I'm doing something wrong but I don't know what

Joined
Oct 30, 2010
Messages
321
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Blackburn, Lancs, North West England
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini Aluminium running at 2.4 GHz.
Hi Guys,
I have been using my Mac Min, running OS X 10.9.2 i for a few years but now I'm trying to do something new and it isn't working out as I had hoped that it would.
To put it simply, I have files on my Mac that I want to be able to use on a Windows laptop. These files are e-books in .ePub format. This may be easier if I explain what I did. First off, I put a brand new SD card into the slot on the Mac Mini, double clicked on the icon that appeared on my desktop to open it and then tried to drag the .ePub file into the new SD card folder. But it just won't copy over. All that I get is a white circle with a diagonal bar through it.
If anybody could explain what I need to do to move these .ePub files it would make my life so much easier.
Many thanks,
Steve.
 

bobtomay

,
Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 22, 2006
Messages
26,561
Reaction score
677
Points
113
Location
Texas, where else?
Your Mac's Specs
15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
How is the SD card formatted? Is it formatted?

Open Disk Utility to check.
 

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
I buy lots of SD cards and as far as I'm aware, they've all been formatted to FAT-32. However, I haven't purchased any larger than 16 GB so it's entirely possible the larger SD cards are formatted to NTFS.
 

Slydude

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
17,596
Reaction score
1,072
Points
113
Location
North Louisiana, USA
Your Mac's Specs
M1 MacMini 16 GB - Ventura, iPhone 14 Pro Max, 2015 iMac 16 GB Monterey
When the SD card appears on the desktop single click it and then press command i. In the window that appears see if the General area says NT Filesystem. If that's the case the Mac can't reliably write to it without a third-party driver.

As I see it you have two options:

1. Use a third party driver to allow the Mac to write to the card in a way Windows understands. Personally the only one I would bother with is Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X software

2. Re-fromat the card as Fat 32. Keep in mind that Fat 32 limits each file to less than 4 GB.
 
OP
5
Joined
Oct 30, 2010
Messages
321
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Blackburn, Lancs, North West England
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini Aluminium running at 2.4 GHz.
Sorry for the delay, guys. I was side-tracked by a Cornetto.
I must also add that you guys are very quick to offer advice but the down side to that is that I am now way outside my competence level.So let me go with what I know. I opened up the Utilities Ap and got this info re the new SD card ......

Mount Point : /Volumes/NO NAME 1 Capacity : 67.1 GB (67,104,108,544 Bytes)
Format : MS-DOS (FAT32) Available : 67.09 GB (67,087,663,104 Bytes)
Owners Enabled : No Used : 33 KB (32,768 Bytes)
Number of Folders : 0 Number of Files : 0

I have no idea what any of that means and I still don't know how the disc is formatted or even how to format it myself.

I then tried to follow the advice from Slydude and clicking CMD L brought up the downloads page but from there I got lost searching for anything that looks like a "General" area. So basically I'm back to square One.
All I can do is thank you for trying and wish you all a deserved Goodnight.
Cheers,
Steve.
 

Slydude

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
17,596
Reaction score
1,072
Points
113
Location
North Louisiana, USA
Your Mac's Specs
M1 MacMini 16 GB - Ventura, iPhone 14 Pro Max, 2015 iMac 16 GB Monterey
Sorry for the confusion the command i was suggesting was Get Info from the File menu in the Finder. It is also accessed by selecting the disk and pressing command I. Judging from the report you just posted though the drive is formatted FAT 32 already. The Mac and Windows can both write to that reliably so you are not having the issue I thought you might be having.
 

pigoo3

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
May 20, 2008
Messages
44,210
Reaction score
1,418
Points
113
Location
U.S.
Your Mac's Specs
2017 15" MBP, 16gig ram, 1TB SSD, OS 10.15
Joined
Nov 28, 2007
Messages
25,564
Reaction score
486
Points
83
Location
Blue Mountains NSW Australia
Your Mac's Specs
Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
Invest in Paragan NTFS as Sly has suggested. Must for 67GB flash drive. It is easy too use.
 
Joined
Feb 15, 2011
Messages
388
Reaction score
6
Points
18
Location
West Virginia
Your Mac's Specs
13in rMBP 2014 Yosemite
Great googley moggigly what kind of ePubs are you reading that need a 67gb SD card?!?!?!
 
C

chas_m

Guest
Is the card locked? Most camera cards have a little slide that can lock them. If that's in the lock position, guess what -- no writing to the card, only reading!
 
Joined
Feb 4, 2014
Messages
639
Reaction score
27
Points
28
Location
Great Britain
Your Mac's Specs
MBP17 8GB/1.9TB 2xSSDs Sierra • MBA11 4/128GB • TC 2TB • TV3 • iPh6 128GB • iPadPro12
An SD card with capacity over 32GB would normally be SDXC and should be formatted exFAT, not FAT32 by default.

I hate to suggest it, but have you bought it from fleeBay*, by any chance? There are lots of fake SD cards and USB sticks out there, these will report whatever capacity is programmed into them by the scammers, but in reality will struggle to hold reliably a large file, if any at all. Also 67GB is not a standard size: 64GB is ...

* There are increasing number of unscrupulous vendors selling these via Amazon.co.uk too...
 
