Flash card is indicated mostly filled Simultaneously, I can't find any files of appropriate size % sudo du -ah 128K ./.fseventsd/fseventsd-uuid 256K ./.fseventsd 340M ./NORMAL/2022-08-05-19-08-17.MOV 1.8M ./NORMAL/2022-08-05-12-01-48.JPG 342M ./NORMAL du: ./.Spotlight-V100: Operation not permitted 460M ./EVENT/2022-08-05-16-56-54.MOV 460M ./EVENT du: ./.Trashes: Operation not permitted 803M . What are these files (.Spotlight-V100 and .Trashes) which are not accessible? Why aren't they accessible even with sudo? How to access them?

I have a 64 GB USB-C flash stick from Samsung that was new in October 2024, which I formatted with a tool from my car's manufacturer that it insisted on. Making it a ExFAT volume that contains map updates and optionally media like MP3s. I had success reading it in the car, and success adding media to it using the Mac when I was on MacOS 14 Sonoma. Now I insert it on my updated MacBook running MacOS 15 Sequoia, and it just doesn't mount. It shows up in Disk Utility and as disk4 with disk4s1. Isn't ExFAT supported and shouldn't it work? I'll show you what I tried so far, and I wonder if there's something else I should try. Here's what the terminal says about mounting it read only:

dlamblin ~ % diskutil mount disk4s1
Volume on disk4s1 failed to mount
If you think the volume is supported but damaged, try the "readOnly" option
dlamblin ~ % diskutil mount readOnly disk4s1
Volume on disk4s1 failed to mount
If you think the volume is supported but damaged, try the "readOnly" option

Prepending sudo doesn't change the output to either of these. And perhaps you want to see what it says in Disk Utility: Oh, and First Aid complains about permissions, but the terminal version of diskutil doesn't behave any better with sudo permissions. E.G. with sudo:

dlamblin ~ % sudo diskutil mountDisk readOnly disk4
Volume(s) mounted successfully
dlamblin ~ % df -h
Filesystem        Size    Used   Avail Capacity iused ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk3s1s1   460Gi    10Gi   324Gi     4%    412k  3.4G    0%   /
devfs            208Ki   208Ki     0Bi   100%     720     0  100%   /dev
/dev/disk3s6     460Gi    15Gi   324Gi     5%      15  3.4G    0%   /System/Volumes/VM
/dev/disk3s2     460Gi   6.4Gi   324Gi     2%    1.2k  3.4G    0%   /System/Volumes/Preboot
/dev/disk3s4     460Gi   2.2Mi   324Gi     1%      51  3.4G    0%   /System/Volumes/Update
/dev/disk2s2     500Mi   6.0Mi   481Mi     2%       1  4.9M    0%   /System/Volumes/xarts
/dev/disk2s1     500Mi   5.4Mi   481Mi     2%      33  4.9M    0%   /System/Volumes/iSCPreboot
/dev/disk2s3     500Mi   2.7Mi   481Mi     1%      85  4.9M    0%   /System/Volumes/Hardware
/dev/disk3s5     460Gi   102Gi   324Gi    24%    1.0M  3.4G    0%   /System/Volumes/Data
map auto_home      0Bi     0Bi     0Bi   100%       0     0     -   /System/Volumes/Data/home
/dev/disk3s7     460Gi   2.0Gi   324Gi     1%    139k  3.4G    0%   /nix
/dev/disk3s3     460Gi   986Mi   324Gi     1%      38  3.4G    0%   /Volumes/Recovery
dlamblin ~ % sudo diskutil verifyDisk disk4s1
A whole disk must be specified
dlamblin ~ % sudo diskutil repairDisk disk4s1
A whole disk must be specified
dlamblin ~ % sudo diskutil verifyDisk disk4
Unable to verify this whole disk: A GUID Partition Table (GPT) partitioning scheme is required (-69773)
dlamblin@ ~ % sudo diskutil repairDisk disk4
Unable to repair this whole disk: A GUID Partition Table (GPT) partitioning scheme is required (-69773)

Maybe it's MBR partitioned now? But again, it worked before. Was there some MBR support I forgot I added to Sonoma that I should add or enable? **Updates per comment requests**: Again, kindly note that I can read the contents of this USB stick in my car, and on a Windows machine. I can modify them if I like. I cannot mount it at all on my MacBook Pro 16 Nov 2023 with Sequoia 15.3.1.

