Flash drive shenanigans.

Post #384,822 by static 1/1/14 7:24:44 PM Reply	Flash drive shenanigans. I've got a small (2Gb) USB flash drive that has a slightly peculiar problem: OS X can't read it's file system, yet all other PCs I poke it into can. Windows, Linux, Android - all can read it just fine. OS X cannot. This has been a problem from time to time with a friend's laptop as she has a Macbook Air. It was recently slightly more annoying with my own work laptop which is a Macbook Pro. Then I figured out what's wrong. When I first bought the flash drive, I put a 1Gb Ubuntu boot image on it. This was used to install Ubuntu to a netbook that had no optical drive. Once this was done, I wanted it to be 2Gb again; which meant recreating the partitions and reformatting. But I used partition #1 and I've heard that most flash drives use partition #4. I suspect this is why OS X is unhappy with my flash drive. Anyone else seen this? It is extremely difficult to search for on the googles. I know the fix, of course, I just wanted to talk about it with someone. Wade. Just Add Story http://justaddstory.wordpress.com/
Post #385,078 by scoenye 1/8/14 6:24:29 PM Reply	Or it may not want a partition table It is also valid to start the file system at sector 0, without any MBR, partition table, etc. It would be a bit bizarre for Apple to require that, though... I have a flash drive with and one without partition table but the only Macintoshes I can lay my hands on right now are of the edible variety. I'll drag the sticks to work and see what happens there.
Post #385,274 by scoenye 1/14/14 6:00:52 PM Reply	That wasn't it - it liked them both.
Post #385,278 by static 1/14/14 9:07:39 PM Reply	One day I'll let OS X "fix it". This will require I copy everything off it first on to another PC, of course. Maybe there's something ogly I did with the mkfs, then if the partition table isn't hokey. Wade. Just Add Story http://justaddstory.wordpress.com/

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