Blackmagic Cloud Store User Manual Formatting USB Drives

When using a disk with the Blackmagic Cloud Pod, it needs to be formatted in HFS+ or ExFAT. Most disks come as NTFS format, but the disk needs to be reformatted to work with the cloud pod. This section explains how to format disks on your computer.

Formatting Drives on a Mac

The Disk Utility application included with Mac can format a drive in the HFS+ or ExFat formats. HFS+ is also known as Mac OS Extended which includes a journaling feature that helps the drive recover if it has a problem.

Make sure you back up anything important from your drive as you will lose everything on it when it is formatted.

1. Connect a USB drive to your computer and dismiss any message offering to use it for Time Machine backups.

2. Go to applications/utilities and launch Disk Utility.

3. Click on the disk icon of your USB drive and then click the erase tab.

4. Set the format to Mac OS Extended or ExFat.

5. Type a name for the new volume and then click erase. Your media will quickly be formatted and made ready for use with Cloud Pod.

Formatting Drives in Windows

The format dialog box can format a drive in the ExFat format on a Windows PC. Make sure you back up anything important from your USB drive as you will lose everything on it when it is formatted.

1. Connect a USB drive to your computer.

2. Open the start menu or start screen and choose ‘computer’. Right-click on your USB drive.

3. From the contextual menu, choose format.

4. Set the file system to ExFat and the allocation unit size to 128 kilobytes.

5. Type a volume label, select quick format and click Start.

6. Your media will quickly be formatted and made ready for use with your Blackmagic Cloud Store.