Member Avatar for donaugust

I have a seven-year old (is it eight now?) iMac which uses OS 8.5. Is there a pen drive out there that will work on this computer?

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Replies so far disagree about whether a USB stick will “just work.” The real limits on an iMac running classic Mac OS are not the physical USB port alone but two things: whether the system has the appropriate USB/mass‑storage support installed, and whether the stick is formatted with a filesystem the OS can mount. The checklist below shows how to verify those two points and gives practical fallbacks.

Quick checklist to try now:

  • Confirm model and exact OS build (Apple menu → About This Computer) so you know what drivers the machine should have.
  • Look in the Extensions (and Control Panels) folders for any USB‑named items or mass‑storage helpers. If the OS lacks a stored USB mass‑storage driver, many modern sticks won’t mount.
  • Use a small, class‑compliant USB stick that’s been formatted on another machine as MS‑DOS (FAT) or as a Mac format (HFS/HFS+). Reformatting erases data, so back up first. If the iMac mounts one of those, other sticks will likely work once formatted the same way.
  • If a stick isn’t recognized, transfer files another way: Ethernet file sharing, burn a CD, or use another Mac/PC to reformat the drive into a format the iMac can read.

Cautions and gotchas: reformatting is destructive; FAT variants impose single‑file size limits; newer filesystems (NTFS, exFAT) and some vendor‑specific sticks may require drivers the classic OS doesn’t have. If a stick is not “class compliant” it may never be usable without vendor drivers.

— if the exact iMac model and OS build are known, compatibility can be determined more precisely. The steps above will show whether the machine is capable with a small, properly formatted stick, or whether file transfer via networking or an intermediary machine is the safer option.

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Member Avatar for John A

No, I highly doubt it. Time to get a new Mac... :)

Member Avatar for Ralph the Dog

You may have to upgrade to 8.6. Other than that, you should be able to use any USB pen drive. Depending on your iMac, you may be limited to USB 1 speed.

FWIW - I use a pen drive on my 10 year old 9500 all the time. All I had to do was add a USB PCI card. All iMacs have USB ports, so that won't be a problem for you.

Member Avatar for >shadow<

My mac os 9 wont even accept a pen drive
"Joeprogrammer" is right. its probably time to crack out the cash for a new mac if its desperate

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