Master Boot Record or Mac OS Extended (Journaled)?

[gogreen1]

I’m formatting a 16Gb thumb drive to use with both Mac and Windows. I know the format needs to be exFAT, but what about the scheme—Master Boot Record or Mac OS Extended (Journaled)? I’ve done this in Windows, which doesn’t offer scheme choices. I've seen Mac instructions for both schemes. So which scheme should I choose to format the thumb drive for use in Windows and Mac? Thanks.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

You may have some terms mixed up, as the partition map options would either be MBR or GUID. exFAT and MacOS Extended (Journaled) would be possible formats. I believe modern Windows can read/write to either partition map, but it cannot write to either format. For best compatibility, I recommend MBR and exFAT or FAT32. FAT32 has file size limitations, but works on even the oldest versions of Windows.

 

[Fishrrman]

If the drive is going to be cross-platform, format it on a Windows computer.
I believe you want exFAT with MBR.

HFS+ cannot be read on a Windows computer (at least now without some special software)

 

[gogreen1]

Thanks, Darmok N Jalad and Fisherrman. I just examined the thumb drive on my new Mac, and it MBR.

 

[ZapNZs]

I vaguely recall that if you want to format ExFAT with the GUID Partition Table, you have to do this specifically on a Windows computer (via the DISKPART in CMD) because formatting in ExFAT with GUID on a Mac results in a Windows system being unable to read it. (If you format ExFAT with Master Boot Record [MBR], you can do this on either system and the other can read it without problem.)

This makes absolutely no sense because GPT is the GUID Partition Table.

 

[gogreen1]

Thanks, ZapNZs. Just ran an experiment. I reformatted a 16GB flash drive on my Mac, exFAT and MBR, and it works just fine on both my Windows 10 PC and a Macbook Air. I copied a bunch of files to the drive from my PC with a variety of file extensions, and they all work fine on the Mac. So. to answer my own question, I guess exFAT and MBR will do it.