Issues When Transferring Files from PC to MAC using USB Flash Drive

Even though USB sticks seem empty when you get them, they actually come equipped with a filesystem, like an operating system. If you are having trouble copying files from a PC to a Mac, or the Mac isn’t reading your USB drive, the most likely reason is that the filesystem is not compatible and needs to be reformatted to a compatible format.The most popular file system formats are FAT32 (File Allocation Table) and NTFS (New Technology File System). We don’t need to get into many details or differences here except to say that NTFS is a newer technology that Windows uses but doesn’t play nicely when trying to transfer files from a Mac.FAT32, on the other hand, is compatible with both PC and Mac. Most USB drives already come formatted this way.To see how your USB drive is formatted, right-click the drive and select Properties (PC) or Get Info (Mac).If it’s not FAT32 you can reformat the drive. WARNING! Formatting a drive will erase anything currently on that drive. Copy any files from the USB to your computer before formatting.For PC, right-click the drive and select Format. Choose FAT32 from the options and click Start.For Mac, open your Finder and go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility. Choose your USB thumb drive from the left-hand menu. Select Erase and choose MS-DOS (FAT) from the menu. Click Erase.