USB sticks: whose side are they on?

[tamaranth]

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 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.

Comments

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

Completely OT:

I noticed on a relatively recent post that you were listening to Blowzabella... they were recommended to me by a fellow traveller earlier this year. I hated his other recommendation, Show of Hands, (well, I liked the instrumentals, hated the singing) so I'm not confident about his judgement, certainly not confident enough to actually buy some Blowzabella, so I was wondering whether you might be able to provide me with a sample?

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

Sure! Drop me an email (tamaranth at gmail) and I'll see what I can do ... though you'll need several tracks to base your decision on, as I find the quality very variable.