format a usb stick to use on apple and windows

Question

format a usb stick to use on apple and windows

Good evening all,

Every Thursday evening I attend a photography group. Sometimes this involves entering photographs for different events. I am having trouble with my usb stick, Kingston DataTraveler 100 g3 64gb. I am okay down loading the images onto the usb from my mac, os sierra version 10.12.3 but the do not appear on the groups laptop, windows 10. I have tried formatting it a number of times and comprimised on a EXFAT choice with a partition. However this is quite frustrating as I can see both partitions on my mac but only one on a pc. The pc partition also shows up greenlines! There are none on the mac side.

All I want to do is to download images and occassionally AV's (audio visuals) from my mac onto the usb stick and for the laptop at the photography group to read/show them, does anyone know how to do this?

Thanks in advance

Regards

Wendy Martin

iMac, iOS 10.1

Posted on Feb 13, 2017 10:07 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

swandy

Level 4

2,581 points

Oct 20, 2017 2:32 PM in response to Jimbo Slice

I got home and had a chance to re-boot my iMac into Windows 10 and Windows 10 had no issues seeing, reading or writing to a USB drive that I had previously formatted on the Mac OS side using Disk Utility and selecting FAT (MSDOS). Windows Explorer saw it as FAT 32.

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Answer 2

Nov 22, 2017 1:49 AM in response to wendyfrompoulton le fylde

Windows will only see one partition, no matter what. Exfat is the best way to format so Mac and Windows can access them, but you'll still only see one partition in Windows.

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Answer 3

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

Oct 13, 2017 1:00 PM in response to AnthyH

A Mac can not write to a NTFS drive - Both the Mac and Windows machines can read and write FAT formatted dries - if you have having trouble with your PC contact the PC support folks as posted

What formats work on a PC and how you view photos on a PC is a PC support question not a Mac support question

LN

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Answer 4

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

Oct 18, 2017 9:35 PM in response to Jimbo Slice

Jimbo Slice wrote:

I too am having this issue. Mac can format drives to FAT32 but Windows 10 OS does not seem to be able to read FAT formatted disks. I have tried two different Windows 10 laptops and they both do not recognize the FAT USB disk and says that it needs to be formatted.

How can I format a disk on my Mac that can be read in a Windows 10 computer?

The general answer is FAT 32 - if that is not working on Windowes then you need to contact MS support - it is not a Photos for Mac issue sin any way

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Answer 5

Old Toad

Level 10

215,622 points

Oct 20, 2017 10:29 AM in response to Jimbo Slice

Try formatting the stick ExFat and see if the PC can access it.

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Answer 6

swandy

Level 4

2,581 points

Feb 13, 2017 12:25 PM in response to wendyfrompoulton le fylde

I do this all the time (also on Thursday). You have to use Disk Utility on your Mac to format the drive as (I believe the title is) MS-DOS FAT now under Sierra. No partitions necessary - just make sure there is nothing on the flash drive that you might need as it will be erased. Macs can read and write to that format as can Windows machines. If you format it with the standard Mac OS Extended a Windows machine will not even see the drive.

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Answer 7

Feb 13, 2017 12:28 PM in response to swandy

Hi Swandy

I have formatted it in ms-dos fat and the pictures appear on both mac and pc, for a moment though it had a hazard sign saying it couldn't be done so I closed it and started again. It works so thank you.

Regards

Wendy

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Answer 8

AnthyH

Level 1

28 points

Oct 13, 2017 11:39 AM in response to swandy

I am having issues when I need to transfer files that are larger than 4GB from my Macbook to a Windows PC. Then you are not able to use the FAT format. Is there a solution for this? I can't seem to be able to format in NTFS using Disk Utility.

Any info for a solution would be appreciated. Thanks!

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Answer 9

Oct 18, 2017 6:54 PM in response to LarryHN

I too am having this issue. Mac can format drives to FAT32 but Windows 10 OS does not seem to be able to read FAT formatted disks. I have tried two different Windows 10 laptops and they both do not recognize the FAT USB disk and says that it needs to be formatted.

How can I format a disk on my Mac that can be read in a Windows 10 computer?

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Answer 10

swandy

Level 4

2,581 points

Oct 20, 2017 6:54 AM in response to Jimbo Slice

That is stange because I never had an issue. Perhaps because I am running Windows 10 on an iMac under Bootcamp? Also I was using iCloud Drive recently to transfer files back and forth. I have an extra USB drive that was formatted by Drive Manager as FAT (MSDOS) and I will try it again when I get back home.

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Answer 11

Oct 16, 2017 7:47 PM in response to swandy

This does sound simple. But doesn't work.

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Answer 12

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

Oct 16, 2017 10:24 PM in response to OrganicMattson

Actually it is very simple - but it is impossible to help with "doesn't work" - if your want help you have to provide details

LN

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Answer 13

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

Feb 13, 2017 10:43 AM in response to wendyfrompoulton le fylde

What formats work on a PC and how you view photos on a PC is a PC support question not a Mac support question

The way you reformat a volume on a Mac is using Disk Utility

In general any FAT format should work on both a PC and a Mac as I understand it (not from personal experience for from others) - and again in general if you select photos in Photos and export them (file menu ==> export) to a desktop folder then drat that folder to a FAT formatted USB stick you should be able to use those photos on either a Mac or a PC if you know how to use the PC

LN

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