I am a recent PC to iMac switcher and have been loving it. I still have to run Windows for tasks related to my job and have Vista set up in Bootcamp and also have a couple of additonal XP and Vista machines in the house that belong to other users. I am an IT professional and usually don't succumb to "dumb user" mistakes. But this one has me totally baffled and was wondering if other iMac users have experienced what I just went through 
I have a 1GB USB flash drive that I use to transport files between work and home. And although I have an internal network, I sometimes use it to move files between machines in the house. This flash drive was partitioned in to two separate logica drives, both FAT32. So when I plugged it into my iMac, I would get two drive icons on the desktop representing each logical drive. And when I plugged it into a PC, I would get two new drive letters allocated in Windows Explorer. I'm always diligent about properly ejecting or unmounting it before I remove it from a machine.
So this past Saturday morning, I was working on the iMac and created a document that I needed to send to my networked printer using the two-sided print option. I had not tried to duplex print on the iMac before and couldn't seem to find that particular option in the print job properties. Since I was in a hurry, I decided to put the file on to my USB drive and carry it to the Vista machine that the printer is connected to. I plugged in my USB flash drive to the iMac, saved the file on one of the logical drives, then ejected the drive normally. No indication of any trouble at that point.
When I got to the Vista machine, I plugged in my USB drive but only one logical drive came up in Windows Explorer and it wasn't the drive that I had just saved my file to. I ejected the drive and went back to the iMac, plugged it in, and this time instead of two drive icons on the desktop, I came up with only one...again, not the drive that I had just saved my file to.
I was in a hurry and didn't think much of it at the moment. I just resaved my file on the only visible USB drive partition, ejected, went back to my Vista machine, pulled up the document and printed and left the house.
Fast forward a couple of days later. I am at my office and ready to resume work on an important project that I had been working on the previous week. I had about a week's worth of software code that I had on my USB drive that had not been backed up to the server yet (I know - "dumb user" mistake). But anyway, I plug in my USB drive to my office PC, and same behavior - only one logical drive and it's not the drive that had these files on it.
Now the real panic set in I set about investigating and discovered that the partition for the missing logical drive was completely gone. Analyzing the disk space showed an active 250MB partition that was being brought up as a logical drive, and the remaining 750MB space on the USB drive as unallocated.
Looking back, it's pretty clear that this partition was eaten and destroyed somewhere in the process of that first eject from the iMac and insertion to the PC.
So iMac community - is this an "issue" with the iMac? I had inserted and removed this USB drive on the iMac numerous times before this occurence. Is there a weakness or vulnerability on the iMac concerning flash devices with multiple partitions that can cause this sort of sudden and catastrophic data destruction
I have a 1GB USB flash drive that I use to transport files between work and home. And although I have an internal network, I sometimes use it to move files between machines in the house. This flash drive was partitioned in to two separate logica drives, both FAT32. So when I plugged it into my iMac, I would get two drive icons on the desktop representing each logical drive. And when I plugged it into a PC, I would get two new drive letters allocated in Windows Explorer. I'm always diligent about properly ejecting or unmounting it before I remove it from a machine.
So this past Saturday morning, I was working on the iMac and created a document that I needed to send to my networked printer using the two-sided print option. I had not tried to duplex print on the iMac before and couldn't seem to find that particular option in the print job properties. Since I was in a hurry, I decided to put the file on to my USB drive and carry it to the Vista machine that the printer is connected to. I plugged in my USB flash drive to the iMac, saved the file on one of the logical drives, then ejected the drive normally. No indication of any trouble at that point.
When I got to the Vista machine, I plugged in my USB drive but only one logical drive came up in Windows Explorer and it wasn't the drive that I had just saved my file to. I ejected the drive and went back to the iMac, plugged it in, and this time instead of two drive icons on the desktop, I came up with only one...again, not the drive that I had just saved my file to.
I was in a hurry and didn't think much of it at the moment. I just resaved my file on the only visible USB drive partition, ejected, went back to my Vista machine, pulled up the document and printed and left the house.
Fast forward a couple of days later. I am at my office and ready to resume work on an important project that I had been working on the previous week. I had about a week's worth of software code that I had on my USB drive that had not been backed up to the server yet (I know - "dumb user" mistake). But anyway, I plug in my USB drive to my office PC, and same behavior - only one logical drive and it's not the drive that had these files on it.
Now the real panic set in
I set about investigating and discovered that the partition for the missing logical drive was completely gone. Analyzing the disk space showed an active 250MB partition that was being brought up as a logical drive, and the remaining 750MB space on the USB drive as unallocated.Looking back, it's pretty clear that this partition was eaten and destroyed somewhere in the process of that first eject from the iMac and insertion to the PC.
So iMac community - is this an "issue" with the iMac? I had inserted and removed this USB drive on the iMac numerous times before this occurence. Is there a weakness or vulnerability on the iMac concerning flash devices with multiple partitions that can cause this sort of sudden and catastrophic data destruction