Mac formatted FAT32 not readable on PC?

[Paul Leeming]

I was on a set today and someone was telling me that the red files had to be backed up to fat32 or you could have corruption when copying from fat32 to mac HFS. I have always copied p2 and others to the mac formatted drives never with any issues. Is there any truth to this theory?

Sounds dodgy to me. The underlying file system shouldn't affect data integrity in any way when copying from one to the other - in fact it's essentially transparent to the system which can read and write both anyway.

As for formating FAT32, I've formatted our drives to FAT32 on a PC using the FAT32Format software mentioned earlier and have experienced zero issues using them on either Macs or PCs. Perhaps the Mac FAT32 formatter isn't quite up to cross-platform specs if users formating on a Mac later have issues mounting on a PC. Don't know.

HTH

Paul

 

[Alex Carr]

I was on a set today and someone was telling me that the red files had to be backed up to fat32 or you could have corruption when copying from fat32 to mac HFS. I have always copied p2 and others to the mac formatted drives never with any issues. Is there any truth to this theory?

Absolutely not... Data corruption happens everywhere not just on Macs...

There is not an option to Format Fat 32 as a different Partition map, other than MBR.. SO thats not something you need to worry about,

 

[Kevin Halverson]

I've run into this before. A drive formatted FAT on Tiger would mount fine on a PC but if it was formatted FAT on Leopard it wouldn't mount on the PC.

Are you using Leopard?

Dave

Had a similar problem last night while testing out some new software to create zone plates. The problem occurred with a 16GB USB flash drive formated by a Mac as FAT32. When the flash drive was inserted into the PC, it declared that it was unformatted. The PC had Mac Opener installed and I haven't had any problems with reading other Mac originated data on this machine in the past. I suspect that the Leopard vs. Tiger theory might be valid as this was a new MacBook Air. Didn't get time to test the idea and since we were just moving small files just emailed them from the Mac to the PC.

I think that it's time to grab a pair of flash drives and format one with Leopard and the other with Tiger and see what happens.

Kevin Halverson

 

[Vigen Vartanov]

God day.
Why you not yousing NTFS . With help of Paragon NTFS for MAC you will read and white to NTFS hard drive on Mac.
Sow you can buy 1 licence it is 39.95 , and then install it on Mac.
With NTFS you can youse any size of partition .
P.S HardDrive must be format under Windwos , and must be Basic disk , not dinamic.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

 

[Cail Young]

God day.
Why you not yousing NTFS . With help of Paragon NTFS for MAC you will read and white to NTFS hard drive on Mac.
Sow you can buy 1 licence it is 39.95 , and then install it on Mac.
With NTFS you can youse any size of partition .
P.S HardDrive must be format under Windwos , and must be Basic disk , not dinamic.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

Or MacFUSE and NTFS-3G, which are free. (And let you format under OS X)

EDIT: Evidently Paragon lets you format. So, we're talking price only here.

 

[Vigen Vartanov]

Yes but i didn't test MacFUSE and NTFS-3G , Sow i can not tell some
body to use it Next time i will down Free Software. Problem is like when you google it ,
first 10 positions are not free software , and when you have no time better to buy.

 

[Cail Young]

Yes but i didn't test MacFUSE and NTFS-3G , Sow i can not tell some
body to use it Next time i will down Free Software. Problem is like when you google it ,
first 10 positions are not free software , and when you have no time better to buy.

I have tested them. It's slower, but it works just fine. And if you've got multiple machines you need it on, $39.95 a seat adds up.

EDIT: This Google search LINK gives me five free links, with Paragon at number 6.

Although searching for 'ntfs mac' puts paragon at #1, but NTFS-3G and FUSE are right up there anyway.

 

[Richard Bradbury]

I've finally managed to test this and figured out the answer. Using Disk Utility on my MBP I was choosing 'Erase' and allowing that to create a FAT32 partition for me. This can't then be seen by Windows. Instead if you choose 'Partition' and go through what seems to be the same process there, all is well. Evidently something different is happening, and this process is recommended on the LaCie website here: http://www.lacie.com/support/faq/faq.htm?faqid=10353

Incidentally if you initialise the drive on a pc, then any subsequent 'Erase' or 'Partition' formats you do in Disk Utility will be seen by the pc.

Hope this helps someone other than me!

 

[Cail Young]

I've finally managed to test this and figured out the answer. Using Disk Utility on my MBP I was choosing 'Erase' and allowing that to create a FAT32 partition for me. This can't then be seen by Windows. Instead if you choose 'Partition' and go through what seems to be the same process there, all is well. Evidently something different is happening

Yes; this is the Master Boot Record issue I mentioned earlier.

 

[Richard Bradbury]

It seems like it is, yes. But just for the record I'm finding the opposite of what you suggested earlier is working for me :

FAT32 should be fine; however you need to make sure you're using the Erase tab in Disk Utility not the Partition tab - FAT32 drives need a Master Boot Record, not the other one that HFS sets up, and I'm not sure if using Partition to change it over does it properly. I do know Erase works.

I'm using first the Erase tab to delete the original HFS scheme and set up a FAT32 one, then using the Partition tab to overwrite the FAT32 partition that Erase set up with a new one. Looks to be identical, but seems like it isn't.

 

[Cail Young]

It seems like it is, yes. But just for the record I'm finding the opposite of what you suggested earlier is working for me :



I'm using first the Erase tab to delete the original HFS scheme and set up a FAT32 one, then using the Partition tab to overwrite the FAT32 partition that Erase set up with a new one. Looks to be identical, but seems like it isn't.

Crazy. I must have been mis-remembering what I had to do; it's been a while. Good that you've got a solution now though!

 

[Charles Angus]

In Disk Utility, when you select the drive, it will tell you the Partition Map Scheme at the bottom.

For a FAT32 Windows/Mac drive I believe it should be Master Boot Record.

I am able to format FAT32 using MBR or GUID partition maps in my Disk Utility under the partition tab.

Erase will (again, I believe) default to the existing partition map which explains why formatting on PC and re-formatting on Mac works.