Are iPods Semi-Cross Platform?

edith headedith head 5,106 Posts
edited December 2006 in Strut Central
i'm sorry if this has been asked before, but i did a search and couldn't come up with anything.i just got a Mac, and my ipod was previously formated for Windows. So I accidentally messed my ipod somehow cause it was running really slow and disjointed. I decided to reformat it on my Mac and copy everything again. Then I go to work and connect it to my PC there, and it can't read it cause it was formated to a Mac.I could have sworn that my Mac at home could read my ipod when it was formated for Windows. Am I crazy? Can Windows ipods be read by Macs but not vise-versa?

  Comments


  • catalistcatalist 1,373 Posts
    My Ipod was originally formatted for PC , I got a G5 and have been using it with the Mac with no problems whatsoever. You can't sync all your songs/photos/videos, but I think that is the only thing you can't do, and that feature is unnecessary for me anyway. the mac trys to tell you that you need to format it for Mac but you do not have to. Using Itunes you can add media to the ipod, browse, and delete tracks.

    from what I remember Mac formatted Ipods are usually not recognized on PCs however. you may have to get a 3rd party piece of software , I think there's one called 'Ipod Rip' or somethin.

  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    Aud,

    A PC formatted iPod can be read by a Mac. A Mac formatted iPod cannot be read by a PC.

    The problem is with PCs inability to deal with the Mac format, not the other way around.

  • oh thanks guys. i guess i should reformat it again to Windows?

    2 days ago when i messed up my ipod, i copied everything through the USB hub instead of the USB 2 input like an idiot. It took 5 hours to copy everything. I hope that it won't take nearly that long again.

  • macdrive will ease some of your problems.
    get a copy.

  • MacDrive software makes Mac disks act like normal PC disks allowing to get files both from Macs to PCs and from PCs to Macs. MacDrive works with floppy, ZIP, hard drives, CD-R/RW, DVD+/-R/RW, FireWire, and USB 2.0. Version 6.1.5 has improved: ability to use Mac-formatted iPods with iTunes, improved: Documentation for Disk Formatting and Disk Partitioning, fixed: Disk partitioning failure on disks larger than 512GB.

  • Aud,

    A PC formatted iPod can be read by a Mac. A Mac formatted iPod cannot be read by a PC.

    The problem is with PCs inability to deal with the Mac format, not the other way around.

    and there in lies the shattyness of the PC world...
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