Hi Gurus ..My Mac Book Pro has destroyed 3 USB memory sticks so far... physical damage that no formatting soft or hard on both MAC or PC worked. It happens as soon as I stick the drive in... I read that a static charge can do that... any solution to avoid this in the future?? Thanks

Hi Carmen; just plug it in to your system's USB port and format it for use with a mac os according to the provided instructions.

According to the manufacturer: Mac:

• Built-in USB
• Mac OS X 10.4 - 10.6
• 128MB RAM
• Drive must be reformatted for use with Mac (instructions included)

PC & MAC use different file systems.
It sounds like your hard disk is formatted as NTFS. NTFS will allow a MAC to read from the disk, but not write to it. You need to re-format it using FAT32 (if your MAC is older) or exFAT(if your MAC is fairly new)..
FAT32 will allow a maximum partition size of 2TB(when formatted from a MAC) and a maximum single file size of 4GB.
exFAT will allow pretty much any file size.
NB:Formatting a hard drive DELETES ALL FILES on the hard drive, so backup whatever is important before you re-format it.
1. Open Applications > Utilities
2. Choose you hard drive from the list on the left
3. Choose the "Erase" tab and choose your desired format (FAT32/exFAT)
4. Type in a new name..Click "Erase"

what sysetm, mac,PC, DRV, TV?
what OS, windows, MAC, or Linux, what?

im googling like crazy what is this thing, ah, a flash drive?
pen/thumb/stick drive? flash memory stick?

first off , if you removed the device with out ejecting it
using the windoz task abar USB Icon, then you will scramble that memory. (its just a matter of time. easy to do, as rolling dice)
so if STICK
is dead on all USB ports, and 2 systems
then its dead. or more likely scrambled.
there is recovery software to get some data.
but i never trust just 1 stick as backup. not now , not ever.
a thumb drive (oxymoron, its no drive) is just flash memory
it can go bad.
it can get static damaged.
water logged.
or filthy and not connect. they are expendable. totally.
if backed up , reformat it. that is the only cure.
if it will not format try a new system. and all uSB ports.
if it still will not format , its DEAD.
next time EJECT it. (this is a software command not a physical action to the device)
you can change windows to not buffer cache this STICK.
and will be more reliable. (when not EJECTING )
Im not going to explain cache flushing here.... but you can look that up.

It should work OK.
If you want to exchange data between a PC and a MAC then then hard disk will need to be formatted on a PC in FAT32 file system. if you only want to use this hard disk on a MAC then you can format the hard disk with your MAC in HPFS file system.

If you want to exchange data files between a PC and a MAC then your My Book 3.0 external hard drive needs to be formatted in FAT32. Use a PC to format the external USB hard drive in FAT32.
If you only want to use the external hard drive on the MAC then use the MAC to format the hard drive in HFS+

For a MAC to use an external Hard drive, the hard drive has to be formatted FAT32 file system. That is the only file system MAC sees.

The format's are NOT compatible, between Apple & Windows PC.

It's possible it was just subjected to a static shock and got scrambled. As long as the data previously on it was not important to you, you can re-initialize the unit (provided it has not been physically damaged).
In Applications/Utilities, launch Disk Utility. Plug in the USB stick. Choose the stick by name in the left side panel, and click the Partition tab. Choose 1 partition. In Options, choose GUID Partition Table. Click Apply. This should reinitialize your stick.

The Mac disk format cannot see or read by a PC, the PC can see the external drive as a device only.
The way around this problem is to format the external drive with the PC, now you can fransfer/copy files to the external drive and when you plug it into the Mac, the MAC can read PC file formats, this also applies to USB memory sticks.

It really depends on the age and make of the usb memory stick.
As you are on a new mac it is more than likely usb 2.

Most sticks are formatted for PC usage. Macs can read PC formatted stick but PC cannot read mac. That could slow the mounting time down.

The only thing I can suggest is, if you do not need the stick to transfer data to a PC try reformatting it with the apple disk utility. If that does not sort your problem out it is more than likely a faulty stick. They are quite cheap thees days so you could simply replace it.