FAT32 Iomega Screenplay HD

Hi Mac brethren!

If someone is willing to guide me I would greatly appreciate it.

I purchased the Iomega screenplay HD 500GB thinking everything would go smooth with watching movie on my TV by just connecting this cool little device after movie compatible movie files to it.

Boy was I wrong!

1st off I am fairly new to mac. In fact I bought my iMAC about 2 months ago so ya, I am still a rookie.

Anywho, apparently MAC does not work with NTSC so I scouted out this guide that said I can reformat the drive so it would actually work with my iMAC.

It did in fact work. I can move files over to the drive now (though it takes about 30 min to move a 1GB .avi file) but when I hook it up to my TV the drive appears to be blank.

I'm worried that reformatting go by, even though I was able to move files over eventually did not actually make it FAT32 which everything I read said it needs to be.

Has anyone done this process before. Am I on the right path?

Any help I would GREATLY appreciate. If not I suppose I can just use it as an external hard drive but I would like to get full use out of this darn thing if possible.

Thanks in advance.

-Rock

1. NTFS was the format of the drive - NTSC is the video standard for TV's in the U.S.

2. No, your Mac cannot write to NTFS natively. There are a couple of paid apps and at least one free app that will allow your Mac to write to NTFS. They can be found with a little searching of the forum.

3.

System Requirements
The Iomega ® ScreenPlay™ HD Multimedia Drive is designed for use with the following PC operating systems: Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Professional, XP Home/XP Professional/XP Professional x64, Windows Vista™.

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4. It had it's own mini Operating System with a media player on it which is what allowed it to be used on it's own when connected to a TV

5. When you formatted the drive, you erased the Screenplay HD's Operating System and it's media player which allowed it to work as advertised.

6. The CD/software provided with the drive which allows Windows to transfer music/video to the drive in a way that allowed it to be functional is Windows only software and will not run in OS X even if you could write to the drive.

7. For the Screenplay HD to function as advertised and use it with your Mac, you will need to install Windows and then install the provided software in Windows for transferring your files to the drive.

8. You will also need to restore the Screenplay HD with it's original OS and media player.

9. Or you can use it with your Mac formatted as FAT32 or HFS and use it as a backup drive, but you will have none of the functionality you bought it for of connecting it to the TV and using it's HDMI outputs and the provided remote

Uggg.

+ I am in Japan so NTSC/PAL won't work no matter what hu?

Dang. I really screwed this up didn't I? Shoot.

Well, I very much appreciate you taking time to give me tips. I thought reformatting would be ok.

Oh well. Ya live & learn.

Domo Arigato.

I'm really not sure whether Japan uses NTSC or PAL.

I just went ahead and installed Vista on my iMAC.

This is a dumb way to go about things, but does anyone know if it's possible to convert my Screenplay "Back" to NTSC? Windows does not seem to read it in it's current state.

Respectfully.

-Rock

bobtomay said:

I'm really not sure whether Japan uses NTSC or PAL.

Click to expand...

Japan is on the NTSC system. However, they use 50 Hz AC power and their channel frequencies are different.

Regards.

rockeastwood said:

I just went ahead and installed Vista on my iMAC.

This is a dumb way to go about things, but does anyone know if it's possible to convert my Screenplay "Back" to NTSC? Windows does not seem to read it in it's current state.

Click to expand...

You mean convert to NTFS? You'll need to attach the drive to a PC and format the drive with Disk Manager. Or, use third party software. GParted, Partition Magic, etc.

Regards.

I got it. All I wanted to do was play with this screenplay & 3 days later I ended up buying parallels, Vista, learning bootcamp, and reformatting my drive 2 time.

What a journey.

chscag & bobtomay, you were very kind for helping me.

Many many thanks!

-Rock

Iomega Screenplay HD Multimedia Drive

Hi

I have the same problem as rockeastwood above had but I am unsure how he fixed his.

I have an Iomega screenplay HD 500GB and I formatted it on my macbook pro today using the same link as rockeastwood did.

Now I can view and edit files on my mac but when I connect it to my TV it is blank displaying 'no disc'

I am not a techy person and I have been scouting the internet with hours and I have found no way of fixing this.

I am completely confused, I have been reading about Fat32 but I do not know is this just for windows or can this be downloaded on my mac.

If anyone could give me a step by step guide on how to fix my screenplay it would be great.....(otherwise it is going in the thrash)

Any help I would be appreciated.
Thank you.

According to iOmega, those drives are formatted to FAT-32 at the factory. If you used Disk Utility from your Mac to format the drive to FAT-32, chances are that you formatted it incorrectly.

Here's why: Disk Utility defaults to using the GUID partitioning scheme which creates a small EFI (200 MB) partition on the drive. That effectively makes the drive useless for certain applications such as your media player hooked to the TV. You need to wipe that drive clean and start over in order for it to work.

Follow the directions given at this web site: LINK Note that you will need access to a Windows PC and Disk Manager in order to correct the format on that drive. Be sure to create a partition on the drive once it's clean.

Next, since Disk Manager can not format a drive that large to FAT-32, you'll have to resort to either using something like GParted or use Disk Utility once more.

If you use Disk Utility, be sure to choose the "MBR" partitioning scheme not the GUID, or you'll be back to where you were before.

A much simpler solution would have been to buy an AppleTV and return or sell the now-useless Screenplay.