[levonk]

I recently purchased a USB Flash Disk, PC Formatted. It works great when I copy files to move between OS X 10.2.6 macs. It also works when I plug it into a PC. But when I plug it into an OS 9 mac, all the files are unreadable. The same happens when I copy stuff from the OS 9 mac and try to open it on OS X. I would like to keep it formatted as a PC disk since I send files to many PC users.
Is there any way to solve the OS X/OS 9 problem?

[jpmhughes]

You could try Joliet Volume access
While this OS 9 extension was written mainly for accessing long file names, and accessing PC files that are sometimes unreadable in OS 9 and below, it may help in your case as well.
But, what type of files are these?
It may be that you need a file extension, and if one is already there, can you open the file(s) from within the application itself?
Jim

[levonk]

My main problem was with some special fonts. I use OS X & the Service Bureau uses OS 9. The font files were unreadable. We also had to add the extension to all the QuarkXPress files, but some files (like the dictionary and the book file) were still unreadable.
I also had problems with applications. I copied some OS X applications I had downloaded from my OS 9 G3 to the flash disk, but my OS X machine could not recognize them as applications, even after I added the .app extension.

[jpmhughes]

In reply to:

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My main problem was with some special fonts. I use OS X & the Service Bureau uses OS 9. The font files were unreadable

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It is possible that these fonts are unusable in OS 9, some fonts only work in OS X and other "newer" OS' such as XP. Opentype fonts are one example. Although I can't be sure if this is what is happening in your case, it is one possibility.
More than likely though, all this has to do with how Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X read files.
With OS 9 there is a resource fork and a data fork.
OS X can use the resource fork but when you copy the files, applications or fonts to the PC formatted flash disk you are most likely losing the resource fork. That is probably making these files unreadable. The best thing you can do to preserve the files original integrity is to stuff all the files with DropStuff . That should keep the files intact.
Jim

[SueG]

Yo may like to do a search over in the Design & Publishing forum where there are many fine font threads.

[levonk]

The font files are not the problem. I have designed these fonts with Fontographer. They work well on OS X and OS 9 if i copy them on an HFS zip disk. The problem, in my opinion, is a confusion between OS X and OS 9 in the way they read and write PC disks.
If there is a workaround for this on the OS X, it would be great. Stuffing the files worked fine. For a few small files it is ok, but when I have a directory full of large images, it is time consuming, and I do this several times a day.

[jpmhughes]

In reply to:

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Stuffing the files worked fine. For a few small files it is ok, but when I have a directory full of large images, it is time consuming, and I do this several times a day.

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Unfortunately, right now, I think that stuffing the files is the only way to insure the data and resource fork will stay intact.
Jim