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dwishbone

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 24, 2002
240
0
On the Moon
Ease of use has always been one of Apple's key selling points. The iPod is great, but the whole FAT/HFS formatting thing just sucks. It becomes a real inconvenience not being able to take my iPod to from a Mac to a PC or vice versa without the aid of third party software. I know I could format the iPod as FAT, but then i would be locked into updating its software with a PC everytime. There has to be a better way. I then thought of it. Now that iTunes is coming for Windows, Apple could either write or license an HFS enabler for Windows. This would make things much easier. Any PC with iTunes installed would then be able to access an iPod no matter if it was HFS or FAT formatted. It would make things so simple. It would take away alot of of the confusion and would make it where an HFS formatted iPod would work anywhere.
 
Re: is this a good idea for windows iTunes?

Originally posted by dwishbone
I could format the iPod as FAT, but then i would be locked into updating its software with a PC everytime.

You can format it FAT, and still update the software using your Mac. My fiance has an iPod formatted FAT so she can use it as a hard drive at work. But all of her updating, music files, song lists, etc. are all on the Mac.

Hope this helps.
 
Re: Re: is this a good idea for windows iTunes?

oops...i hit "quote" instead of "edit"
 
i thought that it reformats the iPod everytime if it determines the formatting is not the same as the firmware update you are using. ok...so i have an HFS formatted iPod at the moment. what would be the steps i need to do to convert the iPod to FAT and get all its software up to date?
this what i assume.
1. Hook up my iPod to a PC
2. Perform the total coversion by using PC software 2.0.1
3. Resync on my Mac.

the issue i thought would be a problem would be when a new software update comes out and i tried to update it to, lets say 2.1, it would reformat the iPod back to HFS or either refuse to run the software update. guess i was incorrect.
 
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