How to Use a USB Disc with a Mac & PC

Properly formatted, a USB disc drive can be used on both Mac and PCs.

A USB disc drive functions in the same manner as an external hard drive.You can use a USB disc drive with both Mac and PCs, provided the formatting is compatible with them both. The format that is necessary can be done on either a Mac or PC using a pre-installed software program on the computer. Both Mac and PC operating systems will recognize the properly formatted USB disc drive upon insertion into a USB port on the computer.

Instructions

Formatting The USB Disc Drive On A Mac

1. Plug the USB disc drive into a USB port on a Mac. Launch the Disk Utility program by double-clicking its icon inside of the "Utilities" folder that is inside of the "Applications" folder.

2. Select the icon of the USB disc drive from the list of choices presented in a column on the left side of the program.

3. Click the "Erase" tab at the top of the program's window. Select "MSDOS" (Fat) from the "Format" drop down menu on the program's window. Press the "Erase" button at the bottom of the program's window.

4. Press the "Erase" button on the pop-up window. Wait as a progress bar fills in from left to right at the bottom of the program's window. Quit the Disk Utility program when the progress bar is completely filled in.

5. Drag the icon of the USB disc drive to the Trash. Pull the USB disc drive out of the USB port of the Mac.

Formatting The USB Disc Drive On A PC

1. Plug the USB disc drive into a USB port on a PC. Go to "start," "MyComputer," "Devices." Right-click on the icon of the USB disc drive beneath "Devices" in the window that appears.

2. Select "Properties" from the pop-up menu. Select "Format" from the pop-up window that replaces the one that you just clicked on.

3. Select "MSDOS" from the drop down menu next to "Format." Select "Quick" from the "Type" drop down menu.

4. Click the "OK" button at the bottom of the pop-up window. Wait as a progress bar fills in from left to right. Click the red "X" in the upper right corner of the pop-up window to close it when the progress bar has completely filled in.

5. Right-click on the icon of the USB disc drive that is now on the desktop. Select "Eject" from the pop-up menu. Remove the USB disc drive from the USB port of the PC.

Tips & Warnings

• The larger the capacity of the USB disc drive, the better.

References

• ku.lu, edu.data: In Mac OS X, What Is Disk Utility And How Do I Use It

Resources

• apple: macosx: Apple-Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The World's Most Advanced OS
• microsoft: windows: windows-7: Windows 7: HOme Premium, Professional, And Ultimate Edition