drive and click "Delete Volume." Click "OK."

5. Right-click the flash drive and click "New Simple Volume." Click "OK" to format the flash drive. The flash drive is now usable on the PC.