Accessing an iPod from Windows
in [UK Mac]
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From: zoara on 21 Sep 2006 16:12 Is it possible to access an HFS+ iPod from Windows in a way that doesn't involve major hacks? I'd like to go around a friend's house and use it as an external drive, but it's unlikely any of my friends will be comfortable with any sort of under-the-hood driver installations. If not, what are the disadvantages of using my iPod formatted in FAT32? And, er, how do I go about doing that without access to a PC? Can I just format it in Disk Utility? Back in the day, I understood that this sort of thing could risk bricking; is that still (or was it ever) the case? -z- -- THONK BOKE
From: zoara on 21 Sep 2006 16:25 zoara <me3(a)privacy.net> wrote: > If not, what are the disadvantages of using my iPod formatted in FAT32? Aside from * . " / \ [ ] : ; | = , of course. -z- -- THONK BOKE
From: Woody on 21 Sep 2006 16:35 zoara <me3(a)privacy.net> wrote: > Is it possible to access an HFS+ iPod from Windows in a way that doesn't > involve major hacks? Depends if you count macdrive as a major hack? > I'd like to go around a friend's house and use it > as an external drive, but it's unlikely any of my friends will be > comfortable with any sort of under-the-hood driver installations. In that case no. > If not, what are the disadvantages of using my iPod formatted in FAT32? I have never really noticed any. Although my iPod is formatted as a fat32, and never really had it as anything else so I wouldn't know. > And, er, how do I go about doing that without access to a PC? Can I just > format it in Disk Utility? Yes. Although i suspect I did mine on a PC. > Back in the day, I understood that this sort > of thing could risk bricking; is that still (or was it ever) the case? Bricking as in mac owners throwing bricks at you? -- Woody www.alienrat.com
From: zoara on 21 Sep 2006 17:59 Woody <usenet(a)alienrat.co.uk> wrote: > zoara <me3(a)privacy.net> wrote: > > > Is it possible to access an HFS+ iPod from Windows in a way that doesn't > > involve major hacks? > > Depends if you count macdrive as a major hack? Well, I was thinking about this... Windows isn't like the Mac where you can just run stuff (eg off a thumbdrive), is it? Almost without exception you have to install something. So I think that rules out *all* software for the PC. [...] > > If not, what are the disadvantages of using my iPod formatted in FAT32? > > I have never really noticed any. Although my iPod is formatted as a > fat32, and never really had it as anything else so I wouldn't know. Okay, here's a couple of questions: 1. What happens if you have a song with a character that FAT32 throws its hands up in horror at? Can you name a track /]{-/](||) [1] and throw it on the iPod and see what happens? Er, both ways I mean; I don't expect that there will be any problems with the 'music' side of things (since the iPod renames the files anyway, and relies on the metadata to display track names) but I'd still appreciate a datum [2]. What about if you throw the file onto the data side? Um, hold on, I can test that myself with a thumbdrive, can't I? *furtle* Oh, that's odd. Even on HFS+ disks iTunes stores the filename with the scary-to-FAT32 characters replaced by underscores. If I copy over a file using Finder, it keeps the scary characters. Odd. Didn't think it should be able to do that. I will check how it looks on a Windows PC tomorrow. Still, enough sidetracking - a track with a funny name works fine on the iPod, right? 2. IS THERE ANY WAY TO MAKE THE IPOD NAME LOWERCASE? I can't see a way to use anything but uppercase in the name of FAT32 volumes. Minor nitpick, I know. In a similar vein, does the iPod show up as a generic FAT32 volume icon, or as an iPod? Does the icon change to the "no entry" icon while it's updating? Does it show up as the right iPod in the iTunes 7 whizzy iPod status screen thingy? 3. Do you need a Windows machine to apply firmware updates to a FAT32 iPod? 4. Am I right in thinking FAT32 can't handle files bigger than 4GB? If I were to format as FAT32 I might want a (big) disk image in HFS+ for all the stuff that doesn't sit well on FAT32. > > And, er, how do I go about doing that without access to a PC? Can I just > > format it in Disk Utility? > > Yes. Although i suspect I did mine on a PC. Hmmm. So the Mac firmware installer thingy will install the firmware onto a FAT32 iPod, without reformatting it as an HFS iPod? > > Back in the day, I understood that this sort > > of thing could risk bricking; is that still (or was it ever) the case? > > Bricking as in mac owners throwing bricks at you? Nah, bricking as in what happened to some PSPs where firmware downgraders went wrong. You end up with a very expensive brick; the firmware is screwed so there's no way you can get any kind of life out of it again. I'm concerned that the iPod firmware is in a hidden partition of the disk, and a format will wipe this. I doubt Apple could have gotten away with an error that big for this long without someone noticing, but I'd still appreciate someone who has definitely formatted an iPod into FAT32 on the Mac to reassure me. You know, just in case. Google doesn't exactly help, but maybe I'm using the wrong search terms. Thankyou for your help. -z- [1] No, that's not a made up track name. [2] Thread merge! I don't even know if that's how you use the term *hangs head in shame* -- THONK BOKE
From: Jaimie Vandenbergh on 21 Sep 2006 18:17
On Thu, 21 Sep 2006 22:59:12 +0100, me3(a)privacy.net (zoara) wrote: >Well, I was thinking about this... Windows isn't like the Mac where you >can just run stuff (eg off a thumbdrive), is it? Almost without >exception you have to install something. So I think that rules out *all* >software for the PC. I keep a c:\binwin32\ dir on my windows boxes (used to keep a c:\bin\ on dos boxes, y'see) that contains all the apps and tools that I don't have to reinstall, like an OS X Applications folder. I actually have twice as many there than in Program Files, but I'm probably a bit of an outlier. They're not all tiddly one-exe programs, either - my usenet client is one of them. Editors, image/video/sound players, CDR tools, compression programs, remote control apps, plus a bunch of command line tools (mostly GNU ports). >2. IS THERE ANY WAY TO MAKE THE IPOD NAME LOWERCASE? I can't see a way >to use anything but uppercase in the name of FAT32 volumes. That's correct - the FAT disk label is uppercase only. Windows Explorer fakes it into lowercase sometimes, but it's lying. Oh - try a longer-than-11-chars name, that might flip it to using the longfilenames trick. >4. Am I right in thinking FAT32 can't handle files bigger than 4GB? Yep. 4GB less 64k, or something like that. Cheers - J -- Happiness, n.: An agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another. - Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary |