laurentio
23rd December 2008, 09:10 PM
Question:
I have a new USB flash disk (8gb) and I would like to use it mainly for data transfer from my Mac OS (Leopard) to my new VISTA based laptop. The problem is that the drive is not recognized by VISTA or any other Windows based computers. What am I doing wrong here?
Answer:
The following answer applies to:
USB flash drives, external USB or Firewire HDD (and even an iPod mini)
Find a Windows OS machine and format it to FAT32 and or NTFS as it will work as well.
If you format it on a Mac you have to pay for a program on Windows OS to be able to read it. Mac can read Windows formats for free.
As for the problem with changing files from a Mac, make sure the permissions are set properly on the file you are looking at (group and other should have read and write access)
The memory stick will also work on Mac and PC if formatted as FAT32. Almost all memory sticks are pre-formatted as FAT32, so they work out of the box with both systems.
In Mac: Plug in the USB drive. The disk should mount on its own. Open Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility). The flash drive should be listed on the left side of the window. Click on it. Click the Erase tab. Make sure FAT is selected as the format and click the Erase button.
I have a new USB flash disk (8gb) and I would like to use it mainly for data transfer from my Mac OS (Leopard) to my new VISTA based laptop. The problem is that the drive is not recognized by VISTA or any other Windows based computers. What am I doing wrong here?
Answer:
The following answer applies to:
USB flash drives, external USB or Firewire HDD (and even an iPod mini)
Find a Windows OS machine and format it to FAT32 and or NTFS as it will work as well.
If you format it on a Mac you have to pay for a program on Windows OS to be able to read it. Mac can read Windows formats for free.
As for the problem with changing files from a Mac, make sure the permissions are set properly on the file you are looking at (group and other should have read and write access)
The memory stick will also work on Mac and PC if formatted as FAT32. Almost all memory sticks are pre-formatted as FAT32, so they work out of the box with both systems.
In Mac: Plug in the USB drive. The disk should mount on its own. Open Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility). The flash drive should be listed on the left side of the window. Click on it. Click the Erase tab. Make sure FAT is selected as the format and click the Erase button.