unable to manage files on usb

Plug the Flash Drive into your iMac and open Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility. There, select the flash drive in the left hand column by highlighting it and click "Erase" in the upper right hand tabs, then confirm Erase.

In order to use it with your Mac you can either reformat it or unstall third party software so that your Mac can write to NTFS.

I suggest you reformat to HFS+ or MS-DOS

Allan

Disk Utility on the Mac can do it.

If you are going to use it on both a Mac and a PC then MS-DOS is best.

Be aware that the reformat will destroy all data on it.

Allan

How is it formatted?

If it is formatted NTFS that could be the reason. OS X can read NTFS but not write to it. In oder to delete it is necessary to write to the directory to remove the entry for the file.

Allan

there is NTFS-aware utilitites for Mac OS X, the simplest and entirely effective is NTFSMounter

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/32571/ntfs-mounter

, it has a cat as logo. There are some others, also free, one or two are commercial.

A useful recommendation and potentially useful to the OP.

However since he /she has a MacBook Air I don't know why we have come this far in the PowerBook discussions. NTFS mounter won't work with any version of OSX that will run on a PowerBook.

A plea to new posters - please just spend 30 seconds to think about where you are placing your question - it's not a lot to ask.

Indeed - but not to be encouraged. We are all happy to help but surely those seeking assistance can at least choose the right discussions area? Not only will they then get answers appropriate to their hardware but it avoids confusing other users who are in the right area but find advice that is not appropriate to their device. It's asking a lot that everyone reads down to the bottom line of the post where the hardware information MAY be revealed.

I assumed that Air is an intel mac, otherwise placing questions in the wrong area is quite common.