Semi OT - FAT16 formatting on Mac OS 10.6

[Owen M Collins]

I have just transferred over to a new MacBook Pro that is running 10.6. When I put in my good old SD card to format it I keep getting a:

" /Volumes/MAKERBOT does not appear to be a whole disk " error. I am using this in terminal :

diskutil partitionDisk /Volumes/MAKERBOT 1 MBRFormat "MS-DOS FAT16" "MAKERBOT" 32M

the SD card is called "MAKERBOT" and it is a 32MB card.

Does anyone have an Idea on what I should do? I tried a different card and it gave the same error. Is this a Mac 10.6 thing?

Thanks

O.

[Jordan Miller]

do you have to reformat? if it was already working on MakerBot, OS X should read it just fine. alternatively, try the GUI "Disk Utility" in your /Applications/Utilities folder. I don't know if it can format FAT16 but at least it should help you figure out what's going on. let us know!

jordan

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[Owen M Collins]

Well, I reformatted it because that is part my 'ritual' of getting ready to print. I especially make sure to do this after any time I interrupt the printer or RepG.

Disk Utility says that it is fine using both verify disk and repair disk. I am going to try my wife's computer that is still 10.5 and see if that makes a difference.

O.

[JohnWasser]

I'm using Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) and Disk Utility will only format
FAT32.

I found the 10.6.2 diskutil manual:

http://developer.apple.com/Mac/library/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man8/diskutil.8.html

Does the SD card successfully mount on your system? Can you see the
files on it? if not, you may not be able to use the name "/Volumes/
MAKERBOT" to reference it. Try one of the other styles of
designation: "disk2s5" or "/dev/disk3". Disk Utility should show you
what names each drive has.

The error "/Volumes/MAKERBOT does not appear to be a whole disk" might
mean that the disk is partitioned and only one of the partitions is
mounted. If so, you can use Disk Utility to re-format ("Erase") the
disk and make it a single-partition MS-DOS disk (FAT32). Then you can
mount the disk and use the command line to format it as FAT16. Some
cards come with a special partition to implement auto-run or
encryption features.

[Owen M Collins]

THanks, for the info. It does mount on the system, and I ran the erase again and formatted it as a single partition MSDOS disk. I assumed it was FAT32, but when I looked at it after I formatted it it said it was formatted FAT-16. It is only a 32MB sd card, I wonder if that has to do with it. Could that be listing it incorrectly. I am going to try it in the Makerbot and see what it says.

O.

[Owen M Collins]

I have attached a screenshot from Disk Utility. This is after I just reformatted it. It is funny that is says it is FAT-16, When I put it in the Makerbot, RepG never gave me the option of building from SD card (after I built the Single wall test box to the SD card) So I don't know what the deal is.

Thanks in advance for any advice,

O.

On Mar 27, 2010, at 10:09 AM, JohnWasser wrote:

[JohnWasser]

Did you make sure to use 8 characters or fewer in your file name? Is
the file extension "s3g"? Others have had trouble with the SD socket
on the motherboard due to bad solder joints o it couldn't hurt to look
carefully at them.

You my be right about Disk Utility automatically using FAT16 for
smaller SD cards. Mine is 1GB.

On Mar 27, 10:48 am, Owen M Collins <ccstudio.o...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have attached a screenshot from Disk Utility. This is after I just reformatted it. It is funny that is says it is FAT-16, When I put it in the Makerbot, RepG never gave me the option of building from SD card (after I built the Single wall test box to the SD card) So I don't know what the deal is.
>
> Thanks in advance for any advice,
> O.
>

> On Mar 27, 2010, at 10:09 AM, JohnWasser wrote:
>
>
>
> > I'm using Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) and Disk Utility will only format
> > FAT32.
>
> > I found the 10.6.2 diskutil manual:
>

> >http://developer.apple.com/Mac/library/documentation/Darwin/Reference...

[Owen M Collins]

8 characters or less? - Yep

extension s3g? - Yep

It doesn't see anything on the card.

This was a motherboard that has had 100 builds on it no problem, so I don't feel it is likely to be that. The new part of the equation in this new computer. Hmm...

O.

[Andrew Plumb]

Did you just delete/reformat the partition or the whole card? I seem to recall having to format the whole card (2GB micro-SD in SD adapter) then partition when I last formatted mine under OSX 10.5. I don't remember if I set any of the Master Boot Record options; I think I did.

