Reformat USB Flash Drive?
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From: AES on 23 Sep 2005 18:43 Is there a way to re-format or "erase and re-initialize" a keychain-type flash drive gadget. I recently copied an Adobe Acrobat-prepared PDF document from my iBook G4 running OS 10.3.9 onto a Sonnet Piccolo 32 MB USB flash drive, and learned that a colleague was not able to mount the flash drive on his Windows PC machine. [Sorry, don't have specific details on the PC or its OS.] I think I first acquired this flash drive some time ago, back in my PowerBook G3 OS 9.2 days (maybe even earlier). Is there a reformatting or something similar I should apply to it, to make data written to it by an OS X machine readable on current Windows PCs?
From: Roger Johnstone on 23 Sep 2005 21:54 In <siegman-8324BF.15434523092005(a)news.stanford.edu> AES wrote: > Is there a way to re-format or "erase and re-initialize" a keychain- > type flash drive gadget. > > I recently copied an Adobe Acrobat-prepared PDF document from my iBook > G4 running OS 10.3.9 onto a Sonnet Piccolo 32 MB USB flash drive, and > learned that a colleague was not able to mount the flash drive on his > Windows PC machine. [Sorry, don't have specific details on the PC or > its OS.] > > I think I first acquired this flash drive some time ago, back in my > PowerBook G3 OS 9.2 days (maybe even earlier). Is there a > reformatting or something similar I should apply to it, to make data > written to it by an OS X machine readable on current Windows PCs? Run Disk Utility. It's in the folder /Applications/Utilities. Plug in your drive and it should appear in the window pane on the left of the main window. There should be an icon for the disk itself, plus under it icons for each of the volumes stored on it. Unless you've partitioned the disk though there'll only be one volume. Select the disk icon (not the volume icon under it), then the Erase tab in the right pane. Select Volume Format: MS-DOS File System and then click the Erase button. This will of course delete everything on the drive. -- Roger Johnstone, Invercargill, New Zealand http://roger.geek.nz/ ________________________________________________________________________ No Silicon Heaven? Preposterous! Where would all the calculators go? Kryten, from the Red Dwarf episode "The Last Day"
From: Helpful Harry on 24 Sep 2005 01:57 In article <20050924135414412+1200(a)News.Individual.NET>, Roger Johnstone <rojaws(a)orcon.net.nz> wrote: > In <siegman-8324BF.15434523092005(a)news.stanford.edu> AES wrote: > > Is there a way to re-format or "erase and re-initialize" a keychain- > > type flash drive gadget. > > > > I recently copied an Adobe Acrobat-prepared PDF document from my iBook > > G4 running OS 10.3.9 onto a Sonnet Piccolo 32 MB USB flash drive, and > > learned that a colleague was not able to mount the flash drive on his > > Windows PC machine. [Sorry, don't have specific details on the PC or > > its OS.] > > > > I think I first acquired this flash drive some time ago, back in my > > PowerBook G3 OS 9.2 days (maybe even earlier). Is there a > > reformatting or something similar I should apply to it, to make data > > written to it by an OS X machine readable on current Windows PCs? > > Run Disk Utility. It's in the folder /Applications/Utilities. > Plug in your drive and it should appear in the window pane on the left > of the main window. > There should be an icon for the disk itself, plus under it icons for > each of the volumes stored on it. Unless you've partitioned the disk > though there'll only be one volume. > Select the disk icon (not the volume icon under it), then the Erase tab > in the right pane. Select Volume Format: MS-DOS File System and then > click the Erase button. This will of course delete everything on the > drive. I haven't tried it under Mac OS X, but under Mac OS 9 it's simply a matter of clicking on the drive's icon in the Finder and formatting it there. There is one bug though: if you've got FileSharing turned on you can't reformat the drive (whether it's a keyring / thumb drive or a CD-RW disc), so you have to turn that off first, reformat the disk, and then turn it back on - in that case it could be easier, or essential, to use Disk Utility instead. :o\ Helpful Harry Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)
From: Gnarlodious on 24 Sep 2005 07:24 Entity Roger Johnstone spoke thus: >> make data >> written to it by an OS X machine readable on current Windows PCs? > > Run Disk Utility. It's in the folder /Applications/Utilities. > Select Volume Format: MS-DOS File System and then > click the Erase button. You might find it easier to format the disk on a Windows machine, that way it will work on Windows AND Mac. (Mac is friendlier than Windows). With a Windows formatted disk you are stuck with uppercase disk names though. (Windows is not as friendly as Mac). -- Gnarlie
From: Adrian on 24 Sep 2005 09:08
Gnarlodious <gnarlodious(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > You might find it easier to format the disk on a Windows machine, that way > it will work on Windows AND Mac. (Mac is friendlier than Windows). > With a Windows formatted disk you are stuck with uppercase disk names > though. (Windows is not as friendly as Mac). Why would it be easier to format on a Windows machine? Disk Utility on the Mac will format it for Windows, as described in the previous post. -- Adrian |