tamaranth: me, in the sun (Default)
tamaranth ([personal profile] tamaranth) wrote2006-12-07 10:05 am

USB sticks: whose side are they on?

I have a number of USB sticks (mostly USB2) which I use on Windows and Linux machines. I also have an MP3 player that's basically a USB stick with firmware.

Sometimes, files loaded on one OS won't show on a different OS. (Mostly they're visible everywhere.)

Example 1: On Tuesday I copied a couple of Access databases (and some MP3s) from my Linux desktop to a USB stick. On Wednesday, when I stuck the stick into a Windows XP laptop, those files weren't there -- though other, pre-existing files were. Now (Thursday) I'm at werk again, and on Linux, and the files are visible once more.

Example 2: That USB MP3 player says it's full on [livejournal.com profile] ladymoonray's Windows laptop, even though its capacity is 512MB and there's only 330MB of music on there. The mystery is solved when I play the music: there are quite a few tracks that just don't show up on the Windows PC, and thus can't be deleted (which in some cases is a real pain). I still need to work out which machine I loaded those files from, so that I have a better chance of clearing them off again ...

Can anyone advise? I do need to use some files on both Linux and Windows, so having dedicated USB sticks isn't going to solve the problem.

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