Flash drive file system for PC to Mac transfer

[harv822]

Will use a USB flash drive (memory stick, etc.) to move files from a Win 98 PC to a Mac Pro.

-- PC has FAT32 file system
-- Mac Pro has journaled HFS+

What gotchas should I watch for?

Thanks in advance.

harv822

 

[viggen61]

Will use a USB flash drive (memory stick, etc.) to move files from a Win 98 PC to a Mac Pro.

-- PC has FAT32 file system
-- Mac Pro has journaled HFS+

What gotchas should I watch for?

Thanks in advance.

harv822

File systems are attached to the device itself. The only role the OS or machine plays in it is whether it can mount and read the volume. Both Mac OS X and Windows should be able to mount any FAT (16 or 32) volumes with no problems.

I use a couple thumb drives. One is FAT 32, and I have no problems with it, between Mac OS X 10.5 & Windows XP Pro. Oddly, however, my FAT 16 thumb drives refuse to mount on my XP Pro machine at work since I got an upgrade.

Beware of volume size limits in older OSs and file systems. You don't want to pay for a 4GB thumb drive, only to find out that you cant use it all! I'm not that familiar with FAT 32 and Win 98, so it may not be an issue at all.

The only other thing to watch for is if Spotlight gets hold of your USB drive, you'll start to see all manner of "extra" files which are hidden in the Mac OS, but sometimes show up in Windows. Just ignore them. I don't think you'll hurt anything by removing them, though.

 

[harv822]

Thanks!

See title.

 

[harry454]

Yeah OSX should be able to pick it up easily

 

[DoFoT9]

as long as your flash drive is FAT32 formatted you will be fine.