Formatting a 4GB Verbatim Drive?

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Level 1

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Formatting a 4GB Verbatim Drive?

hey everyone. just had a quick question. I have a verbatim U3 4gb external drive, just a little pocket one to carry on me when i go from class to class. i searched and found a way to format it in disk utility. but i was unsure it was right, because the directions said to click the "partition tab" and i did not see that. so i just clicked the erase tab, and security options and selected "zero out data" and clicked erase, also i selected the mac format os x extended(journaled). i guess i did this right. anyways this thumb drive will be going from mac to pc at my school lab computers, so will it still work? well first, did i do it right? i dont really know anything about formatting that much. also everytime i put my thumb drive in, a "U3 System" cd icon pops up underneath it. here is a screen shot of what keeps coming up ( http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j54/braiinxstew/misc/screen.png ) any help?

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Apr 24, 2007 7:58 AM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

Apr 24, 2007 8:46 AM in response to j.white

In order to use a flash drive on both a Mac and PC the drive must be formatted MSDOS. PCs cannot read a Mac OS Extended formatted device.

Here's the process:

Extended Hard Drive Preparation

1. Open Disk Utility.

2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.

3. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu to one (1) which should be the default. Click on the Options button and select the MBR (Master Boot Record) option then click on OK. Set the format type to MSDOS. Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume mounts on the Desktop.

The device is now formatted for MSDOS and should be usable on both Macs and PCs.

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Answer 2

j.white Author

Level 1

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Apr 24, 2007 4:34 PM in response to Kappy

thank you alot.

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