How do I format a USB flash drive to work with both mac and windows?

Question

How do I format a USB flash drive to work with both mac and windows?

I am trying to format my USB flash drive so I can read and write on my mac and on windows. Can someone help please?

Posted on Oct 22, 2012 1:21 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

keg55

Level 6

11,743 points

Oct 22, 2012 1:26 PM in response to charliefarley182

I think if you use MS DOS (FAT) as the format type from Disk Utilities, you can use it for BOTH OSs. I'm not sure as I'm not on a Mac right now to check.

Reply

Answer 2

mende1

Level 10

93,538 points

Oct 22, 2012 1:23 PM in response to charliefarley182

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities

Erase the USB disk using exFAT. exFAT is compatible with Mac OS X 10.6.5 or newer, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. To erase the disk, open Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities folder), select the USB drive in the sidebar, go to Erase tab and select exFAT on Format

Reply

Answer 3

Kurt Lang

Level 9

58,302 points

Oct 22, 2012 1:51 PM in response to charliefarley182

In addition to mende1's suggestion, exFAT is also compatible with Windows XP, though you do first need to install the free add on in Win XP.

Reply

Answer 4

Oct 22, 2012 2:22 PM in response to charliefarley182

Thanks do much guys- fingers crossed it works tomorrow!

Reply

Answer 5

Király

Level 6

10,017 points

Oct 22, 2012 2:39 PM in response to charliefarley182

You may also need to repartition the drive with the Master Boot Record partition scheme. I don't think that Apple's default GUID partiton scheme is Windows compatible, even if it contains Windows-compatible filesystems like FAT.

Reply