USB Flash Drive Compatibility between Mac and PC?

Hi,
I own an iMac 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 1 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM and just got a new job where I'm using a PC. At work they all use flash drives to transfer data back and forth to computers etc. Would a flash drive (let's say a Kensington since that's the brand I've seen the most at work) that works in a PC at work be compatible with my iMac at home. I know Kensington makes them compatible for Mac and PC but just wondering how the data would transfer onto my Mac. Is it readable, does it depend what I'm transferring over?
Message was edited by: spiralgirl

{quote} guy there said they haven't yet perfected the flash drives to switch between Mac and PC and work well so I was a little surprised at this. {quote}
That is pretty much a standard reply you get from someone that doesn't know anything about macs. I've used those things for years without any problems, but I have been using my ipod as a disk lately because I always have it with me. It's also another less thing I have to buy and carry around.

Similar Messages

  • USB flash drive use between PC and MAC

    I have a usb flash drive that has files on it previously created using a PC.  It contains excel, word and powerpoint files.  I have Office for Mac and put some of  the files on the mac edited them and then tried to save them or move them back onto the drive, but cannot. I get a variety of messages including the disk is full and it is not and that it is write protected, but USB flash drives cannot be write protected.  Are usb drives portable between mac and PCs?

    hey man.
    Save the files on the jump drive to a folder on the mac.  Keep it in a good spot cuz your going to need it.
    Open disk utilities on the mac.
    click on the correct usb drive in the screen, and then click erase.  U will have formatting options in a drop down tab, pick "FAT" or "FAT 32" which it is, name it and hit erase.
    This will reformat the drive to a windows usable file format, and the mac will work with it no problem.
    Once reformat is complete close disk util. and open the mounted USB drive, found on the desktop and drag the folder you had created to it and your good to go.
    windows should have no problem reading it at all now.
    hope this helps

  • USB flash drive security on mac and windows

    Hi
    I've got an USB flash drive and I would like to secure it so that data on it will not be accessible unless a password is provided.
    The point is that I need to use it on both my macbook with tiger OS and on another PC with windows XP.
    The USB flash drive is a sandisk cruzer titanium that comes with U3. Originally I was using an U3 protection that asks for a password when the flash drive is plugged in.
    U3 is not supported by MAC so I had to disable the password protection to use it on my brand new macbook.
    Appreciate any help
    Thanks, Ste
    macbook c2d   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

    You will be able to open it if you make it a .iso
    image. There is software available for both OSes to
    open and browse/modify a .iso image file. I do not
    know how well any of them use passwords for the
    images.
    Maybe it's winiso
    What I would recommend is using Winrar
    (http://www.rarlabs.com/) and just using a compresses
    and encrypted file that both OS's can manipulate.
    With winrar you create an archive and then each time you want to edit a file you have to extract it, modify it and then reinsert it in the archive.
    What I was looking for is something more user friendly.
    Images created with mac, protected with a password, are ok but are not compatible with windows.
    Viceversa, U3 is compatible with windows but not mac ...

  • Hi, I loaded Windows 7 Pro w/XP mode and iMac USB show working properly in device manager, but i cannot see a USB flash drive, or my Mac Superdrive.  Does anyone have a suggestion?  Thanks!

    Hi, I loaded Windows 7 Pro w/XP mode and iMac USB show working properly in device manager, but i cannot see a USB flash drive, or my Mac Superdrive.  Does anyone have a suggestion?  Thanks!

    MacDrive to provide better HFS support.
    And to acces and write.

  • USB FLASH DRIVE WORKS ON MAC BUT NOT ON WINDOWS... CAUSE I ERASED IT IN MAC

    I decided to take my work flash drive home to work on a file. At home I saw that some weird files were on the flash drive and wouldn't delete, so I decided to save my files on my Mac and erase the USB flash drive. I selected the flash drive (by the way it's a 2 GB flashdrive) and I used the SECURITY OPTION 35 PASS ERRASE. Format: MS-DOS (FAT).
    Everything was fine until I took my flash drive to work and plugged it on a Windows XP Computer and it appeared as Drive E I think and when I tried to open it it asked me to format it. I risked it and clicked OK and it said that I didn't have sufficient rights or something.
    SUMMERY:
    2 GB USB ERASED USING MAC DISSK UTILITY
    EVERYTHING FINE UNTIL I PLUG IN THE FLASH DRIVE IN A WINDOWS
    WINDOWS ASKS ME TO REFORMAT FILE
    I PLUG IT INTO A MAC COMPUTER AT WORK AND IT DOES WORK
    IF ANYBODY KNOWS HOW DO I FIX THIS THANKS?