➜  ~ sudo fsck_exfat -q /dev/disk4s1
QUICKCHECK ONLY; FILESYSTEM CLEAN
➜  ~ sudo fsck_exfat -d -n /dev/disk4s1
** Checking volume.
** Checking main boot region.
125313091 total sectors; 512 bytes per sector
FAT starts at sector 2048; size 3840 sectors
489480 clusters starting at sector 6144; 131072 bytes per cluster
Root directory starts at cluster 4
Read      offset = 0x000000100000  length = 0x001000
** Checking system files.
Read      offset = 0x000000340000  length = 0x020000
Found active bitmap; first cluster 2, length 61185
** Checking upper case translation table.
Read      offset = 0x000000320000  length = 0x020000
Found upcase table; starting cluster 3, length 5836
** Checking file system hierarchy.
Directory /
Directory /System Volume Information
File      /.lge.upgrade.xml.enc
Directory /HU
Directory /whatsnew
File      /2023_GV60_USA.ver
File      /$TXRAJNL.DAT
Read      offset = 0x000000360000  length = 0x020000
File      /System Volume Information/WPSettings.dat
File      /System Volume Information/IndexerVolumeGuid
Read      offset = 0x0000003c0000  length = 0x020000
Directory /HU/images
Directory /HU/firmware
Read      offset = 0x000242c80000  length = 0x020000
File      /whatsnew/whatsnew.tar.gz.enc
Read      offset = 0x0000003e0000  length = 0x020000
File      /HU/images/coconut-rootfs.tar.gz.enc
File      /HU/images/coconut-vr_NAM.tar.gz.enc
File      /HU/images/A_gos2-fs_20_qnx.img.enc
File      /HU/images/kernel-update-CLU.tar.gz.enc
File      /HU/images/kernel-update.tar.gz.enc
File      /HU/images/kernel-updater.enc
File      /HU/images/navi_NAM.md5_.enc
File      /HU/images/navi_NAM.tar.gz
File      /HU/images/nav_NAM_JW.sign
Read      offset = 0x000000400000  length = 0x020000
File      /HU/firmware/update.tar.gz.enc
** Checking active bitmap.
Checking bitmap cluster 2
Read      offset = 0x000000300000  length = 0x020000
0 clusters were marked used, but not referenced
0 clusters were marked used and CLUST_BAD
0 clusters were marked free, but referenced
** Rechecking main boot region.
** Rechecking alternate boot region.
** The volume  appears to be OK.
➜  ~ sudo fsck_exfat -y /dev/disk4s1
fsck_exfat: Opened /dev/rdisk4s1 read-only
** Checking volume.
** Checking main boot region.
** Checking system files.
** Checking upper case translation table.
** Checking file system hierarchy.
** Checking active bitmap.
** Rechecking main boot region.
** Rechecking alternate boot region.
** The volume  appears to be OK.
➜  ~ sudo diskutil mount disk4s1
Volume on disk4s1 failed to mount
If you think the volume is supported but damaged, try the "readOnly" option
➜  ~

~ sudo fdisk /dev/disk4
Disk: /dev/disk4	geometry: 7800/255/63 [125313283 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1: 07    0   3   4 - 1023 254  63 [       192 -  125313091] HPFS/QNX/AUX
 2: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused      
 3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused      
 4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused

I also tried a different mount command; confused that I got a permissions bases error.

➜  ~ sudo mkdir -p /Volumes/samsung; sudo mount_exfat /dev/disk4s1 /Volumes/samsung
mount_exfat: /dev/disk4s1 on /Volumes/samsung: Operation not permitted
➜  ~ sudo rmdir /Volumes/samsung

When using Disk Utility to format a cheap slow thumb-drive (USB flash drive ), is Apple File System (APFS) now the appropriate *Format* to choose over the *Mac OS Extended (Journaled)* that previously was commonly used? This drive is for use on Macs running Mojave and Catalina . The tech note from Apple, [How to erase a disk for Mac](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208496) , is not clear on this issue.

