USB Drive Issues - Cry for help!

Bazza

Bazza

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Brian
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Help! o_O

I provided a friend/client with wedding photos on a USB pen around 6 months ago (MSDOS FAT formatting using a MacBook Pro from memory).

All was good on their end using a Windows laptop. They used a kiosk to print photos from the USB pen and now when they plug it into their Windows laptop, all of the image files are there but they're all now 4.00kb in size and not showing the actual image when loaded up... strange! I asked for the USB back and I'd fix it ASAP, plugged it into my MacBook and all of the images load up absolutely fine.

I don't have a Windows computer handy, so I plugged it into my TV and have the same problem the client was having... I tried a quick Google but not to much avail.

One thing I did find was MSDOS FAT is an old formatting and NTFS is what all the cool kids do these days. My formatting knowledge is limited (^^ that's about all I got up there - I know!) but can anyone help?

Is it just as simple as delete the lot, reformat as NTFS and pop the files on again? (I know I need to buy a program to write as NTFS on a Mac - or so Google tells me)

Thanks in advance! :)
 
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How big is the memory stick?
Over a certain size, i think 64gb, they use Ex-Fat formatting instead of FAT, (my TV will not read Ex Fat and neither will Acronis back up software) and a lot of things will not read it.
As you still have the images you could try NTFS but I would think there is a better than average chance the printing kiosk will not read them.
If it is a large mem stick and I am correct it might be worth trying a few images on a smaller stick formatted to FAT 32 and see if that works
 
The most compatible current format in use is Fat32.

USB sticks with a read only lock are pretty useful for situations such as this.


Dougie.
 
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troutfisher said:
How big is the memory stick?
Over a certain size, i think 64gb, they use Ex-Fat formatting instead of FAT, (my TV will not read Ex Fat and neither will Acronis back up software) and a lot of things will not read it.
As you still have the images you could try NTFS but I would think there is a better than average chance the printing kiosk will not read them.
If it is a large mem stick and I am correct it might be worth trying a few images on a smaller stick formatted to FAT 32 and see if that works
Click to expand...

It's only an 8GB pen. It did work on the kiosk and they were able to print them. It's after doing that, they're no longer showing :confused:
 
Macs create attribute files which are normally invisible but can be seen on Windows machines. So, a Mac writing an image to a Windows format ‘disk’ will show as:
IMG0001.jpg
.IMG0001.jpg

I suspect it is the files prefixed with a dot that are ~4KB and these aren’t image files. If this the case, someone/something had moved the images and only the attributes files remain in the folder that the Windows machine can see, as the Mac can still see the full size images.

There is nothing wrong with using a FAT (in reality FAT32) or ExFAT formatted volume to allow images to be read on another platform eg Mac to Windows or vice versa. It’s a old format but pretty much everything can read and write to it without additional software.

John.
 
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Bazza said:
Thanks so far everyone. The thing that worries me is that it was working when he first got the pen so if I wipe it and put the files on again I want to try and avoid this happening again in the future o_O
Click to expand...

OP - perhaps you could load the files on to the drive, then change the permissions to read only / prevent delete (not entirely sure on a mac, but you can on windows in properties). They could still format the drive, but it would make the rest of the files read only and prevent any accidental deletion / removing of files. - Would that be a solution to prevent this happening in the future?
 
JohnM100 said:
Macs create attribute files which are normally invisible but can be seen on Windows machines. So, a Mac writing an image to a Windows format ‘disk’ will show as:
IMG0001.jpg
.IMG0001.jpg

I suspect it is the files prefixed with a dot that are ~4KB and these aren’t image files. If this the case, someone/something had moved the images and only the attributes files remain in the folder that the Windows machine can see, as the Mac can still see the full size images.

There is nothing wrong with using a FAT (in reality FAT32) or ExFAT formatted volume to allow images to be read on another platform eg Mac to Windows or vice versa. It’s a old format but pretty much everything can read and write to it without additional software.

John.
Click to expand...

I use EXFAT for my external HDD which then can be read and written to using either a Mac or a PC
 
toohuge said:
OP - perhaps you could load the files on to the drive, then change the permissions to read only / prevent delete (not entirely sure on a mac, but you can on windows in properties). They could still format the drive, but it would make the rest of the files read only and prevent any accidental deletion / removing of files. - Would that be a solution to prevent this happening in the future?
Click to expand...

Will look into the read only for MacBook, thanks! The only issue being is that the images are there in full when plugged into the MacBook but not if I plug it into anything else :banghead:

Gil Bev said:
I use EXFAT for my external HDD which then can be read and written to using either a Mac or a PC
Click to expand...

That's what I used the first time and anytime previous without issues, not sure what's going on with this!
 
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