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Why USB Flash Drive Work On Mac But Not On Windows? Help!

I downloaded Fedora Linux and made a bootable disk using a flash drive. After I finished trying it out and deleted the files, the disk won't work on Windows but my Mac. When everything is plugged in and the light on the flash drive will flash on and off. I deleted the partition that was "created by another OS" but it still won't show up in Windows Explorer. Everything is greyed out. The system seems to recognize the disk, but it just won't appear in the UI. I tried refreshing disk management and restarting the computer, but the error message keeps coming up. I've tried reformatting it in my Mac but it makes no difference on the PC. Why are my flash drives acting weird whenever I try to use them with Windows? Any help would be appreciated!

Best Answered by

iBoysoft author Wilsey Young

Wilsey Young

Answered on Wednesday, November 26, 2025

Hi there! Your USB flash drive was probably formatted as a file system only compatible with Mac. To fix the problem you described, you need to reformat your USB flash drive in Disk Utility. Here are the steps:

  1. Insert the USB flash drive into your Mac.
  2. Open the Finder > Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
  3. Select the USB flash drive in the left sidebar.
  4. Select the Partition tab and set Volume Scheme to 1 Partition.
  5. Click Option > Master Boot Record  > OK.
  6. Input a volume name and set Format to MS-DOS (FAT).
  7. Click Erase.


Back up your data before reformating your USB flash drive to prevent possible data loss. After that, you can insert it into a Windows PC to check if the problem is fixed.

What if you forget to do the backup? You can use iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to recover your data.

 Download

iBoysoft Data Recovery

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iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac uses advanced and secure algorithms to help you find lost flies from your formatted USB flash drive. The simple steps are as follows:

  1. Insert the USB flash drive into your Mac.
  2. Download and open iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac
  3. Select the USB flash drive and click Search for Lost Data.
  4. Preview the search results and select the data you want.
  5. Choose a location to store your data and click Recover.

 Note: The recovered data should be saved to a different location.

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