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Can't save to my thumb drive...

L

leeser

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 21, 2008
8
0
Semi new to macs...
I dragged a file (Pages) to my thumb drive, tried to open it on another mac and was told the alias didn't work. Asked around found out I hadn't really copied the file and moved it, I'd just created a directional. I then tried highlighting the entire document, apple 'C' ing it, opening my thumb drive, moving the cursor in there and hitting 'apple V'. No dice. I feel like this is a rudimentary issue but I'm having problems!
 
204467

204467

macrumors 6502a
Jul 13, 2008
821
0
Philadelphia, PA
Is your thumbdrive formatted in NTFS? If so, your Mac can only read from it, not write to it. Just reformat it in Disk Utility to solve your problem.
 
L

leeser

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 21, 2008
8
0
It says the format is FAT32. That should be compatible, right?
 
L

leeser

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 21, 2008
8
0
I'm pretty sure I'm doing something wrong...just don't know what it is. I'm fairly facile with PCs but would not call myself computer literate by any means; I get by, that's about it. I thought I was doing okay with Macs but this simple task has thrown me for a loop!
 
E

emt1

macrumors 65816
Jan 30, 2008
1,387
20
Wisconsin
leeser said:
Semi new to macs...
I dragged a file (Pages) to my thumb drive, tried to open it on another mac and was told the alias didn't work. Asked around found out I hadn't really copied the file and moved it, I'd just created a directional. I then tried highlighting the entire document, apple 'C' ing it, opening my thumb drive, moving the cursor in there and hitting 'apple V'. No dice. I feel like this is a rudimentary issue but I'm having problems!
Click to expand...

You can't just copy and paste text into a flash drive. Are you sure the file that you dragged to the flash drive wasn't itself an alias? Try dragging it again. Also try holding down the option key while dragging (a green plus sign should appear by the cursor).
 
L

leeser

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 21, 2008
8
0
emt1 said:
You can't just copy and paste text into a flash drive. Are you sure the file that you dragged to the flash drive wasn't itself an alias? Try dragging it again. Also try holding down the option key while dragging (a green plus sign should appear by the cursor).
Click to expand...


Okay, I'm going to get stupid and simple on you. I opened the file in pages. I selected all (apple A) to highlight the text. I went to 'edit' it, selected 'copy'. Then I tried dragging it (no avail). I also tried holding down the option key while dragging, also to no avail. Additionally, I tried just getting the list of pages documents and dragging the one I wanted to the drive both while holding option and not. I'm missing something.


ETA; how would I know if it was an alias? I hadn't heard of them before I tried opening my doc from the drive on another computer. I feel like an idiot but I'm not, I promise! :)
 
E

emt1

macrumors 65816
Jan 30, 2008
1,387
20
Wisconsin
leeser said:
Okay, I'm going to get stupid and simple on you. I opened the file in pages. I selected all (apple A) to highlight the text. I went to 'edit' it, selected 'copy'. Then I tried dragging it (no avail). I also tried holding down the option key while dragging, also to no avail. Additionally, I tried just getting the list of pages documents and dragging the one I wanted to the drive both while holding option and not. I'm missing something.


ETA; how would I know if it was an alias? I hadn't heard of them before I tried opening my doc from the drive on another computer. I feel like an idiot but I'm not, I promise! :)
Click to expand...

No no.. you can't drag the text, you have to go to where the file is located in the finder and drag the file. BETTER IDEA: open the file. go to file -> save as and save the file to the flash drive that way.
 
L

leeser

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 21, 2008
8
0
I think that worked! How do I know if it's an alias vs the real thing?
 
L

leeser

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 21, 2008
8
0
neonblue2 said:
...the arrow isn't obvious enough?
Click to expand...

Hey. No need to be snide. I've already said a number of times I'm not very computer literate and definitely not with macs. If you don't have anything to contribute be quiet.
 
L

leeser

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 21, 2008
8
0
emt1, thanks for your help. What arrow was neon referring to? Didn't see one but also wasn't looking for one either.
 
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