How to format memory card for windows?

Every since I installed leopard I noticed that my memory cards (either formatted with the FAT system or mac extended journaled) are unable to be read and opened on windows computers.

any suggestions? thanks

Memory cards ??? Do you mean the HDD or external drive?

MAC uses HFS file system format. To be able to access the partition both from windows and Mac you need to format it with FAT partition. Mac doesnt recognise NTFS and windows doesnt recognise HFS

I mean an external 2GB memory card stick. I have already formated my card using the FAT format option but was unable to access in on a pc computer (I tried 3 windows computers thus far).

Please advise thanks.

I *suspect* that the partition set up is the issue here. From the point of view of Windows compatibility, it may be best to format the memory stick on Windows and just use it on your Mac.

I have had similar issues where hard drives formatted on my Mac are unreadable on my Windows and Linux systems. Linux, which has a richer set of hard drive tools than the average Windows install, was able to tell me that there was no valid partition table on the drive, and offered me the option of correcting that. Once I did, all was well.

So, the Mac may not be setting up the partition table on the device in the way Windows expects, resulting in issues for Windows when it tries to access the memory stick. My advice? Set the stick up via Windows, and then use it with both Windows and Mac as you need.

I never had to do this before. Do you know if this is an issue with leopard? Also, I noticed that when I delete files from an external memory card on windows that the amount of space still remains the same until I completely format it.

Any suggestions?

YES, I've been frustrated over the past week too. I was convinced that I would have to throw out my SD card because of the above problem you guys are having. My macbook wasn't able to copy files into it anymore either because of the windows-formatted partition.

anyway, my fantastic fiance told me the solution:
in the APPLICATIONS folder, launch DISK UTILITY.
this program formats any drive (external/ internal) into either windows OR apple format.

PROBLEM SOLVED!

dorian86 said:

I never had to do this before. Do you know if this is an issue with leopard? Also, I noticed that when I delete files from an external memory card on windows that the amount of space still remains the same until I completely format it.

Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

When you delete files from a memory stick from within Windows, the operating system will sometimes create a recycle bin folder on the stick itself. You can check that easy enough by making sure you show all hidden files and folders from Windows and then displaying the stick in Explorer or My Computer. Emptying the recycle bin resolves the problem.

BTW, that only seems to happen on the larger memory cards or sticks.

Regards.