If you need a USB drive that's widely compatible with different devices, you may want to format it to FAT32. Here's how to do so on Mac and PC.

If Windows won't format your USB drive to the FAT32 file system, remove the write protection or use CMD, PowerShell, or free software to do the same.

A friend of mine asked me to fix his USB flash drive. It's an HP 4GB drive. My notebook is running Windows 7 64-bit. When I connected the drive to my computer, Windows installed the drivers but it ...

You have options when it comes to formatting a USB drive for use in a PC: FAT32, exFAT, and NTFS. We'll explain what they are and how to choose the best file system for your needs.

Ask Rick: USB storage formatting with FAT32 and NTFS How to switch between the two formats on your data storage device.

If you need a USB drive that's widely compatible with different devices, you may want to format it to FAT32. Here's how to do so on Mac and PC.