Flash Drives back and forth PC to Macs Question

Montblack wrote:
("Dudley Henriques" wrote)
I notice that some of my flash drives are FAT16 and some are FAT32. Their
general use is on the IMac, but every now and then I need to carry a file
on over to the PC. I'm not having trouble doing this. My question
concerns whether or not there is any advantage in using FAT16 over 32 or
visa versa?


I had an odd screen pop up when I tried using a Western Digital (external)
120 G Hard Drive, as a go between, for an XP to Vista "Easy Transfer" files
& settings conversion.

Vista did not like the FAT 32 format of the WD Hard Drive. The "Easy
Transfer" software was installed on both pc's. Anyway, I finally got
frustrated and bought the kit, with (special) cable, instead.


Montblack
http://artfiles.art.com/images/-/M-Ryerson/Expose-Yourself-to-Art-Print-C10036661.jpeg
Flash answer


Thanks much. Appreciate it.


--
Dudley Henriques

Dudley Henriques wrote:
My question
concerns whether or not there is any advantage in using FAT16 over 32
or visa versa?


FAT16:

Max total volume size: 2GB
Number of files: 65,517
Larger allocation unit size (more "waste" for files that don't take up
full allocation units).

FAT32:

Max volume size: 8TB
Number of files: 268,435,437
Smaller allocation unit size

That's it, really. Unless these memory sticks are very large (or you
have an outrageous number of files on them) either file system will work
just fine (as both computers are equally capable of dealing with them).
I'd pick FAT32 if given the choice, and I think the Mac paranoia is
probably just because Apple hasn't dealt with the FAT system for quite
as long as PC OS' have (and so might have options for FAT32 formatting
that are unavailable to the Mac).

TheSmokingGnu

TheSmokingGnu wrote:
Dudley Henriques wrote:
My question concerns whether or not there is any advantage in using
FAT16 over 32 or visa versa?


FAT16:

Max total volume size: 2GB
Number of files: 65,517
Larger allocation unit size (more "waste" for files that don't take up
full allocation units).

FAT32:

Max volume size: 8TB
Number of files: 268,435,437
Smaller allocation unit size

That's it, really. Unless these memory sticks are very large (or you
have an outrageous number of files on them) either file system will work
just fine (as both computers are equally capable of dealing with them).
I'd pick FAT32 if given the choice, and I think the Mac paranoia is
probably just because Apple hasn't dealt with the FAT system for quite
as long as PC OS' have (and so might have options for FAT32 formatting
that are unavailable to the Mac).

TheSmokingGnu

Great data. Thanks.

--
Dudley Henriques