From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Oct 26 13:00:23 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 91E99106566B for ; Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:00:23 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx02.qsc.de (mx02.qsc.de [213.148.130.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 513848FC18 for ; Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:00:23 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r55.edvax.de (port-92-195-97-236.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.97.236]) by mx02.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id BE42E248ED; Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:00:21 +0100 (CET) Received: from r55.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r55.edvax.de (8.14.2/8.14.2) with SMTP id n9QD0LI1002056; Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:00:21 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:00:20 +0100 From: Polytropon To: rob1940@gmail.com Message-Id: <20091026140020.780615da.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: References: <20091026110905.f802174a.freebsd@edvax.de> Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 2.4.7 (GTK+ 2.12.1; i386-portbld-freebsd7.0) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: WD External Disc Drive X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Polytropon List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:00:23 -0000 On Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:37:50 +1100, Rob Hurle wrote: > Thanks for your comment. "disk" began life as the American spelling > (probably older English, copied from Greek) and "disc" was the English > (UK, Australia, probably South Africa and other places). Here, in > Australia, I am used to "disc", but I take your point and agree that > the two spellings most likely have their particular usages. In the > fullness of time I suspect that the scheme you outline will become > widely accepted. There's other instances of particular preferences in > spelling in Australian English vis a vis American - for example, > "recognize" versus "recognise". As others have pointed out, the > English language is a bit of a mongrel :-) Wow, that's interesting to know. From my "IT career", I always read "disks", not "discs" (in its meaning as optical discs when they started to "exist" in the 80s). The differentiation disk vs. disc started at this time and is very common today to distinguish optical media from magnetic media. Magneto-optical media is called MO disc though. :-) > Thanks for your comments too, about use of the FAT32 file system. I > had thought about that, but the NTFS seemed to be a bit more universal > - I'm not sure that FAT file systems are recognised by default on Macs > (for example). I always thought FAT is one of the most universal file systems (at least when "Windows" is involved); if it's not, I do consider tar the most universal file system (allthough it is no file system in particular). It works on all UNIX flavours I encountered, as well as on Mac OS. The only thing you need is a tar program that reads from or writes to the preferred media. Of course, "Windows" lacks such a program. Example. On Linux # tar cvf /dev/fd0.h1440 On Sun Solaris: # tar xvf /dev/rfd0 It works on IRIX, HP-UX and other UNIXes, too, and it works with every media (floppy, CD, DVD, USB stick, external hard disk, MO disc etc.). The only thing you have to grant access to is the device (usually via its device file). As for your intended use, well, try FAT. Sadly, my iBook doesn't work yet, so I can't check. In MICROS~1 land, FAT is recognized among all the "Windows", and r/w support is fine on FreeBSD. Mac OS X should be able to use it, too. > Rob Hurle > ANU, College of Asia and the Pacific > School of Culture, History and Language ^^^^^^^^ That explains everything. :-) -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...