How to reformat a external USB drive, which is Mac formatted. Windows will show the drive listed under “Devices” . However, it did not show up in the File Explorer.
Here are the steps to format the drive.
- Open a Command Prompt as Administrator (Win + X and A)
- Type “diskpart.exe”
- Type “list disk” (You should see the drive listed there now)
- Select the drive with “select drive (number)” (enter the number of your USB drive from the list)
- Make sure you use the USB drive with “detail disk”
- Now issue a “clean disk” (this will wipe out any data on the disk, so make double sure that you are using the right disk!!!!)
- Then do “create partition primary” (this will create a primary partition (I just need one)
- Type “active” (this will make the partition bootable (optional))
- Format the disk with “format fs=NTFS quick” (You can also use exFAT or FAT32)
- In order to show the drive simple type “assign” (you should see Windows telling you that you have a new drive or simply check the File Explorer)
- Type “exit” to quit diskpart
All done. Your drive is now available to play with.
