[Keith Henderson: OFF: Questions for techies]

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

On 29 Oct 2009, at 12:04 , Jeff Thompson wrote:
>> If you are just storing MP3s/AACs, the file sizes may be small, so  
>> you might not run into any problems when plugging a Windows- 
>> formatted drive into a Mac.  However, I would investigate the issue  
>> in greater depth if you really wanted cross-platform  
>> compatability.  (I don't -- I just use my drives with my Macs -- so  
>> it hasn't mattered to me.)
>
> I don't have a problem with it ... my FAT formatted drive serves my
> Mac's 100 gig iTunes library.  But I convert my FLAC files to AAC
> to play in the iPod and then just to play those instead, so I am
> not using files that are huge than 20 or 30 megabytes for
> something the length of an album side like Jethro Tull's "Thick
> as a Brick."


Well, I have had FAT-formatted drives choke and crash when  
transferring big ol' files on and off -- like a FLAC or Apple Lossless  
version of a side of "Thick as a Brick".  Online investigation  
revealed there could be some problems with large file sizes and FAT  
drives in cross-platform context -- I didn't really look into it  
deeply, as I just reformatted the drives to NTFS and restored the  
material from backup!  But there are, clearly, situations where that  
might be problematic ....  Anyway, that's just been my experience! :)

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
http://www.carlaz.com/