

- #Get a windows pc to read a usb drive formatted for mac how to#
- #Get a windows pc to read a usb drive formatted for mac install#
- #Get a windows pc to read a usb drive formatted for mac windows 10#
- #Get a windows pc to read a usb drive formatted for mac trial#
If Windows says that it doesn’t recognize the drive (and you’ve already backed up any data on it), click “Format Disk,” and then skip the next step.
#Get a windows pc to read a usb drive formatted for mac how to#
RELATED: What's the Best Way to Back Up My Computer? How to Format a USB Drive as exFAT on Windowsįirst, plug the USB drive that you’d like to format as a universal Mac/Windows drive into your Windows machine. If the USB drive is formatted as a Windows drive, it’s probably best to back it up with a Windows Machine. If the USB drive is formatted with the Mac file system, you’ll need to use a Mac to transfer the data off of the drive.

Formatting a drive always erases all of the data on the drive.

If the USB drive that you want to use as a universal transfer drive contains any data that you want to keep, you’ll need to back up that data onto another disk or a cloud backup service first. RELATED: Why Does Windows Want to Format My Mac Drives? Before You Get Started: Back Up the USB Drive First This disk preparation setup process is called “ formatting.” Below, we’ll show you how to set up a USB drive as exFAT for both Windows and Mac. That file system is called exFAT, and it’s designed for flash media cross-platform compatibility. If you’re frequently using both Macs and PCs with the same drive, the ideal solution is to configure a USB drive with a file system that both operating systems can read. And likewise, if you format a USB drive as NTFS on Windows, Macs can read it but not write to it (although there are some ways around it).
#Get a windows pc to read a usb drive formatted for mac windows 10#
It didn't work perfectly for me - but the issues I ran into were solved fairly easy with Google searches.So here’s the problem: If you format a USB drive as APFS on a Mac, Windows 10 won’t read it without third-party tools (and will actually ask to format it). Macbook Pro, Retina, 13", Early 2015 (120GB SSD, 8GB RAM) As always, backup your data beforehand just in case!
#Get a windows pc to read a usb drive formatted for mac trial#
I didn't have access to one so I just installed a VMware trial version on my Mac and used it for the Windows part of the setup. You'll need a computer running Windows to do this entire process. The issue you are running into is that you need to setup an EFI boot in order to be able to boot and run Windows off a USB drive. I ran into this issue a while back when I wanted to run Windows off and EHD so it wouldn't take up any space on my Macbook's HD. So, I seem to be effecting something with that command, but I still can't boot from my Windows bootable USB drive. The log in screen, though, was much slower than usual, as if something else was happening in the background. Boot was slower, but then I was presented with the normal log-in screen. Sudo bless -mount "/Volumes/WDO_Media32/" -legacy -setBoot -nextonlyĪnd then did a restart.
#Get a windows pc to read a usb drive formatted for mac install#
Or maybe a better question, if there isn't a simple answer, would be what does Bootcamp do to allow booting from a Windows install DVD or to allow Windows, once installed, to boot?ĮDIT: I was able to sort of get results using the bless command in Terminal. So, what do I have to do to get my Mac to recognize and boot from another OS on a USB flash drive? I have had the same issue trying to use the Ultimate Boot CD on a USB, various Live USBs for Linux, etc. Specifically, I was running Windows 7 on my Mac to create the bootable disk, which has Windows Defender Offline on it. I know the drive works and is bootable, because it works with my friend's Windows PC. I'm trying to get my Mac to boot from a USB flash drive.
