Where is "Format" on a Mac?

[5tevie]

Hi Guys,
I have a memory card in a USB slot in my Mac mini.
The memory card is showing on my PC desktop.
The problem is that the card needs to be formatted and the job can't be done in the camera that the SD card is for.
The bad news is that I can't find any sort of Format command.
Any clues appreciated.
Cheers,
Steve

 

[pigoo3]

I'm surprised you need to format your card for your Mac...they usually work straight away for me. In any case...go to your "Utilities" folder...and launch the application "Disk Utility". Everything you need should be there.

HTH,

- Nick

 

[5tevie]

Hi again,
I found the disk utility App but when i click on "Erase" there is no option to alter the kind of format. It is all greyed out.

 

[5tevie]

cheers for that, pigoo.
The thing is, i don't need to format the card for the Mac. I need to format it to try to get it to work in a camera that isn't happy with DOS Fat

 

[bobtomay]

What camera is this? Almost all cameras should have the card formatted by the camera itself to have the proper directory structure set up.

In Disk Utility, sounds like you are selecting the partition and not the card.
And try the Partition tab.

 

[5tevie]

The camera is a Fujifilm A160 compact. When I put the 8gb micro sd card in an adapter and slot it in my camera, all I get is a message on screen saying, "DISK ERROR". Nothing then works on the camera. I can't even get into the Menu system to do a Format.
I figured that maybe, if I format the card using my Mac to another style of format, I could then try to format it again from within the camera.

When I use Disk Utility, I get 2 lines on the left relating to this card. One says ... "8.17GB USB 2.0 SD MMC Reader media" and the one underneath says .... " Mounted Volume Kingston"
Apart from the DVD drive and the Mac hard drive, they are my only options.

 

[5tevie]

Update .... Even though the disc was showing as being formatted to Dos (FAT32) originally, doing a format in the Mac, keeping it at Dos (FAT32) must have done something because the 8gb memory card now works perfectly in the camera.

Problem and possible world-wide disaster averted ...... until the next time.