How to format USB flash drive for Mac and Vista use?

asim18 · 4 Dec 2008 at 00:32

What's the best file system format to use for a USB flash drive so it's compatible with both Vista and Leopard?

Currently it's in FAT32, works fine with vista, but it dosent show up in Disk Utility on the mac.

Thanks.

EirePlane · 4 Dec 2008 at 00:46

FAT32 should be fine.
Mac wont write to NTFS drives so that's out the window

asim18 · 4 Dec 2008 at 00:52

EirePlane said:
FAT32 should be fine.
Mac wont write to NTFS drives so that's out the window

Really?

But when i plug my USB flash drive in nothing happens, is there a special way you need to manually find and install the drive in leopard? all the windows OS's seem to find it immediately as a mass storage device and it's instantly usable.

Maybe I should have put this in the Apple Section

Oh and the same thing happens with my DSLR, when i connect it in Mass Storage mode, it isn't recognised. But when i use PTP mode, it works fine.

Does mac not support mass storage? :eek:

MikeHunt79 · 4 Dec 2008 at 01:13

My stick is Fat32 and works fine in OSX and XP

bledd · 4 Dec 2008 at 09:19

when you plug it in, it should show up on the mac desktop as a new drive

i dont know much about macs, but i can 100% do this with a fat32 drive on my mate's mac

EirePlane · 4 Dec 2008 at 13:32

as bledd said, it should show up as an icon on your mac desktop.
usually, cameras only open in iPhoto AFAIK