iPod not as cross platform as I thought?

[Earendil]

Ok, so I'm a smart kid. 19 years old and in my freshmen year as a CS major here in the States. Today though I made a foolish mistake. I needed to turn some digital pictures into the school paper, and instead of burning a CD, I just loaded them onto my iPod mini knowing full well that I have a Mac, and the Editors use a Windows machine.

So of course when I have the senior editor plug my iPod mini into the windows machine it recognizes it, but can't read it, and offers to initialize it.

Why oh Why did I think this would work? I know that hard drives are formated one way or the other, but for some reason I thought there was a way to pull files off a disc that were cross platform files, like JPEGs.

Is this not true? What about when I burn Cross platform CDs? do CDs work differently, or does Toast really burn the images twice, once in a MacOS friendly environment, and yet again in a Windows readable way?

I'm Curious...
-Tyler Z.

 

[7on]

CDs are recorded in usually ISO9660 or CDFS which are universal formats. Windows iPods are NTFS and Mac iPods are HFS+. OSX 10.3 should be able to read NTFS though.

 

[Earendil]

So would it be possible, feasible, or a good idea to format my iPod as an NSTF drive? Would that make it cross platform as far as file transfers go? When my MacOS version of iTunes understand what's going on?

~Tyler Z.

 

[TEG]

Actually Windows iPods are FAT32, and unlike NTFS or HFS iPods, they are prone to corruption much more.

TEG

 

[fradac]

how to fix it

well the problem is not ipod its windows

being a CS major you know some basic file formats i suppose and well windows cannot read HFS+ which is the primary MAC formats.

on the other hand if you have a PC and you get the apple ipod update and initiatlize the ipod on windows. it will say "windows" under format in the preferences in the ipod.

once its intialized as a windows ipod then you will be able to use it on both computers.

and yes JPGs are JPGs, .DOC are .DOC file types wont matter i do this all the time

hope that helps

 

[Earendil]

So if I read your post correctly, I can just take my iPod to a windows machine, "initialize" it as a windows HD (which will be FAT32) and I will than be able to take it back my my Mac and iTunes will sync it right up and understand what's going on?

Any downsides to this? can I expect syncing or file transfer to be slower in the future?

And as a CS student in his freshmen yeah, in the month of Nov, I'm very computer literate, just not necessarily detail knowledged in all things cross-platform

Tyler

 

[TEG]

Two downsides to switching the iPod to FAT32.

1) Any future updates for the iPod must be done on a Windows Machine.

2) FAT32 is extremely flakey in Portable Applications. I know of several friends who have gotten rid of their iPods because FAT32 kept corrupting the data on it, when it wasn't connected to the computer all the time.

TEG

 

[iJon]

Changing your Mac iPod to a Windows iPod is going to cause more problems then it will solve. CD"s come a dime a dozen, just buy some and burn them. Also flash drives are a good way to transfer stuff, but for a good amount of space can cost you a bit. If they are regular JPEG's (nothing to high res) e-mail is another great solution. If you plan on transferring data a lot between your Mac and one certain PC you could invest in MacDrive 6. I use it on my PC and anything Mac formatted will work perfectly on the PC, it comes in quite handy for my external hard drives and iPod.

jon

 

[munkle]

I've formatted my iPod as a 'windows' iPod for the very reason of being able to use it as a portable HD. Works perfectly for me and I've never had a problem. I use my iPod exclusively with iTunes on my Macs and only occasionally plug it into Windows machines to transfer data. Like I said I've never had a problem and would recommend doing this, burning to CD's is just hassle.

 

[iJon]

I've formatted my iPod as a 'windows' iPod for the very reason of being able to use it as a portable HD. Works perfectly for me and I've never had a problem. I use my iPod exclusively with iTunes on my Macs and only occasionally plug it into Windows machines to transfer data. Like I said I've never had a problem and would recommend doing this, burning to CD's is just hassle.

I suppose it can work fine as long as you don't plan to update your iPod without formatting each time. I guess it's not a huge hassle since updates don't come out that often.

jon