    The drive is probably now formatted for a Mac only file system. To format for a PC:
    Insert the drive in the Mac and start Disk Utility (Utilities folder).
    Select the drive in the left column. Be sure to select the drive (all the way to the left) not a volume (indented below the drive name).
    Select the "Partition" tab.
    Set "Volume Scheme" to "1 Partition" (not "Current" even if it's already one partition).
    Click the "Options" button".
    Select "Master Boot Record".
    Click the "OK" button.
    Enter a volume name (all uppercase).
    Set "Format" to "MS-DOS (FAT)".
    Click the "Apply" button.

  • Clear default usb flash drive selection on mac os x?

    Hey ,
    I'm using a VMWARE program and running Windows 7 on my macbook .
    The first time i connected my usb flashdrive , the windows system was running and i got a pop up asking me if i want to open the new drive using windows 7 or mac os X , i choose the Windows and checked the "always use this choice".
    Now i can only use my flash drive on the Mac OS.
    Any why to clear the default selection and use the flash drive with my Windows 7 system ?
    Thanks !

    You will be able to open it if you make it a .iso
    image. There is software available for both OSes to
    open and browse/modify a .iso image file. I do not
    know how well any of them use passwords for the
    images.
    Maybe it's winiso
    What I would recommend is using Winrar
    (http://www.rarlabs.com/) and just using a compresses
    and encrypted file that both OS's can manipulate.
    With winrar you create an archive and then each time you want to edit a file you have to extract it, modify it and then reinsert it in the archive.
    What I was looking for is something more user friendly.
    Images created with mac, protected with a password, are ok but are not compatible with windows.
    Viceversa, U3 is compatible with windows but not mac ...

  • External Hard Drive Usage between Mac and PC

    I have a WD Passport SE 1 terabyte hard drive that I have backed up my PC (Windows XP) files on. I want to transfer files onto my Macbook Pro (OS X) but it comes up as read only. I've been reading a lot of different forums and stories about not being able to write and how to overcome that but am thoroughly confused.
    I use Mac and PC equally as much and it's important for me to be able to use the External HD between both platforms because both computers are not in the same location at all times for a home network type situation.
    I like the security of the NTFS but I don't want to do anything (or add any programs) that will make either the Mac or the PC unstable and unreliable.
    What do you recommend I use to be able to read/write from both platforms that will be stable?
    Why doesn't Apple/Microsoft get together and make a format compatible for both OS's?
    Is it better to use NTFS or HFS+? What are the advantages/disadvantages of both?
    I'm not very computer savvy on either machine so I need things dumb-ed down for me to understand. My mom is also in the same situation as I am so you would greatly be helping both of us out at the same time. Thanks in advance.

    You have 3 basic options to work with. Both Mac and Windows support FAT32 drives in full read/write capabilities. This solution is all many need. There are limitations to this, and the big one comes in the max size for a single file. Using FAT32, a single file has a max size of 4GB (it might be only 2GB, but I believe it is 4GB). As I said, for many this is fine, and they have a simple solution supported out of the box on both OSes.
    The second option is to format your external drive in HFS+ (Mac format). Your Mac will have full read/write access, and your PC will not have any access unless you ave the read-only driver from Boot Camp loaded, or if you buy a commercial driver like the ones from Paragon, or MacDrive. Many people will not consider this option unless they work primarily with Macs and only occasionally with a PC.
    The third option is to format the external drive as NTFS. Out of the box, Mac OS-X providers read-only support for NTFS drives, and there are several choices for free or commercial drivers to give you full read/write access to the NTFS drive. This option seems to be used the most by people who often work with multiple PC's and sometimes with a Mac or two. I have not seen any of these NTFS drivers that make a Mac unstable, but some of them are quite slow. In my house, we have about 10 PC's and one Mac. It is more cost effective to to put drivers on the Mac vs on the 10 PC's (at $40-80 per PC).
    At this point the recommendation depends upon your environment. If you are mostly around Macs and only a small number of PC's consider using a Mac format for the external drives and buying drivers for the few PC's that need to access the drive(s). If you are more like me where you interact with more PC's than Macs, consider using NTFS and getting a free or commercial NTFS driver for your Mac(s). Also keep in mind any computer that may need to access the external drive(s), so if you need a family member to access it, will they need drivers or not? One again, with my world being about 90% PC's and 10% (or less) Macs, having the majority of the computers that have full access to the drive out of the box is the "better" choice, especially considering the other computers (the Macs) can still read the information, just not write to the drives without a driver.

