my usb flash drive wont work on mac?

Question

okay i got this usb flash drive i connected it to my mac i had to go to disk utilities to find it but got it i hit verify now when i try to put it in my mac it does not work it wont show up at all it works on a pc though but it wont open

Answer 1

The type of folders that Windows and Mac use are different. Windows generally uses a NTFS type of format and Mac uses another type. You can't really use a usb on both without getting into some heavy duty file openers that will read the NTFS file type on a Mac OS. If you want to use the usb on just Apple divices you can re-format for Mac but it will erace all the things you have stored on it now.

Answer 2

YOU ARE WASTING YOUR TIME WITH "VERIFY". Click "REPAIR DISK". Don't you want it fixed? A file system can be slightly faulty and still mount in Windows, because Windows is not as detailed at using drives as UNIX and OS X. Windows will mount a drive unless the file system is way out of whack. The small errors can come back to bite you, though. After the file system gets worse, and is finally unusable, PC geeks easily accept "Right-click and choose format", because they typically haven't tried repairing the file system, and may not even know how to repair.



In your case (cheap flash stick), I agree with that idea. You shouldn't be using a $20 flash disk for archival storage. Flash disks are only for moving files from one computer to another. Just format it. Use a real HDD for archival storage.



You can repair in Windows like this: Right-click the drive volume in a "Computer" window, and choose Properties, and then Tools tab, and under "Error checking", click "Check Now". Put a check for "Automatically fix file system errors", and click "Start".



See all the links below for options about using an ext. HDD in various formats. For a small flash drive (less than 64 GB), format it exFAT for use with Windows 7 SP1 and later, and for use with OS 10.6.4 and later. To use it with old systems, format the flash drive FAT-32 (called "MS-DOS File System" in Disk Utility). exFAT allows any size file to be saved. FAT-32 is limited to 4 GB and smaller files.



More Format Facts....

Mac OS Extended format can be seen and files copied from it using HFSExplorer in Windows. It can be used fully (read-write) using TransMac or MacDrive in Windows.



NTFS format can mount and files copied from it in OS X. Think about it: If OS X could not mount and read from an NTFS partition, how could it show the Boot Camp partition as a choice in System Preferences > Startup disk? It can be read-write in OS 10.6.8 or earlier using NTFS-3G. It can be read-write in OS 10.7 or later using "Paragon NTFS For Mac".



DO NOT USE ANY VERSION of FAT format for a large drive volume. Use FAT formats for small flash drives only. There is a good reason why a Windows installer chops a drive into 32 GB partitions for FAT format. Nowadays, Microsoft does not recommend FAT.

Answer 3

use mini tool partition wizard