It definitely needs to be FAT16. My WinXP EEEPC refused to format a little 32MB in anything other than FAT12, which wouldn't work.

I haven't had to format my 2GB since (it's been months), but I rarely do any file transfers over the serial cable any more either. I build to the card directly plugged into my MBPro, then plug the card into my cupcake and Build from SD Card. It's so much faster that way.

Also make sure you didn't accidentally flip the little "Lock" tab on the side of the card. That could cause you some grief.

Andrew.

--

"The future is already here. It's just not very evenly distributed" -- William Gibson

Me: http://clothbot.com/wiki/

[JohnWasser]

I build my s3g files to the MacBook Pro disk, then later copy them to
the SD card. That way if I ever destroy the contents of the SD card I
just have to re-copy the files I want. Has worked great so far.

[Owen M Collins]

Well I tried using my wife MacBook to reformat it. and that worked. No errors when doing FAT-16 from the command line. It wasn't the lock tab, so I don't know what the issue could be.

Now it works though. Happy me.
O.

[Jordan Miller]

figured it out on OS X 10.6.3. The syntax has changed somewhat.
first run:
diskutil list

this lets you identify the disk number for your SD card. I get a bunch of stuff, then I find this:
/dev/disk2
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme *1.0 GB disk2
1: Microsoft Basic Data MAKERBOT 1.0 GB disk2s1

So the next command I use "disk2"

diskutil partitionDisk disk2 MBR "MS-DOS FAT16" MAKERBOT 1G

result printed to the Terminal Window:
Started partitioning on disk2
$<3>Unmounting disk
$<3>Creating partition map
$<3>Waiting for disks to reappear
$<3>Formatting disk2s1 as MS-DOS (FAT16) with name MAKERBOT
$<3>Finished partitioning on disk2
/dev/disk2
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme *1.0 GB disk2
1: DOS_FAT_16 MAKERBOT 1.0 GB disk2s1


SUCCESS!!

Note: "MBR" parameter is CRITICAL. you need FDisk_partition_scheme, NOT GUID_partition_scheme for MakerBot Mobo to read the disk filesystem correctly.


jordan

[Jordan Miller]

and yes, I have added it to the wiki:
http://wiki.makerbot.com/building-from-an-sd-card

which is already linked from here:
http://wiki.makerbot.com/how-to-print#toc18

jordan

[Cathal Garvey]

I seem to recall being offered the choice of which FAT to use in discutil, perhaps it's my imagination though.

On May 4, 2010 5:10 p.m., "Jordan Miller" <jrd...@gmail.com> wrote:

and yes, I have added it to the wiki:
http://wiki.makerbot.com/building-from-an-sd-card

which is already linked from here:
http://wiki.makerbot.com/how-to-print#toc18

jordan

On May 4, 2010, at 12:00 PM, Jordan Miller wrote: > figured it out on OS X 10.6.3. The syntax ...

[MakerBot Space]

This is a bit of Random information, however memory cards are just
like floppies, they go bad. I work in digital imaging. I get calls
almost everyday where they say something to the effect of it always
worked before. The memory is rated for a fix number of read / write
cycles some fail early. Sometimes reformatting will get them to work
until they hit a bad spot. How files are physically stored is beyond
the scope of this discussion. I would and do have a spare card
handy. Also if you have a digital camera you can try formating the
memory card on the camera. Regardless of something formatting doesn't
mean it's all good. If any storage media proves to be unstable in my
presents I destroy and replace it. The cost of storage verses loosing
a important file has always justified this practice for me.

Brandon

On May 4, 9:18 am, Cathal Garvey <cathalgar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I seem to recall being offered the choice of which FAT to use in discutil,
> perhaps it's my imagination though.
>

[Koen Kooi]

Op 5 mei 2010, om 14:51 heeft MakerBot Space het volgende geschreven:

> This is a bit of Random information, however memory cards are just
> like floppies, they go bad. I work in digital imaging. I get calls
> almost everyday where they say something to the effect of it always
> worked before. The memory is rated for a fix number of read / write
> cycles some fail early. Sometimes reformatting will get them to work
> until they hit a bad spot. How files are physically stored is beyond
> the scope of this discussion.

To give some more background, most card do 'wear leveling', which means writes get spread out over the medium to avoid killing the start of the partition really fast. Most cards do this transparently, but not all. And you can't really tell which ones do and which ones don't.

Small SD cards are dirt cheap nowadays (if you can find them), so get a few spare ones while you can :)

regards,

Koen