USB Drive Help

[ethaDAboss11]

Hello everyone!

 

I wanted to transfer files from a Mac to a PC no problem, so I inserted my USB drive into the Mac. It was originally formatted to OS X (Journaled). I erased the thumb drive (it didn't have anything on it in the first place) and formatted it as MS-DOS (FAT) in the Mac Disk Utility. It said that it was done, so I copied the files from the Mac to the USB drive. Once it was done, I inserted the thumb drive into my PC and it said that it needed to be formatted. I went into the disk management and it says that the format of the thumb drive is "RAW". Does anyone know what this means?

 

*NOTE: On the Mac, I also tried formatting the thumb drive in exFAT to see if that would help. Windows still sees it formatted as "RAW" (whatever that means).

 

Thanks!

 

Ethan

[ALwin]

I can't say with any certainty what is wrong, but I can suggest a potential solution that might work.

1. Plug in the USB drive into your Windows machine
2. Format it to NTFS
3. Plug it into your OSX machine
4. Format it to ExFat
5. And now see if it will also read in Windows

Additionally which version of Windows do you have?

[ethaDAboss11]

I can't say with any certainty what is wrong, but I can suggest a potential solution that might work.

1. Plug in the USB drive into your Windows machine
2. Format it to NTFS
3. Plug it into your OSX machine
4. Format it to ExFat
5. And now see if it will also read in Windows

Additionally which version of Windows do you have?

I am running Win 10 64-bit

[ALwin]

I am running Win 10 64-bit

 

OK just wanted to make sure, because versions before Windows 7 needed an update to install the ExFat drivers.  I also use both OSX and Windows and have USB keys formatted in Fat and ExFat without the issue you are facing.

 

It could be that the USB key is no longer 100% reliable due to wear and tear or damage.  It's hard to say without doing a proper diagnosis.

[ethaDAboss11]

I can't say with any certainty what is wrong, but I can suggest a potential solution that might work.

1. Plug in the USB drive into your Windows machine
2. Format it to NTFS
3. Plug it into your OSX machine
4. Format it to ExFat
5. And now see if it will also read in Windows

Additionally which version of Windows do you have?

Thanks for your help, but it didn't work. When I put it into Windows, it just formatted 200 MB of it, not all 16 GB that I wanted. And, I created a single partition on the Mac to see if that would help, but on Windows it just says "A:\ is not accessible - The parameter is incorrect." I've never seen this error before.

[ALwin]

Thanks for your help, but it didn't work. When I put it into Windows, it just formatted 200 MB of it, not all 16 GB that I wanted. And, I created a single partition on the Mac to see if that would help, but on Windows it just says "A:\ is not accessible - The parameter is incorrect." I've never seen this error before.

 

Did you format by right clicking on the drive in My Computer or using the Disk Manager in Computer Management?

 

Also check these links, perhaps one of them can help fix the problem.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-hardware/usb-sandisk-8-gb-device-showing-as-200mb-how-do-i/f631df0d-9068-4f2d-820e-a6cbe9b464c3?db=5&auth=1

 

http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/All-SanDisk-USB-Flash-Drives/16-gb-shows-up-as-200-mb/td-p/187836

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279727-a-200mb-efi-system-partition-stuck-on-your-usb-drive-and-cant-get-it-off-read-this/

[ethaDAboss11]

Did you format by right clicking on the drive in My Computer or using the Disk Manager in Computer Management?

I just went into "This PC", clicked on the drive, and it said that it needed to be formatted.

[ALwin]

I just went into "This PC", clicked on the drive, and it said that it needed to be formatted.

 

This PC is what was once referred to as My Computer in previous versions of Windows.  Try formatting using Disk Manager, perhaps even erasing the partitions it may have.

[ethaDAboss11]

This PC is what was once referred to as My Computer in previous versions of Windows.  Try formatting using Disk Manager, perhaps even erasing the partitions it may have.

Ok so I figured it out - it was just a bad drive. I got a new one and it worked perfectly. Thanks for the help though!