Help with error for fat32 formatted ext hd

i have just formatted my new 160gb ext hd to two partitions: 100gb in fat32 and the rest in HFS+..

i was just getting ready to backup files, and here's what happened:

i transferred a dmg file into the fat32 partition, then created a new folder in that partition (named 'apps'), then moved the dmg file into the 'apps' folder. it worked fine, but then, i created another folder (named 'backup') and i tried to move the 'apps' folder into the 'backup' folder. it said that the operation could not be completed, error code 122.

can anyone tell me what the problem is? should i just reformat the whole thing to HFS? or maybe to NTFS then use Paragon? or is there a solution to this? i'd really like to be able to transfer files to and from my mac to other windows PCs.. thanks

FAT32 is a gawdawful file system. I've had issues myself with an external drive that used FAT32 in that files got corrupted if I didn't properly dismount the drive before disconnecting it. Just avoid it altogether. OS X can already read NTFS partitions out-of-the-box, but you can add write access using a couple FREE 3rd-party utilities. They work fine for me.

First install MacFUSE:
http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/

Then reboot and install NTFS-3G:
http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/

You'll still need Windows to format a partition using NTFS, afaik.

aww, i guess i shouldn't have reformatted it in the first place it was NTFS originally..anyway, i know better now, thanks a lot!