Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

Applefreak01 · Feb 21, 2010, 07:43 PM

I'm having troubles with Mac OS X (10.6.2) and flash drives, here is what I'm experiencing:

1. I have an 8GB flash drive that has always worked up until now. I went to copy some movie files to transfer to my PC running Windows 7 the other day and was told by Mac OS X that I don't have access to the disk error 36 code. So I opened up Disk Utility and formatted the drive using FAT32. I could then copy files to the drive under OS X but when I go to mount the drive on the PC, it says that the disk isn't recognizable and needs to be formatted. So I formatted to FAT32 under Windows 7 and it then will allow me to copy to and from with no problem. But when I go to mount the drive on the Mac, the Mac repeats with saying that I don't have access.

2. On the same note my Droid (yeah, yeah I know its the dark side but I don't have AT&T service where I live and no way in hell will I ever go back to Windows mobile) is having weird issues under Mac OS X as well. I mount it, copied my iTunes music to it and all was well. Until I go to safely eject the disk, it won't eject at all. Mac OS X pops up a window saying the disk is being use by another application and to close that application to eject the disk or it gives the option to force eject (which is the only way I can get it ejected). Under Windows 7 everything works great.

I have read somewhere online that Mac OS X is having issues with something like this and that the 10.6.3 update "should" bring everything back to like it was under 10.6. It seems 10.6.1 and 10.6.2 break disk compatibility with Windows formatted disk. Any help on getting this fixed would be greatly appreciated.

Cold Warrior · Feb 21, 2010, 08:30 PM

Instead of formatting, head to the partition tab and select 1 partition, MBR (master boot record), fat32. This should give you a windows-mountable flash drive without the error.

Applefreak01 · 08:25 PM

Thanks Cold Warrior. I didn't realize that disk utility was using GUID while setting up the partition. I should've known, thanks again.

Just an update. My Droid is still acting up. Still saying its being used when its not. My only though is maybe to have iPhoto not open up when its mounted and see if that does the trick, even though I quit iPhoto its acting like its not loosing its control over the drive or something.