Disk Utility (macOS Catalina 10.15.2) fails to erase my USB drive (64GB key, currently formatted in exFAT). ~~~ /dev/disk2 (external, physical): #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *64.1 GB disk2 1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1 2: Microsoft Basic Data Lexar 63.9 GB disk2s2 ~~~ I've tried a bunch of commands that I've found here and there in the terminal, but none of them worked, like: ~~~ ➜ ~ diskutil eraseVolume exFAT MyName /dev/disk2 Started erase on disk2 Unmounting disk Error: -69888: Couldn't unmount disk ~~~ ~~~ ➜ ~ diskutil eraseVolume exFAT MyName /dev/disk2s2 Started erase on disk2s2 Lexar Unmounting disk Erasing Error: -69760: Unable to write to the last block of the device ~~~ ~~~ ➜ ~ diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 MYSD MBRFormat /dev/disk2 Started erase on disk2 Unmounting disk Creating the partition map Error: -69877: Couldn't open device ~~~ ~~~ ➜ ~ diskutil eraseDisk free EMPTY /dev/disk2 Started erase on disk2 Unmounting disk Creating the partition map Error: -69877: Couldn't open device ~~~ My USB drive appears as read only when i do CMD+I, I tried repairing the permissions but that failed too. ~~~ ➜ ~ diskutil resetUserPermissions /dev/disk2 id -u Ready to reset user permissions on disk2 Error encountered attempting to reset permissions for user 501 home directory on disk2: Permissions are not enabled on the disk (-69861) ~~~ Thx in advance for the help :)

I am trying to install Mac OS X 10.4 onto a USB flash drive with the DVD. (not creating a bootable USB installer!) When I reach the "Select Destination" part of the installation, I select the USB flash drive, but then I see a small red octagon with an exclamation mark next to the volume's icon. Below it is the same red octagon with the message: You cannot install Mac OS X on this volume. Mac OS X cannot start up from this volume. and the **Options** and **Continue** buttons are greyed out. What does this mean? Does it mean that Mac OS X cannot be installed on USB flash drives? Or is the install destination corrupted?

I am about to retire an iPhone 6S which has finally gotten a bit too slow for me. Out of curiosity, I'd like to find out how worn out the flash storage / SSD is on the device. I know that on macOS I can use smartctl to find out the wear percentage of my SSD drives, so I'm curious if there is something similar for the iPhone?

I have an iphone X that suddenly decided to stop booting. It was getting full and I was trying to delete some photos and videos to free up space when suddenly it wouldn't let me delete any files. I decided to restart the phone and now it won't fully boot up and my MacBook won't recognize the phone when I plug it in. The phone, when I try to start it up, will briefly show the apple logo, but does not boot. I took it to the apple store and they suggested that the motherboard might have a problem. Is there any way I can extract my photos and videos from the flash memory inside the phone? I've seen a video where someone [extracts a flash memory chip from an iphone and uses it as a USB drive](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqWLSK2lgsI) , but he doesn't bother recovering data. In another video, this same person also is able to [recover data by removing CPU, EEPROM, and flash memory and install these in a new phone to recover data](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58-7cg9cYNY) , but this looks like a real pain. Does anyone know if there's a way to interface with the phone like an external drive just to pull the photos off? The fact that it shows the apple logo briefly suggests that the screen is fine and that it's able to at least partially load some firmware. I'd very much like to get a few of these photos as they feature a now-deceased family member.

I'm looking to see if the two are interchangeable and if not what the differences are. If the two in fact have a difference, perhaps adding devices or cases where each are normally used over the other.

I have a 32 GB USB flash drive which is currently formatted to 261 MB: **How can I reformat/erase that USB drive so that I access all 30.75 GB of it?** Disk utility won't let me change the size of the partition to 30.75 GB. **Update 1:** I erased the drive. At the end, there was this dialog box. **Update 2:** I took the path of least resistance and changed the size of the drive to 30 GB on a Windows machine (discmgmt.dsc utility).

I'm getting an M1 MacBook Pro from my employer which only has 512 GB of flash storage (my 2018 MBP has 1 TB), so I'll need to move my 350 GB Photos library to an external drive. I know that I could have Photos optimize for storage (I do have iCloud Library), but I think it's best to have the full-size Photos library stored somewhere. Would it be okay to store the Photos library on an external thumb-type flash drive from a reputable manufacturer such as SanDisk, or should I stick to a more conventional external USB flash drive, such as the SanDisk Extreme series?

