SD card question

Discussion in 'Mac Accessories' started by abz1981, Jul 7, 2013.

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  1. abz1981, Jul 7, 2013

    abz1981 macrumors 65816

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    #1
    Hi all
    Sorry if this is a silly question. However hope someone can answer. If I have a sd memory card and have erased it with disc utility and set it as a mac os extended (journaled) format. Will any files I place on this card be viewable or playable on a windows or a smartphone?

    thanks in advance
     
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  2. Weaselboy, Jul 7, 2013

    Weaselboy Moderator

    Weaselboy

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    #2
    No to both. Without add on software, Windows won't read a Mac formatted disk. I am not aware of any smartphone either that will read a Mac (HFS+) formatted disk.
     
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  3. waw74, Jul 7, 2013

    waw74 macrumors 68030

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    #3
    you will need to use FAT mode if you want it to be read by windows and mac.

    the only real limitation of FAT is a 4GB individual file size.
    There may be some limitation on the newer large drives (bigger than 2TB) but i'm not sure, but I'm guessing your memory card doesn't come anywhere close.

    smart phones should also be able to read FAT.

    If you have files bigger than 4GB each, you need to use...
    NTFS - Windows native
    HFS - OS X native

    with add on software you can read the other format (so read NTFS on a mac).
    not sure if phones will handle NTFS, check your manual.

    if you're running android, i just did a quick google search for "NTFS Android" and came up with this, not sure how well it works, but it will let you read NTFS and HFS on android.
     
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  4. brand, Jul 7, 2013

    brand macrumors 601

    brand

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    #4
    Windows Vista/7/2008/2012 and Mac OS X will both read exFAT with an individual file size limit of 16EiB.
     
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  5. abz1981, Jul 8, 2013

    abz1981 thread starter macrumors 65816

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    #5
    okay thanks guys for your replies.
     
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