Re: Formatting Compact Flash

In article <VpX_e.17193$p5.3478@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx!nnrp1.uunet.ca>,
clvrmnky <clvrmnky-uunet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On 29/09/2005 6:31 AM, Glenn Corwin wrote:
> > I have a Compact Flash card that I want to format as FAT32. Is there
> > software on the Mac that can do it?
> >
> > I'm using the PCMCIA slot on my PowerBook. My Digital Camera only
> > formats as FAT.
> >
> N.B., this is all off the top of my head, so take with a grain of salt.
>
> There may be a fancy GUI way to do this, but I'm pretty comfortable with
> the command line, so I'd probably start with something like "newfs".
>
> The trick would be finding the "special device" that corresponds to the
> PCMCIA device and the CF attached to it.
>
> Well, I'd probably want to start with Disk Utility and see if that
> utility sees the CF card on the PC slot. AFAIK, this util does not
> offer FAT32 as one of the Volume formats in the Erase tab. However, it
> will show you the volume mount, and with that we can find the device name.
>
> Now, I don't have a CF card reader handy (or my camera, which will mount
> as a mass storage device if I let it) so I can only hand-wave right now,
> but the idea is to run newfs_msdos with the right arguments so that it
> finds the unmounted special node and puts a new filesystem on it.
>
> Something like this:
>
> newfs_msdos -F 32 -v "XXXXXXXX.XXX" /dev/disk2s2 disktypeFoo
>
> There are more required options, and I've just made up the disktype and
> the special node (so don't use this command!) I'd really have to hack
> at this a bit, but I suspect it can be done. We would need to find out
> all these details before we could continue.
>
> Perhaps someone else has a nice GUI tool they know of that they can
> recommend.
>
> It also needs to be said that there is no guarantee that your camera
> will be able to recognize the FAT32 filesystem you create in this manner.

I can find the "special device" by getting a directory listing of
/dev/disk* and then mounting the device and getting the listing again
(see what appears).

I can't seem to get it to format, because I always get "Device busy".
Anything I'm missing here?

BTW: I'm not looking to use the card in my camera, I want to put lots of
images on it for my Mom's "Vista Frame" (LCD picture frame). FAT format
can't handle enough files (they all need to be in the top level
directory). I also tried various Mac/Unix formats that Disk Utility can
create, but the Vista Frame doesn't recognize them. My only hope right
now is to try FAT32.

Thanks for the help; I'll keep trying things on my end too.

-Glenn
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