New USB stick - "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer'

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New USB stick - "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer'

I recently bought a 32GB USB stick to transfer data from my current Powerbook G4 with Mac OS X 10.4.11 to a new laptop.
However, when I insert the disk I am told "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" with the options to "Initialise", "Ignore" or "Eject".

In all honesty I just want to avoid having to send the USB back, getting a refund and finding one that is compatible with my computer.
Consequently I was wondering if there's a way I can alter the USB disk to become readable by my computer?

Also the USB is described as an "iBoutique 32GB USB 2.0 Hi-Speed Elite Flash Drive".

Would be really grateful if you could help as my my current laptop is dying due to it's age and I would like to move the data over to the new laptop as soon as possible.

Thanks,
Becca

PowerBook, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Nov 8, 2011 5:34 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 8, 2011 6:29 AM in response to beccachad

The drive is probably formatted for a PC. Insert it again & select initialize.

 Cheers, Tom 😉

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Answer 2

Limnos

Level 10

411,073 points

Nov 8, 2011 6:35 AM in response to beccachad

Initialize to Mac extended (not journaled)

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Answer 3

beccachad Author

Level 1

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Nov 11, 2011 7:01 AM in response to Limnos

Cool, thankyou guys (:
Now, I want to transfer my data to a Windows so do I have to re-initialise it or something? In which will I lose data on the disk?

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Answer 4

BDAqua

Level 10

238,925 points

Nov 11, 2011 9:30 AM in response to beccachad

It would lose all data re-initialising it.

A few options...

You could format that HDD as Fat32/MS-DOS, but you'd be limited to 4 GB Filesizes.

NTFS-3G Stable Read/Write Driver...

http://www.ntfs-3g.org/

MacFUSE: Full Read-Write NTFS for Mac OS X, Among Others...

http://www.osnews.com/story/16930

MacDrive for the PCs... allows them to Read/Write HFS+...

http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

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Answer 5

Limnos

Level 10

411,073 points

Nov 11, 2011 9:48 AM in response to BDAqua

Just to elaborate on BDAqua's reply...

The first option gives you a basic formatted disk that can be used by either platform with some limitations (e.g., if you're using this for >4GB video files; if something goes wrong you have to use a PC repair utility). Actually just about every stick I have bought (16GB being the largest) came formatted this way already and my Mac read it straight out of the box. Not yours - disquieting?

MacFuse and NTFS-3G - solutions to let Macs fully work with NTFS (popular PC format) drives. Tiger can already read NTFS drives but cannot write to them (unless you're into working on the guts of the operating system with command line interface).

MacDrive - solution to let PCs read Mac formatted drives.

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