Home Forums Peripherals & Multimedia Peripherals Verbatim flash drive seems 2 be incompatible w/Mac

Store n Go (the red one)
OS 10.5.8
Mac Mini
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 1.83 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 2 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz

Bizarre behavior started after using the thing for a year or so! Wouldn't copy files (Word, Excel) with "imported" gifs. Claimed I didn't have permission. All permissions for User Account are Read and Write.

Then it would copy a few items (folders) and refuse on one, wiping the drive of the ones that had previously appeared, seemingly copied successfully.

Took the drive to work and it performed flawlessly with Windows. Got another one, same kind. First time, it had the same errors and behavior as the older one!

I don't see a way to "configure for Mac" or something like that. Not sure what can be done about it. Any ideas?

Since their introduction there have been a few threads here and in the MacFixIt forums about problems with flash drives like you describe, but I don't recall any clear solution to them. Either reformatting worked or it didn't, and that's where I recall those threads left off. (This reminds me of similar issues with older data formats like zip disks etc. where the issue was much more common but just as elusive when used under Mac OS 8-9, prior to Mac OS X.)

So that's the only thing I can contribute: try if reformatting works. Flash drives usually come formatted for Windows (FAT) and can be used and reformatted as such on Macs, but where Windows interoperability is not an issue Mac formatting may be a useful alternative.

Assuming the flash drive as single 'variable', it might be attractive to look for the problem's location with the Mac or with Mac OS, but beyond obtaining a clean bill of health there by running a slew of disk utilities or by starting with a fresh OS install there's no particular approach that's more likely than another to yield results here.

I would try that if I could find that as a choice in a menu somewhere. Seems like I did that all the time with floppies in OS 7 and 8, but if it was formatted for Windows, a warning box popped up and gave me a button to click to reformat. Since this USB flash drive apparently is supposed to work for both OSes, that doesn't happen.

How about Disk Utility: Erase/reformat?
The fact that the drive can work under different OSes doesn't mean it isn't formatted. But even if it's not, as long as it's readable it can be erased and reformatted.

While there can be special features in flash drives such as multiple physical partitions, for the most part doing a secure erase (one pass zeros) usually either fixes the drive OR tells you that there's a cell error and you can throw it away.

Just be sure to erase the device, not just the partition, since part of your problem can be in the partition table. (/type)

Then reformat it GPT/HFS+

Could not Erase.
Operation Timed Out
or
Could not unmount disk

I tried several Erase options, each time selecting a Mac OS Format. No luck.
While typing this, the flash drive unmounted itself, without my command to eject it.

I ran verify disk before any of that. It seemed to be over in a wink, and nothing was reported but some number of such and such. (should have written it down)

Then, while trying to edit this post, I had my first ever kernal panic. Logged back in now and off to reboot to my eDrive and repair the Hard Drive.

In spite of the bumps on the road (above) the recalcitrant flash drive now is reformatted as Mac OS Extended. And I thought that effort had failed. Furthermore, files that it refused to accept before were copied and are now being "backed up" on IDrive.

The hard drive "repair" was completed, and the report was that everything was fine. Nothing was repaired.

Should I be concerned about the kernal panic? Should I do anything to guard against another one?

Unless it becomes a regular event I wouldn't worry too much about this. Beyond that, normal system & disk maintenance should be all you need. If you like you could check relevant Console logs to see if you find anything useful, but I wouldn't sweat it.

Btw, my FAT32 formatted 4GB Verbatim flash drive won't let itself be verified by Disk Utility ('Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed'), but it works just fine on both Macs and Windows machines. Realize that yours now won't work with Windows machines any more unless they have a disk utility like MacDrive installed.

Thanks for the tip. I hadn't thought about that. But, I have three flash drives, and one is now dedicated to office use with Windows, so I'm good.