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I use both Macs and PCs. I have a pen drive that is in exFAT format and it is 64GB.I am planning on making a bootable live Ubuntu pen drive.Will I be able to boot into Ubuntu in both of the Windows PC and Mac with the same pen drive?(Please note that I can currently use the pen drive in both OSes as it is in exFAT format, that is if it has anything to do with it)

A Nerd Has No Name
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  • Please clarify: Do you want to convert your existing exFAT USB drive into something that also serves as an Ubuntu live disk, or do you intend to create a separate Ubuntu disk? The latter is the easier task, but even it's difficult. See here and here for two discussions. AFAIK, it's not very well-documented, I'm afraid. – Rod Smith Jun 23 '17 at 13:21

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You should be able to. But there are two important factors.

a. You have to make sure that your Windows computer is running Windows 8 or higher. If you are using Windows 7, you can't have a bootable USB that also boots on Mac. (Mac and versions of Windows higher that 8 use UEFI, whilst Windows 7 and lower use BIOS)

b. Also you have to make sure that both computers can boot from a USB.

  • Actually, Windows 7 can boot in EFI mode (but doing so on a Mac is very hard, and likely to fail on most models), and Windows 8 and later can boot in BIOS mode. Mixing and matching BIOS/CSM/legacy-mode and EFI/UEFI-mode booting is possible, but it's a complex minefield, especially when dealing with a bootable USB drive that's to be used on both PCs and Macs. – Rod Smith Jun 23 '17 at 13:17