Problem reformatting flash drive

Joined
Dec 27, 2009
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I recently made the switch to mac. I currently have a new macbook running snow leopard. Today I tried to clear up some space on my 4gb flash drive by reformatting it on my mac.

I erased it and set the formatting to MS-Dos (FAT). However, after it erased the drive I went to put it into my PC and it reads it as having 0kb of space and is listed under a "RAW" format. I try to reformat it in windows but it only reformats it to 200mb.

Does anyone know what's happening and if so can someone please help me out?
 
Joined
Dec 24, 2009
Messages
54
Reaction score
1
Points
8
when you put it back into mac does it show all 4gb? i'm assuming from your post you want to format it to work with both Operating systems correct? Also you said you formatted to FAT format. did you mean FAT32 ?
 
OP
S
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
1
It shows all 4 gb when I put it on my mac. As for the format, there's only one option for formatting it which isn't Mac OSX and that's the MS-Dos format, it only says MS-Dos (FAT) but I'm guessing that would be FAT 32. Is there any other way to format it for PC?
 

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
when you put it back into mac does it show all 4gb? i'm assuming from your post you want to format it to work with both Operating systems correct? Also you said you formatted to FAT format. did you mean FAT32 ?

If he used Disk Utility it gives the option of FAT which is FAT32. Not sure why they left off 32, but that is what it is.

What OS is on your PC? XP? Vista? 98?
 
Joined
Dec 24, 2009
Messages
54
Reaction score
1
Points
8
in windows right click on the drive itself... then go to properties>tools tab> check for errors.

(this might be different with different version of windows) but still what you want to do is check the disk for errors.
 
Joined
Oct 10, 2004
Messages
10,345
Reaction score
597
Points
113
Location
Margaritaville
Your Mac's Specs
3.4 Ghz i7 MacBook Pro (2015), iPad Pro (2014), iPhone Xs Max. Apple TV 4K
I've noticed that with some Flash Drives as of late that you can't format them as anything BUT FAT-32..
 
OP
S
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
1
If he used Disk Utility it gives the option of FAT which is FAT32. Not sure why they left off 32, but that is what it is.

What OS is on your PC? XP? Vista? 98?

I have XP on my PC and windows 7 on my parallels virtual machine.
 

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
I recently made the switch to mac. I currently have a new macbook running snow leopard. Today I tried to clear up some space on my 4gb flash drive by reformatting it on my mac.

I erased it and set the formatting to MS-Dos (FAT). However, after it erased the drive I went to put it into my PC and it reads it as having 0kb of space and is listed under a "RAW" format. I try to reformat it in windows but it only reformats it to 200mb.

Does anyone know what's happening and if so can someone please help me out?

Yep. What happened is that when you re-formatted the flash drive using your Mac, it left a 200 MB protective partition on the drive ahead of the main partition. That's the way Disk Utility works.

Windows - (all versions) will not recognize any more than one partition on removable media. Windows does not "see" the large partition of your flash drive, it can only "see" the first 200 MB and that's what it re-formats.

There is a work around where you can make Windows "think" your flash drive is a hard drive rather than removable media. Do some Googling to find it. That will enable you to re-format the entire flash drive to 4 GB.

For future reference: Do not use Disk Utility to reformat a flash drive. There are other utilities such as GParted (free) which work well. Or just reformat it with Windows.

Regards.
 
OP
S
Joined
Dec 27, 2009
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Yep. What happened is that when you re-formatted the flash drive using your Mac, it left a 200 MB protective partition on the drive ahead of the main partition. That's the way Disk Utility works.

Windows - (all versions) will not recognize any more than one partition on removable media. Windows does not "see" the large partition of your flash drive, it can only "see" the first 200 MB and that's what it re-formats.

There is a work around where you can make Windows "think" your flash drive is a hard drive rather than removable media. Do some Googling to find it. That will enable you to re-format the entire flash drive to 4 GB.

For future reference: Do not use Disk Utility to reformat a flash drive. There are other utilities such as GParted (free) which work well. Or just reformat it with Windows.

Regards.

Thanks! I'll try that and see how it goes.
 

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
Thanks for posting, however, this information has already been noted in other threads. The key to formatting any removable drive to FAT-32 using Disk Utility is to be aware that DU defaults to using the GUID scheme. You must change it to Master Boot Record or the problem noted in this thread will occur.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top