iPod Windows and Mac Formatting

[Hard-Hat-Mac]

Hi I'll be getting my first Mac next week. It'll be a SR MBP. I also got the education discounted 30g iPod. I was wondering if I should wait and format it on my MBP and if I can reformat my current iPod to a mac format?

 

[Eidorian]

You don't have to but you can. You'll have to put the songs back onto the iPod again though.

 

[Lovesong]

If you're planning on keeping your PC and you want to be able to use your iPod with it, you'd want to keep it in PC format. Basically the mac will be able to read and write to both a PC and mac- formatted iPod, but the PC will only work with PC-formatted iPods.

 

[zephead]

Another thing is the issue of when Apple releases an iPod software update. If your iPod is PC-formatted, you'll only be able to update the software on your PC. Your Mac can still read/write to it and be able to do everything normally except for updating the software.

 

[Mr. Amiga500]

If you're planning on keeping your PC and you want to be able to use your iPod with it, you'd want to keep it in PC format. Basically the mac will be able to read and write to both a PC and mac- formatted iPod, but the PC will only work with PC-formatted iPods.

This formatting incompatibility really pisses me off. There should have been one standardized file format for USB flash devices. Either that or iTunes and iPod updater should be able to read & update in both formats on both systems. (easily done if iTunes install included a driver)

My iPod was originally loaded on a Windows notebook I used at work (no PC at home). I spent many hours loading and fixing all the volumes. I backed up my music library carefully, including the playlist and iPod settings. Then later when I had no access to a PC, I borrowed somebody's Mac to load my iPod. iTunes promptly erased everything on my iPod without telling me. That was still OK because I backed up the music, but the backed up playlist with all the volumes (that took hours) was useless because they contained Windows paths. So I had to recreate the whole playlist.

Last week I tried loading a couple more pieces of music on my iPod using Windows and iTunes didn't detect it. So I had to reformat and reload everything and lost some new things that weren't backed up. I had recreate the playlist and do all the damn volumes again.

I plan on buying a Mac soon, but that means I'll have to go through all this crap again.

 

[killerrobot]

If you're planning on keeping your PC and you want to be able to use your iPod with it, you'd want to keep it in PC format. Basically the mac will be able to read and write to both a PC and mac- formatted iPod, but the PC will only work with PC-formatted iPods.

Are you sure the mac can actually write to the PC formatted ipods? I know it can read them, but I've never tried writing. It just seems weird because Mac's can't write to NTFS, but it can read it.

Also, if I had two ipods, I would keep one PC format and on Mac format. That would ease up the whole going between PC and Mac. That's my opinion---bash away everyone.

 

[Eidorian]

Are you sure the mac can actually write to the PC formatted ipods? I know it can read them, but I've never tried writing. It just seems weird because Mac's can't write to NTFS, but it can read it.

Also, if I had two ipods, I would keep one PC format and on Mac format. That would ease up the whole going between PC and Mac. That's my opinion---bash away everyone.

Windows iPods are formatted to FAT32.

 

[killerrobot]

Windows iPods are formatted to FAT32.

That's makes a lot of sense then why a Mac could read/write to it then. Thanks.