How to format a flash memory card for Mac OS X and PC

Memory cards Flash have replaced other forms of removable media such as floppy disks and Zip disks. These cards are available in sizes from 64 MB to 64 GB, and work to make backups , and transfer data from one computer to another. The card must be formatted with the FAT16 file or FAT32 to share between Mac OS X and Windows. There are some ways to achieve this depending on the operating system you are using.

Step 1

Type Disk Management in the field Search in Windows Vista or 7 and click the link. Connect the flash memory in the system. Then right click on the window Disk Management and click on the option format . Select the FAT32 format for disks larger than 2 GB.

Step 2

Open a new Finder window in Mac OS X. Run the Disk Utility located in the folder Utilities folder within the Applications . Connect the flash memory on the computer. Click the flash memory card in the left part of the window, click the tab Clear . Click on MS-DOS (FAT) in the drop down menu format and click Delete .

Step 3

Open My Computer in Windows XP after switching on the flash memory device. Right-click the memory card, and click option format . Click the option FAT or FAT32 the drop-down File System . Click Start to format the memory card.


Note

• Check the flash memory card before formatting. Most are formatted by the manufacturer using one of the FAT file systems.
• Formatting a flash memory card erases all data on it.