  • Drive use between MAcs and PCs

    Hello,
    I hope this is the right place for this query... I would like to extract a hard drive from a Sony laptop that is one year old (just out of warrantee and Sony won't fix it!) and hook it up to my MACBook or MAC Pro to delete data or reformat to destroy sensitive data before giving it to some student who think they can fix the thing... Can I access the data with my MAC and reformat it to whatever format (MAC or other does not matter as long as the data is gone)?
    Thanks for help with this... Floor
    P.S. I tried to access USB drives with my work Windows based laptop and failed (could not see it in the Explorer while I could eject it - failing to would bring up the message of possible data corruption.. Is that normal? Or are these drives interchangeable with the latest windows PCs (my work laptop uses Windows 2000, yes I know Barney Flintstone probably owned it one day).

    If the drive is formatted Windows NT, your Mac will be able to read the files on the drive, but you will not be able to change the files in any way, including dragging them to the trash. To delete the files, reformat the drive using Disk Utility. Be sure to click on the security options button and select "Zero Out Data." Otherwise, someone will still be able to recover your data from the drive.

  • Web page compatibility between Mac and Windows

    Hi, I was wondering if anyone has had any compatibility issues with opening a Java based webpage on a Mac. The web page works in Internet Explorer and Firefox on my VMware Fusion, but I cannot seem to get it to work on my mac directly. The page is a user interface for an Alcatel-Lucent networking device, so unfortunately I don't have many details. The user guide specifies for Windows to disable "next-generation Java Plug-in" in the Java control panel, but I wasn't sure how to do this on a mac. I tried using the IE Tab plug-in on Firefox on the Mac to see if that might help, but I just received a message that I was missing plug-ins, but Firefox wouldn't specify which plug-in?? If anyone has seen issues with some pages not working on the Mac, but working on Windows please let me know.
    Thanks,
    Eric

    IETab does not work on Firefox on the Mac because there is no IE natively on your Mac, and that extension was designed solely for use in Windows.
    The reference to the 'Next-Generation Java Plugin' is also a Windows only issue. If you wish to review your Java Preferences, do a Spotlight search for Java Preferences and you should see it in the Applications results.
    Lucent has long been associated with Windows only hardware since the advent of the 'WinModem'. Hopefully you aren't stuck with a Windows specific device.

  • USB Flash drive mount on Mac 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard)

    Hi, All my HP v250w cannot mount on my MacBook (OSX 10.6.8), i can see them on my USB (system info) but not in finder, so i can't read / write any data on them.
    they function normally on my friend's Macbook Pro with Lion OS (10.7)
    is there anyway i can make them function normally on my macbook?
    Thanks in advance

    Pharmineous, welcome to the forum.
    According to the Specifications for the drive it should be plug 'n play with Mac OS 10.3 and above.  Therefore, it should work without any problems with your Macbook.  The key word is "should".  Now, why doesn't it work for you.  It may be that there is a conflict with other programs.  Since it works with your friends Macbook Pro, it should work for you.
    Was there software that came with the drive?
    Signature:
    HP TouchPad - 1.2 GHz; 1 GB memory; 32 GB storage; WebOS/CyanogenMod 11(Kit Kat)
    HP 10 Plus; Android-Kit Kat; 1.0 GHz Allwinner A31 ARM Cortex A7 Quad Core Processor ; 2GB RAM Memory Long: 2 GB DDR3L SDRAM (1600MHz); 16GB disable eMMC 16GB v4.51
    HP Omen; i7-4710QH; 8 GB memory; 256 GB San Disk SSD; Win 8.1
    HP Photosmart 7520 AIO
    ++++++++++++++++++
    **Click the Thumbs Up+ to say 'Thanks' and the 'Accept as Solution' if I have solved your problem.**
    Intelligence is God given; Wisdom is the sum of our mistakes!
    I am not an HP employee.

  • Copying files from iMac to USB flash drives

    I am having problems copying files from my iMac computer to USB flash drives. Sometimes, I get the error message: "Sorry the operation could not be completed because an unexpected error occurred (Error Code -50)."
    How can I solve this problem?
    This error message does not happen everytime but rather occasionally. Most of the files I am trying to copy to my USB flash drives are MS Word documents. I have tried using various brands of flash drive, but I still get this error message.
    I use my USB flash drives for both Mac and Windows OS computers. For my 2GB Kingston Data Traveller flash drive, I checked its product datasheet on the Kingston website, and it says that it is compatible with both Macintosh and Windows OS, and that I can use it for cross-platform PC/Mac file transfers.
    I also checked the Properties tab for this flash drive, and the File System for the drive is listed as "FAT."

