Exfat formatting issue

[Legendts]

Recently purchased a Seagate 1 & 2TB expansion drive and tried to format them to exfat on my iMac but the TV does not see the drive but does if I format it to ms dos (fat). One drive will be specifically for photos and I want to show them on the TV. Any suggestions? I have current OS version.

 

[maflynn]

Maybe the TV isn't compatible with Exfat?

If you want to share the drive with a TV, then format it, to what the TV expects. What does the documentation say?

 

[Legendts]

Thanks for the reply Mike.

So far I have been able to confirm from the Samsung site that the following are compatible, Supported file systems are FAT, exFAT and NTFS providing no bigger than 2TB. I have read somewhere that if formatting using a Mac it can have conflicts and my PC OS is XP which doesn't have exFAT. Will format with another PC with exFAT on it and see if there is any difference and also confirm to me any Mac issue.

Cheers and thanks again.

Jeff.

 

[maflynn]

. I have read somewhere that if formatting using a Mac it can have conflicts and my PC OS is XP

I was going to also say this, try formatting it on a non-Mac computer and see if that improves the situation.

 

[Legendts]

Yep, that's the next step, when I can find one.....retail stores have plenty eh!

 

[joema2]

...my PC OS is XP which doesn't have exFAT....

You can easily add exFAT support to XP using this Microsoft download:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/955704

Most new high-capacity SD cards are automatically formatted in-camera as exFAT. I usually format my cards in camera, but sometimes you can format them exFAT on a Mac or PC.

I don't recollect a case where formatting an exFAT device on Mac was not readable on a Windows PC or vice versa. By contrast I have seen *many* cases where using FAT or FAT32 caused problems due to the restrictions of those file systems. This typically happens because the person read or was told something negative about exFAT, they avoided it, hit some limitation on FAT or FAT32 and spent a lot of time troubleshooting. The person who told them avoid exFAT is by then long gone and not available to help the situation they created.

The safest approach is format the card in the camera or device. If it's a specialized device like an audio field recorder or smart TV which does not have a format function, see the owner's manual about what procedure to follow.

 

[Legendts]

Thanks for the link joema2 I'll give it a try. SD cards I have no issue with viewing on the TV, Mac or PC and have always formatted them in my Nikons. I rarely use a PC now that I am retired but do occasionally need the PC for downloading a couple of equipment updates that are no supported by Apple. I would prefer to format in exFAT for the reasons stated above. To answer a query you raised it was readable on the PC but not the TV, weird I know.
Thanks again for your input it's appreciated.

 

[Legendts]

Well all to no avail. Tried formatting to exFAT on a PC, TV still does not see it. Checked with the Mac and it saw the drive, could write to it on the Mac and PC but TV doesn't see it. Re formatted to MS Dos (Fat) and the TV sees it fine and opens photos etc. My only conclusion is that our TV is NOT compatible with exFAT, even though the website says it is.

Thanks for your input gents.

 

[maflynn]

Sorry it didn't work out, but it's fairly clear that the TV is the issue, since you tried different platforms and it still doesn't work.

 

[Legendts]

No problem Mike and thanks for your input.

 

[dyt1983]

Edit: Removed possibly personally identifying information no longer relevant to the thread.

 

[Legendts]

Thanks for your input dyt1983. Will look into it but will probably sit with FAT until I get to the "full" stage and then maybe use the old laptop PC I have to transfer the photos to and then use NTFS for TV use. I'm pretty sure I recently did an update on the TV but will recheck. Just doing this to keep the lady happy