Windows doesn't see FAT USB drive formatted in OS X El Capitan

I also have had same problem but I solved with the above answer.

I repeat the proper way to solve it again.

1. Insert the USB drive and open up Disk Utility.
2. Click on the actual drive name, not the partition/s.
3. Click Erase.
   1. Select whatever you want the name to be in the name field.
   2. Select MS-DOS (FAT) or ExFAT depending on the Win file system you want.
   3. Select Master Boot Record for the scheme.
4. Click Erase.
5. There will be an error message (like failed !!), sometimes. (it happens often but don't worry because it unmounted child partition)
6. Try again from step 2 to 4
7. Click Erase
   1. Any name or leave untitled
   2. Make sure that you select MS-DOS(FAT) or ExFat.
   3. Make sure that you select "Master Boot Record" !!!!! NO GUID and Apple partition Map !!!
8. Once done, unmount and try it on your windows machine.
9. It will work !!!! Should work.

Hello,

This still happens for me at macOS Sierra Version 10.12.6. Aug 2017

Any USB and Hardrives formatted in exFAT does not work at Windows 10, Win10 doesn't see these drives at all.

But if I formatted them at Win10 to exFAT, all is good at Mac side.

Hi! I think you have used the wrong scheme when formatting the drive.

1. Insert the USB drive and open up Disk Utility.
2. Click on the actual drive name, not the partition/s.
3. Click Erase.
   1. Select whatever you want the name to be in the name field.
   2. Select MS-DOS (FAT) or ExFAT depending on the Win file system you want.
   3. Select Master Boot Record for the scheme.
4. Click Erase.
5. Once done, unmount and try it on your windows machine. Should work.

USB Flash drives typically come formatted for use with Windows, not a Mac and thus, if you want it to work with Windows, just leave it alone. Moreover, using a Mac to create an exFAT format is known to sometimes be problematic. It's best to use a Windows computer for such formatting.

This was the solution, thank you. I had the same issue.

I've had the EXACT same problem all week!!

running osx el capitan, must have tried formatting an external USB stick 5x and each time i brought the usb into work where we use windows, it kept saying that i needed to format the drive as soon as it was entered.

will try the solution above and see if that works!

I have the exact same issue, and tried this solution - sadly, it didn't work. Our work PCs use Windows XP, and after seeing this solution, I had hoped it would fix the problem.

Would love to hear any other suggestions. I had no problem with this under Yosemite, so I'm curious to know what El Capitan has changed.

I think that, maybe, emphasizing the "master boot record" would have been in order. The reformatter comes up with some other default format for FAT (and others) and you need to change it to "master boot record". Why they didn't default to Master Boot Record, which is the normal format that any user would want is beyond me.

The other difficulty that I have encountered is, if you ever remove the drive from an Apple computer without ejecting first, you're toast. I guess there may be some way to recover, though I've yet to find it.

Try this from the poster above! It worked for me! MASTER BOOT RECORD option is key!

1. Insert the USB drive and open up Disk Utility.
2. Click on the actual drive name, not the partition/s.
3. Click Erase.
   1. Select whatever you want the name to be in the name field.
   2. Select MS-DOS (FAT) or ExFAT depending on the Win file system you want.
   3. Select Master Boot Record for the scheme.
4. Click Erase.
5. Once done, unmount and try it on your windows machine. Should work.

FWIW Windows XP does not support EXFat out of the box, it requires an update from MS which is still live at the time of this post.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=19364

EXFat was introduced as the successor for FAT32 when Windows Vista was released.

I had the same problem. The instruction in the link below solved my problem

https://www.reddit.com/r/osx/comments/3q26am/el_capitan_formatted_usb_drives_don t_work_on/

I hope that solves the issue.

Cheers,

Bikendrajit Akoijam

Hey timmo26,

I just wanted to say thank you for this. It really helped me out - much appreciated🙂

very helpful

PERFECT SOLUTION, SIMPLE ANND EASY. MANY THANKS

IT WORKED PERFECTLY FOR ME. THANKS A LOT FOR YOUR HELP 🙂😊