Memory Card Formatting Issue, FAT

Sgnt. Rob wrote:
I have TWO 8GB SD cards, both of which were fully functioning and 8GB on all devices (ps3, PC, mac, etc) as I required, but SINCE I used disk utility to format them on a mac (at which point they come up fine on the mac, as 8GB still....) when I plug them into a PC it says I need to format this disk??

Launch Disk Utility and select the SD card device (not the volume in it). What do you see at the bottom for "Partition Map Scheme"? If it doesn't saw "Master Boot Record" you'll have to repartition it, using the "Options" button to declare that type of partition map.

Reformat it using the Partition tab and click the Options button to set it as Master Boot Record.

Maybe you just need to format it in a native Mac format. The camera should be able to handle that, shouldn't it?

Barney-15E wrote:
Maybe you just need to format it in a native Mac format. The camera should be able to handle that, shouldn't it?

Not necessarily.

Sgnt. Rob wrote:
tried that, still says GUID once it's partitioned...

I wonder if you're leaving out a step or so. Here's the full process:

- Launch Disk Utility.
- Select the device (the one all the way to the left).
- Select the "Partition" tab.
- Pull down the Volume Scheme" list and select "1 Partition".
- Click on the "Options" button.
- In the resulting window select "Master Boot Record".
- Click the "OK" button.
- Click the "Apply" button.

I guess you missed the sarcasm. It just isn't the same if you need to add tags.

to do it with the command line (terminal.app), at the prompt:
diskutil partitionDisk /Volumes/NDS 1 MBRFormat "MS-DOS FAT16" "NDS" 1000M
that is:

A. /Volumes/NDS: the mount point to partition, could also be in the BSD form, eg: /dev/disk2
(Adjust name or disk# accordingly)
B. "1" the number of partitions
C. MBRFormat: the partition format, MBR is the usual default for removable storage
D. "MS-DOS FAT16": partition type (adjust accordingly, 12, 16, 32, etc.)
E. "NDS": partition name (adjust accordingly)
F. 1000M: 1000 megabytes (size of the partition, if it is the last, it will span to the end of the drive)
(adjust accordingly)

##
Kj

Barney-15E wrote:
I guess you missed the sarcasm.

Right.

It just isn't the same if you need to add tags.

The risk of omitting the tags is that someone will take you at face value.

Hi Sgnt. Rob:
I wrote a little script for you that will make your
life easier when formatting SD's.

I call it "fat16"
You can download it here:
http://azlist.info/kj/mac/utilities/fat16.zip

It is simple to setup.
1. download & Unzip it to your desktop
2. set the executable bit using terminal:
chmod +x ~/Desktop/fat16
3. quick test (terminal):
~/Desktop/fat16
should see something like this:
##
Betsy7:~ kj$ ~/Desktop/fat16
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID partitionscheme *300.1 GB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS RAPTOR SL 162.2 GB disk0s2
3: Apple_HFS RAPTOR VM 102.9 GB disk0s3
4: Microsoft Basic Data XP 34.5 GB disk0s4
--------------------------------------------------------------
<device> = BSD name of source disk, example: /dev/disk4 or
volume mount point, example: /Volumes/SD
<volume_name> = whatever you want to call it!
If you use spaces, enclose the name in quotes.
example: SD or "My SD"
<partition_size> = floating point numbers followed by a
letter or percent sign
Examples: 1G (1 gigabyte), 1000K (1000 KILOBYTES), 5.5M (5.5 megabytes),
25.4% (25.4 percent of whole disk size).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
fat16 <device> <volume_name> <partition_size>
- fat16 - a script to format SD Memory Cards
...or anything else that needs it!
##
4. if you see a list of devices and instructions as shown above,
it is ready to be installed, to install:
sudo cp ~/Desktop/fat16 /usr/bin

5. installed! - to use it, just type "fat16" at the prompt.
with no arguments it will display a list of connected drives
(diskutil list) and of course the usage directions.
just fill in all the arguments to make it go.

##
here is a live example (I formatted a disk image to test it):
Betsy7:Desktop kj$ fat16 /dev/disk4 SDX 100%
Started partitioning on disk4
Unmounting disk
Creating partition map
Waiting for disks to reappear
Formatting disk4s1 as MS-DOS (FAT16) with name SDX
Finished partitioning on disk4
/dev/disk4
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk partitionscheme *262.1 MB disk4
##

6. Enjoy!

Kj ♘