A very simple query

tuckebytuckeby
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Hey all. About to get a Macbook and have a question, which I suspect you'll all find a bit simple...



I currently have an external USB floppy disk drive for a PC laptop and understand that this will easily work with a Macbook. My question is: are floppy disks formatted the same way for PCs and for Macs? I'm hoping to shift basic Word documents between MS Office for Mac and MS Office for Windows using a floppy disk (networking and USB key drives are not options). Will this be possible? (I read somewhere that hard drives on Macs and PCs use different file formats).



Thanks for your help!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    You can format it using FAT and it'll read and write on both Mac OS X and Windows XP, seamlessly.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    benzenebenzene Posts: 338member
    Also, pretty much any floppy disks you buy today are going to be FAT formatted already.



    Don't try and use Apple's Disk Utility to format floppies, as I've had pretty much a 100% failure rate when I've tried to reformat them (to any format actually). Don't know why this is.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    I haven't seen a floppy disc in a few years... people still use them?



    I'm not being a dick, I'm serious. People still use floppys?
  • Reply 4 of 8
    tuckebytuckeby Posts: 4member
    Thanks for the info! It's a big, big help!
  • Reply 5 of 8
    regreg Posts: 832member
    I transfer Excel and Word files all the time between Mac and PC laptops using a USB thumbdrive. Office will work either way so you don't have to format the floppy just keep it the way it is.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    maimezvousmaimezvous Posts: 802member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jdcfsu


    I haven't seen a floppy disc in a few years... people still use them?



    I'm not being a dick, I'm serious. People still use floppys?



    I live with my grandparents and they used to back up all their finance data on several floppies. I recently showed them how to use CDs. It was quite entertaining.
  • Reply 7 of 8
    benzenebenzene Posts: 338member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jdcfsu


    I haven't seen a floppy disc in a few years... people still use them?



    I'm not being a dick, I'm serious. People still use floppys?



    Oh, I wish I could say the same. We have two imagers here at work, both that are still running Windows 95. No USB support, no network access. I've gone through several 1.44MB disks already.



    I cannot quantify how much I hate them.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by benzene


    Oh, I wish I could say the same. We have two imagers here at work, both that are still running Windows 95. No USB support, no network access. I've gone through several 1.44MB disks already.



    I cannot quantify how much I hate them.



    Wow... Win95? I don't know what I'd do at work without being able to access my network drives or transfer files via USB. You must have a lot of patience.
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