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Can't copy lots to FAT32?

Piplodocus

Piplodocus

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 2, 2008
563
575
Hello!

Just got a new TV I can plug my HDD into to play movies/music. It doesn't read HFS+ drives. I therefore tried to copy all my stuff on my movies/music drive to another FAT32 drive and I get an "unexpected error". I reformatted it HFS+ and works fine, but not FAT32. I assume this is an OSX problem. :mad:

If I select things individually and copy one at at time it works. Is there some fix/workaround? What's the max amount (number of files or size of files) I can copy in one go? Doing them individually will be a PITA.
 
I FWIW I have trouble with Finder and SMB shares on my NAS. I don't get an error just the occasional missing or zero byte file. So for large copy operations I tend to either use cp/mv from Terminal or use Path Finder.

B
 
In times of HD movies, FAT32 isn't an option any more.
Try NTFS instead and get a driver for OS X to write to it.

Ridiculous btw. that your TV can't read HFS+. Time for the manufacturer to look at the freaking calendar.
 
No, none of the files are >4GB.

Was trying to avoid NTFS as I'd like it to be readable by other macs without having to install NTFS drivers.

I'd like to keep my Bootcamp partition unwritable by Mac OS too for a bit of security separation FWIW.

Thanks again balamw: as we speak I'm cloning my drive using dd from terminal as per my last post and your answer here! (Shame it doesn't tell me % complete though: I have no idea how long's left for a 500GB USB attached drive!) I don't do unix commands/terminal usually; I grew up with DOS! :)
 
FAT32 (File Allocation Table)
  • Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
  • Maximum file size: 4GB.
  • Maximum volume size: 2TB
NTFS (Windows NT File System)
  • Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
  • Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
  • To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X: Install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free)
  • Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx 33USD).
  • Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard, but is not advisable, due to instability.
  • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
  • Maximum file size: 16 TB
  • Maximum volume size: 256TB
HFS+ (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended)
  • Read/Write HFS+ from native Mac OS X
  • Required for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner backups of Mac internal hard drive.
  • To Read/Write HFS+ from Windows, Install MacDrive
  • To Read HFS+ (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer
  • Maximum file size: 8EiB
  • Maximum volume size: 8EiB
exFAT (FAT64)
  • Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later.
  • exFAT partitions created with OS X 10.6.5 are inaccessible from Windows 7
  • Not all Windows versions support exFAT. See disadvantages.
  • exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
  • AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT
  • Maximum file size: 16 EiB
  • Maximum volume size: 64 ZiB
 
Piplodocus said:
Doesn't seem to work. OSX terminal just says pgrep: command not found. :(

Looks like I'll just have to go home from work with my Macbook on my seat running off battery!

Back on topic... I think I'll try copying it in bits to FAT32 for now, but if I get more problems I might just get the NTFS write driver.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

You can use:

Code: 
ps -ef | grep dd
 
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