Re: PC or Mac?

[pausch@saaf.se (Paul Schlyter)]

In article <040220020823516588%gwestonREMOVE@CAPSattbi.com>,
Greg Weston  <gwestonREMOVE@CAPSattbi.com> wrote:
 
> In article <a3ld5l$mqd$1@merope.saaf.se>, Paul Schlyter
> <pausch@saaf.se> wrote:
> 
>>>> That would mean they were formatted with and HFS directory structure
>>>> (as opposed to a FAT structure). I don't know your exact
>>>> circumstances.  If you can read on an x86 box floppies that she's
>>>> writing from her Mac, she's writing to FAT floppies. Convenient for
>>>> file transfer, but if you don't need it it's unnecessarily slow for
>>>> her.
>>  
>> Speed isn't an issue here since these floppies are used only from
>> time to time.  But it's obviously FAT floppies, and she never did
>> anything particular to select floppy format.
> 
> What we're telling you is that there are three options:
> 1) They came into your possession FAT and never reformatted.
 
This is the most likely option - but that implies that those
diskettes which were "formatted for the Mac" actually were formatted
as FAT diskettes.  Perhaps another marketing gimmick....  but I
was surprised when I found this out.  Didn't think the Mac was
able to handle FAT-formatted diskettes at all....
 
> 2) They were formatted FAT while in your possession.
 
Nope!
 
> 3) You've got software on your PC that can read the HFS file system.
 
:-) ...not bloody likely...
 
> I consider those options to be listed in rapidly declining order of
> likelihood. Macs use their own file system by default, but will use FAT
> without complaint or warning.
 
Those diskettes weren't formatted on that Mac.  They came
preformatted, apparently as FAT diskettes even though they supposedly
were "formatted for the Mac".
 
-- 
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