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What format should I make my micro SD so I can use it on Mac and Windows 7

Hieveryone

Hieveryone

macrumors 603
Original poster
Apr 11, 2014
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USA
I have a micro SD from Samsung 64GB.

I can see the files on it when I'm running Mac but when I switch to Windows 7 in boot camp I can't see the files.

It is exFAT format.

This is on my MBPr 13" running 10.9.3.
 
exFat is compatible with both OS X and Windows.
Have you got the drivers installed for the card reader in Windows? i.e. does it see the card and just doesn't see the files?


Barney
 
Barney63 said:
exFat is compatible with both OS X and Windows.
Have you got the drivers installed for the card reader in Windows? i.e. does it see the card and just doesn't see the files?


Barney
Click to expand...

The card shows up but my files aren't showing.

I can see the files (pictures, documents, etc) on the micro SD in Mac but when I switch over to Windows in boot camp I can't see them. When I click on the drive the folder opens and is empty.
 
Hieveryone said:
The card shows up but my files aren't showing.

I can see the files (pictures, documents, etc) on the micro SD in Mac but when I switch over to Windows in boot camp I can't see them. When I click on the drive the folder opens and is empty.
Click to expand...

That's very strange. Did you format the card on your Mac? Despite the post above, I haven't had any trouble with using a formatted-on-Mac (edit: MBR) exFAT drive under Windows 7 (or even XP for that matter).
 
Last edited:
Windows 7 fully supports ExFat, along with an updated XP and Vista. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/intellectualproperty/iplicensing/programs/exfatfilesystem.aspx

However, I have had issues with ExFat showing on both if it was formatted from Disk utility on OS X, but if you format it with Windows, it's fine and will work on both. I'd save what you have, then boot to windows and format it there.
 
I always use NTFS format.
And I use the application, Paragon NTFS for Mac Os X.

You run the program once in Os X, set it to run, then forget about it. You can then read/write NTFS formatted drives like you would on windows.

You can Google it.
 
You could try formatting it to FAT32. Just make sure to back up your files first. One thing to note though is that FAT32 has a file size limit (I believe you cannot transfer a file bigger than 4GB).
 
Hi guys

I reformatted my micro SD (exFAT) on Windows and it is working. I am able to see my files on both OS's.

I suppose I had formatted it using OS X, which may have been the problem.

Thanks!
 
Hieveryone said:
Hi guys

I reformatted my micro SD (exFAT) on Windows and it is working. I am able to see my files on both OS's.

I suppose I had formatted it using OS X, which may have been the problem.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Be sure to safely remove your SD card on OS X. Else it can become unrecognizable for windows, then the solution is to put it in a Mac and safely remove it yet again. Unsafely removing in windows doesn't seem to give that many problems.
 
Last edited:
MatsSkoe said:
Unsafely removing in windows doesn't seem to give that many problems.
Click to expand...

Modern versions of Windows essentially go through the "safe unmount" automatically after every operation (this makes it a bit slower). Microsoft apparently got sick of people yanking drives without ejecting them :)
 
Nermal said:
Modern versions of Windows essentially go through the "safe unmount" automatically after every operation (this makes it a bit slower). Microsoft apparently got sick of people yanking drives without ejecting them :)
Click to expand...

Ahh that explains it! Thanks. Normally I 'eject' the external drives, however when my MBA is closed with the eHDD connected and I have to leave, I don't feel like opening it, ejecting the drives, disconnecting the eHDD and than packing my stuff. So sometimes it causes problems, for example once I really thought I corrupted my encrypted Time Machine partition. :eek:
 
Nermal said:
Modern versions of Windows essentially go through the "safe unmount" automatically after every operation (this makes it a bit slower). Microsoft apparently got sick of people yanking drives without ejecting them :)
Click to expand...

It's a nice feature of windows that I wished OSX had :/
 
BrettApple said:
However, I have had issues with ExFat showing on both if it was formatted from Disk utility on OS X, but if you format it with Windows, it's fine and will work on both. I'd save what you have, then boot to windows and format it there.
Click to expand...

I've had the same issues myself. If I copied large amounts of data to an exFAT drive formatted by OS X, corruption would occur. No such problem if the same drive were formatted by Windows.
 
friedkimchi said:
I always use NTFS format.
And I use the application, Paragon NTFS for Mac Os X.
Click to expand...

I probably did something horribly wrong but I've had some bad experiences with Paragon:( Worked great at first, I mainly used it to transfer files onto my Windows 7 partition. But after sometime it kept corrupting that partition:( I'd restore the partition from a back up but if I tried to transfer files to it Windows would refuse to boot
 
Yakibomb said:
I probably did something horribly wrong but I've had some bad experiences with Paragon:( Worked great at first, I mainly used it to transfer files onto my Windows 7 partition. But after sometime it kept corrupting that partition:( I'd restore the partition from a back up but if I tried to transfer files to it Windows would refuse to boot
Click to expand...

This is why I generally steer clear of 3rd party apps.

I stick with only the trusted ones like Chrome.
 
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