Flash Drive Help!!

[blue gekko]

Hey guys,

I recently purchased a Lexar 1GB Flash Drive. For some reason it doesn't work on OS 9.2.2 but DOES work on OS 10.3.9! And to top things off, it works on my other computer's OS 9.2.2! Anybody know why this is?

[sinclair_tm]

did you install the drivers for it? it could also be because there are newer versions of the usb drivers on the other mac then on yours.

[blue gekko]

Thanks! I'll try it.

[CJ MAC OSX IPOD]

any flash stick will work on panther (almost)

[Lt Major Burns]

here's the unifying solution!

on a windows pc (or in OS9) , format the drive into FAT32 (it may be called 'ms dos' or something).

now try it in OS X.

FAT32 is a fileing system that virtually any OS can read and write to. some drives are not formatted this way, and use a far more obscure filing system occasionally. windows now uses NTFS as it's main filing system, and Macos now uses HFS+ (Journalled), but both can read and write to FAT32, which is older and less advanced, but still works.

[blue gekko]

Originally Posted by Lt Major Burns

on a windows pc (or in OS9)

The only problem is that it doesn't even show up on OS9... Can I reformat it to FAT32 via Panther??

[Lt Major Burns]

sorry, i mis-read your original post (i thought it worked the other way round...)

yes, in 10.3.9, find disk utility in your applications folders, and in that, select the pen drive (the uppermost instance of it, not any sub-instances of it. you'll know when you've got the right one, as "Partition" will become an option in the main window's tabs). go to the tab labelled 'erase', and from the pull down menu in the middle, select 'MS-DOS File System'. erase.

this should now be totally cross platform.