(vanity) Need help transferring contents of an SD card created on a Windows PC to a MacBook Air

Hi all, I'm trying to transfer some files I have on a micro-SD card to a friend's MacBook Air. I used my Windows-based PC to fill the card and when I insert it into the Mac the Mac doesn't recognize it (it doesn't show up on the desktop or by clicking "Find"). I talked to someone from BestBuy's GeekSquad on the phone last night and they said that Macs can't read cards unless they're formatted in something called "Fat 32". They said I could reformat the card while it's inserted in the Mac, or, if I recall correctly, on a PC, but that the process deletes the contents of the card. So would I be able to refill the card on my or any other Windows-based PC if it is formatted in "Fat 32"? If not, any other suggestions for transferring the contents of the Windows SD card to a MacBook? I have almost no knowledge of Apple or Macs, so please keep any possible solutions simple. Thanks.

Success! At least at the formatting of the card part of it. I dug up an old Cowon mp3 player I had that no longer works due to a cracked screen, slipped the micro card into its slot, then inserted the device’s cable into a USB slot on my PC. And unlike with the smartphone or tablet, it read the card as a *separate* drive from the device’s own internal storage. In other words, two external drive icons appeared, one for the device itself, and a second named “removable disk”. When I right-clicked on that icon the long menu of options was at last there, including the option to format. FAT32 was listed as the default system. I wish I had thought of checking which format it currently had been in. Because I don’t know how it could have switched to some other. But I suppose it’s somehow possible.

Next I need to refill it with the files I had saved on the PC, then try it again in my friend’s MacBook. Hopefully it’ll work this time. I’ll post the outcome here in a day or so.

PS- Other options included “Quick Format” and “Create an MS-DOS startup disk”. There were also other options listed under the same heading as the FAT32 Default option. I didn’t check to see what they were prior to selecting FAT32, since that was the one I knew I needed. I should be able to check again after the formatting is complete. It’s a long process. Based on the position of the status bar, it will likely take 30-45 mins total.

Formatting complete. Took about 45 mins total. I had approximately 14.8 GBs of data on the 16GB card, which is actually all that the card could hold. There were two other choices besides the default FAT32. They were NTFS and exFAT. Now I’ll refill it and, later on, try it again in my friend’s MacBook. Thanks a lot for all of your help.

Of course! I was about to suggest maybe trying to find another friend's whose computer you could use. Other notes:
- Quick format is fine. The full format takes a while, and does some extra stuff you don't really need to bother with for what you're trying to do.
- I would default to using exFat in the future. FAT32 limits individual file sizes to 4G (so if you're transferring videos or such it won't work), and limits total size to I think 16G. Whereas exFat doesn't have those limits and is more efficient.

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