Paragon HFS+ for Windows can't read/write flashdrives
Hello everyone
I have an odd issue that I can't seem to figure out. I use Paragon HFS+ for Windows which allows me to read and write to my HFS formatted drives. It works great for any external hard drive I use but when I use a flashdrive it doesn't work. I format both my external hard drives and flashdrives the same way, I use Disk Utility, I format them using Mac Extended Journaled and GUID partition scheme.
When plugging in my flashdrive, my Windows 7 PC will not mount them. Disk Manager shows 3 partitions: EFI, Fat32 and some empty space. If I format my flashdrives using the Master Boot Record partition scheme they work great.
So, here's what I have so far:
- External hard drives work fine when formatted with the GUID Partition scheme. (mac extended journaled)
- Hard drives also show 3 partitions in Windows Disk Manager: EFI, HFS and empty space
- Flashdrives show 3 partitions but oddly enough the second partition shows as FAT32. But is completely unusable in Windows 7
- Flashdrives HAVE to be formatted using the Master Boot Record partition scheme when formatting them as HFS+ volumes in order to work on Windows 7
- Windows 7 supports GUID partition schemes.
- Paragon support isn't very helpful, however they do agree that it shouldn't matter if it's a hard drive or flashdrive.
- I've tried several flashdrives with the same results
What is causing my Macbook Pro to treat an external hard drive differently then a flashdrive when formatting them? Experience and common sense tells me that it shouldn't matter whether it's a flashdrive or spindle drive, both should format the same.
Granted, I could simply use exFat or FAT32 on my flashdrives for cross platform compatibility however i prefer to use HFS+ when possible. Also, this issue has quite frankly got me stumped and I'm on a mission to resolve it!
Any help would be much appreciated
Brad
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3), 2007 MBP, 2.16Ghz, 3 Gigs of RAM