    Hello Stedman:
    I am pretty sure that these files were not open in MS Word when I tried to copy them.
    I only get this error message/code for a handful of MS Word documents; the rest of my MS Word documents were copied successfully to my USB flash drive.

  • If i use a usb flash drive which is both os and windows compatible can i transfer files from my mac to a windows pc using the same usb flash drive?

    if i use a usb flash drive which is mac os and windows compatible can i use it to copy files from the mac to a windows machine. i have to do some training abroad and wnat to take the files on a usb from the mac but they will only have a windows operating system available to me.

    Generally, it's not the flash drive that makes it compatible, but the formatting used on it.  In Disk Utility on a Mac, the format is called MS-DOS (FAT).  In Windows, I believe it is called FAT32.
    A USB flash drive formatted that way should be readable and writable on both Mac OS X and Windows.  But you may want to try a "trial run" before relying on it for the trip.

  • In start disc mode can I use a external USB flash drive on MAC Book Pro

    In start disc mode can I use a external USB flash drive on MAC Book Pro?

    To do what? Yes you can connect a USB flash drive to the system and if it has the Recovery HD files on it you can boot from it. If it has the OS X install files on it you can boot from it. If it is large enough to contain a Time Machine backup on it you can restore your system from it.
    So what do you want to do with the USB thumb drive?
    Roy02649 wrote:
    In start disc mode can I use a external USB flash drive on MAC Book Pro?

  • Disabling a U3 USB Flash Drive

    I bought a U3 USB flash drive (San Disk 2GB) and know everytime a separate drive pops up on my iBook and I have to eject 2 drives to get the thing off my mac. I tried reformatting, but still the U3 disk shows. How can my Flash disk be normal like my old San Disk 256MB drive I had before I bought this new one?
    John

    Hi Guys,
    The following is an update to my last post. I figured I'd try again to contact U3 & SanDisk again about the error of their ways and the undesirability of the U3 software & partition for Mac users. Firstly, it turns out that U3 is apparently a subsidiary of SanDisk. The Tech Support fellow who I spoke with claimed that they had released a Mac version of the "uninstaller", but it had to be pulled from their websites because of bugs and/or compatibility issues (it probably was deleting partitions & software from users hard drives instead of the flash drive). They now say that the Mac "uninstaller" should show up again "in coming months". I would suggest using great care in using any software that comes from them - they are SO incredibly clueless (at LEAST about Mac systems)! My original recommendation from my previous post still stands: Keep giving them heqq by way of their tech support line until they come through for us!
    Bob

  • USB Flash Drive Eject

    Hi,
    I recently bought a USB flash drive (Sandisk Cruzer Micro) and i've been having some trouble ejecting it. When i plug it in, it works fine and I can drag files to it. I wait until the progress bar is complete (and then usually a few seconds after the progress window closes). The i right click it on the desktop and click "eject." For some reason this freezes up my computer for about 30 seconds which is really annoying, and it seems to happen every time. Is there anything i can do about this? Response is appreciated

    Interesting idea. I tried doing that but all it did was make the Disk disappear from the finder. I did notice that there are some hidden files that are being created (not sure if it's by the PC or the Mac) which include "trash." Not sure if that means anything. other pausible causes: using the keyboard USB port, using PPC Word and Powerpoint (can't wait till they redo those)
    Thanks for the responses btw

Maybe you are looking for

  • Extreme base station worked, but no internet,... now locked out.

    Situation: Cable modem connected to Extreme base station. Powerbook G4 with 10.3.9 and iMac with 10.3.9 connected by airport to base station. This has been working for more then a year. This morning I had no internet connection on the G4 or the iMac.

  • Delivery in third party order

    Do we create delivery document and post PGI in third party order? If yes, why? If no, why? Thr is lot of confusion with this matter. Only n only the people worked practically on TPO are requested to answer. I have searched a  lot on this which cant c

  • The icloud keeps asking for apple id but cannot get it out of the loop

    the icloud keeps asking for apple id but cannot get it out of the loop.  It will not let me delete or get to settings

  • How can I permanently accept a certificate without trusting its certificate authority?

    Hello, When I try to connect to a secure website for which the certificate is signed by an untrusted certificate authority, Firefox warns me, as expected. The problem is that I would like to add a permanent exception for this certificate, but the cor

  • Using REST-based data in SolMan

    Hi, In the [Apache Project ESME|http://incubator.apache.org/esme], we have made JMX-based data available via a REST interface. This is partially related to restrictions that are present in many cloud-based environments.  We are looking to see how exi