Joined
Feb 4, 2014
Messages
639
Reaction score
27
Points
28
Location
Great Britain
Your Mac's Specs
MBP17 8GB/1.9TB 2xSSDs Sierra • MBA11 4/128GB • TC 2TB • TV3 • iPh6 128GB • iPadPro12
Unless it is something as simple as the write lock, as chas_m suggested above, I'd try to verify the capacity first: with the same Disk Utility, go to Erase tab, and format the card as Mac OS Extended, or exFAT - this might confirm the actual size, and if everything is okay, then re-format again in exFAT, so you can see it in Windows.

Also an SDFormatter app is a good, standard-compliant one (since they are the ones, who wrote the standard). It works with SD, SDHC and SDXC cards and will correctly identify and report each type, and will format with appropriate file system, i.e. FAT32 for SD & SDHC and exFAT for SDXC.
 
OP
5
Joined
Oct 30, 2010
Messages
321
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Blackburn, Lancs, North West England
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini Aluminium running at 2.4 GHz.
Pigoo .... It is indeed an ice cream sweet. My wife brings me such treats as a way of saying, "I just can't eat alone" so if I have one, she won't feel guilty eating hers, lol

Thaylor ..... The books are just standard novels but there are hundreds of them. I tend to put 20 into an e-book reader at once + half a dozen movies and maybe a few TV shows in HD. Also, think of it this way, I have never used this SD card, nor its twin so I don't know how many books they hold.

Chas .... I just checked and the cards are NOT locked.

Thanks for trying, guys.
 
OP
5
Joined
Oct 30, 2010
Messages
321
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Blackburn, Lancs, North West England
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini Aluminium running at 2.4 GHz.
David .... I did get them from the place that must not be named and here is a link to the actual page

Upgraded 16GB or 32gb or 64gb Micro SD memory card & Adaptor.16 gb 32 gb 64 gb. | eBay

I know what you mean regarding iffy memory cards but the bonus here is that the guy lives about 300 yards from my house so a visit of complaint wouldn't be much problem. However, the auction page explains exactly what is going on here.
Having said that, I have now tried 3 other SD cards ranging from 1gb to 8gb and I don't seem to be able to copy files from my desktop onto any of them.
 
OP
5
Joined
Oct 30, 2010
Messages
321
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Blackburn, Lancs, North West England
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini Aluminium running at 2.4 GHz.
David .... Slight problem. I opened the Utilities Ap and clicked on the SD card in the left hand pane. I then clicked on Erase but then the option to specify which file type to use and all other options were greyed out. So nothing has changed yet.
Cheers,
Steve
 
OP
5
Joined
Oct 30, 2010
Messages
321
Reaction score
3
Points
18
Location
Blackburn, Lancs, North West England
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini Aluminium running at 2.4 GHz.
BTW .... When I click the SD card in the left pane, the words Apple SDXC reader Media appear at the top of the Ap page. I don't know if that means anything but thought it best to mention it.
 
Joined
Feb 4, 2014
Messages
639
Reaction score
27
Points
28
Location
Great Britain
Your Mac's Specs
MBP17 8GB/1.9TB 2xSSDs Sierra • MBA11 4/128GB • TC 2TB • TV3 • iPh6 128GB • iPadPro12
Just as I thought ... Steve, the 'upgraded' card is just a polite way of saying 'it's a fake, but I don't pretend it isn't'.

Really, truly not worth even a quid to be wasted on those.

There are a few good vendors with excellent prices: mymemory and 7dayshop - just two of the top of my head - guaranteed genuine cards and great customer service.

Have you tried formatting any of the cards you have in an alternative file system - Mac OS Extended is a good one, as Disk Utility will report any problem.
 
Joined
Sep 30, 2007
Messages
9,962
Reaction score
1,235
Points
113
Location
The Republic of Neptune
Your Mac's Specs
2019 iMac 27"; 2020 M1 MacBook Air; macOS up-to-date... always.
David .... I did get them from the place that must not be named and here is a link to the actual page

Upgraded 16GB or 32gb or 64gb Micro SD memory card & Adaptor.16 gb 32 gb 64 gb. | eBay

I know what you mean regarding iffy memory cards but the bonus here is that the guy lives about 300 yards from my house so a visit of complaint wouldn't be much problem. However, the auction page explains exactly what is going on here.
Having said that, I have now tried 3 other SD cards ranging from 1gb to 8gb and I don't seem to be able to copy files from my desktop onto any of them.

"Upgraded" SD Cards? LOL! I'm with David on this. Run, don't walk away from this thing. More on this for your reading pleasure:
Beware of fake 32gb micro sd card on ebay!!!!!! - The eBay Community
 
Joined
Feb 4, 2014
Messages
639
Reaction score
27
Points
28
Location
Great Britain
Your Mac's Specs
MBP17 8GB/1.9TB 2xSSDs Sierra • MBA11 4/128GB • TC 2TB • TV3 • iPh6 128GB • iPadPro12
Steve, honestly I would just return these SD cards for a refund, and get this: USB Stick - under a tenner delivered, from a top retailer, hardly bigger than a microSD card and at 32GB you can stick all your books on it, I'm sure :) I have two of these: a 16GB and 32GB and never had any problem, just like with any other stuff I bought from Crucial/MyMemory.
 

Slydude

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
17,596
Reaction score
1,072
Points
113
Location
North Louisiana, USA
Your Mac's Specs
M1 MacMini 16 GB - Ventura, iPhone 14 Pro Max, 2015 iMac 16 GB Monterey
Thanks for the heads up about those fake cards. I had not heard of that particular scam.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top