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Why Windows Can't See USB Drive Formatted in OS X? Help!

I have two Mac computers. My Mac mini is used as a media server and the other is my commuter laptop, MacBook Pro. I installed Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro and I downloaded the Boot Camp drivers for the MacBook Pro on my Mac Mini, which I later was going to put on a thumb drive and take to the laptop to install the drivers. So I went into Disk Utility, now that I have El Capitan installed, and formatted my 8 GB USB Thumb drive with the FAT system. I then uploaded my Boot Camp drivers (for the MacBook Pro) onto the thumb drive then went over to my laptop and inserted the usb drive. Immediately, Windows 7 pops up saying, 'Format disk?'. It evidently couldn't recognize the file system. I've done everything I could to fix this, can anyone in the community help me out?

Best Answered by

Wilsey Young

Answered on Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Hi there! It is said that using the Mac to create an exFAT format is known to be problematic, so Windows can't see USB drive. Perhaps you have used the wrong scheme when formatting the drive via Disk Utility on your Mac. You can try and follow the steps below to solve the problem you mentioned.

  1. Insert the USB drive and open Disk Utility.
  2. Click on the actual drive name, not the partition's name. 
  3. Click Erase. Select whatever you want the name to be in the name field.
  4. Select MS-DOS (FAT) or ExFAT, depending on the Win file system you need.
  5. Select Master Boot Record for the scheme and click Erase.
  6. After the formatting completes, unmount and try it on your Windows machine.

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