# Introduction I'm running: * High Sierra v10.13.6 * VMware Fusion v11.5.1 I'm attempting to connect a flash drive (USB 3.0) to a virtual machine (Redhat). That virtual machine is a guest to my Mac host. # What I've Done So Far In the VM Settings->USB & Bluetooth, I've set these options: After connecting the flash drive to my mac, I see the following message: The flash drive never shows up in the list of Connected USB devices. ## Ignore and Mount Seamus suggested the following in the comments: > What happens if you "Ignore", and then mount the drive from your VM? After ignoring the connected device, there seems to be no indication that the VM sees the flash drive: Also, I did lsusb in the VM and got the following output: Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0e0f:000b VMware, Inc. Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0e0f:0002 VMware, Inc. Virtual USB Hub Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub # Question How do I connect the flash drive up to my virtual machine?

I found out my company's dropbox was syncing everything to my mac, I had selective sync on but somehow this changed. I then uninstalled dropbox to stop this syncing as choosing selective sync didn't seem to help. I then deleted my dropbox folder, and emptied trash can. But i still see 291 in other data being used up but that dropbox folder is gone. I have a feeling that is the dropbox data and didn't properly erase. What can i do to clean up files on macOS Catalina?

I have an external USB stick (Kingston DataTraveler 3.0). I can read the files on it (I have some movies that I can play) but I can't add anything to it or delete anything that's on it. I've tried to format it using Disk Utility but I keep getting this error: Error: -69877: Couldn't open device Nothing I found online seems to work. It is very annoying because the disk is obviously fine since I can access all the files. Does anyone know anything I could try? Thanks so much.

I recently got a 2019 MacBook Pro from work, and a couple of mid 2009 MacBook Pros from a yard sale. I have mostly been using Windows and Linux for the past 20 years. I'd like to make a El Capitan installer thumb drive, from the 2019 laptop, for the 2009 laptops. I've been following the instructions at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372 When I open the InstallMacOSX.dmg I see the InstallMacOSX.pkg, but when I launch that, I'm told > This version of OS X 10.11 cannot be installed on this computer. I had previously tried creating the thumb drive from the one working 2009 laptop but got a similar error. What could I be doing wrong? What else should I try?

My daughter's Macbook Air is broken. She's a wild non-child and its likely to have been roughly treated and also left for years without charge, not updated (I told her!) and used on virus'y sites. Appearance is there is no internal flash. All attempts to recover and install El Capitan to an external USB stick fail with some kind of firmware issue. I run a Macbook with Sierra and a clone of that will boot her machine. I've tried building an install usb for Catalina (which it should run) but that won't work - I either get errors about the fs type (note I've tried MacOS extended (journaled) and apfs or it complains about a missing firmware partition. I've not yet tried building an install stick for El Capitan (assuming I can get El Capitan from the app store) - about to try that next. Its perfectly possibly that the internal flash is fried and I won't get anywhere. Aside from that, is it possible that the firmware is fried and that is preventing access to the internal storage ? I know little about boot ROMs and boot partitions and BIOS's on apple though I used to run many linuxes. Other than visiting the Apple store can someone suggest a way forwards ? Ideally it would be great to find a way to install the firmware needed and find out that "wow, the internal storage still is there and works" and install a MacOS to it (preferably Catalina). Failing that it would be nice to make it usable booting from a minimal external usb stick - I can't build one by cloning without buying some large storage as my systems on my Macbook are a very long way from fitting on a cheap stick (I'm just about to put a 2Tb drive in to ensure I don't go too close to full on 1Tb). Is it Facked or is there a way forwards other than a big external drive? Here is an image of what system report says:

My son's MBP (13-inch, Mid 2012) internal SSD has been acting strangely enough that I'm starting to wonder if it needs to be replaced (do SSDs fail?). I have a MBP (retina 15-inch, Early 2013) with a failing logic/graphics board combo that I'm going to need to replace anyway. Can I take the 512 GB flash storage from my 2013 MBP and put it into my son's machine? I realize that the process may be arduous, I just wanted to find out if it's even compatible. Thanks!

**TL;DR** I formatted an USB drive on my AndroidTV which failed, and am now trying to fix it from my Mac. Right now I can see the drive in diskutil list but it neither shows up in Finder nor in Disk Util. How can I reformat the drive so I can access it again? --- So I've had this Samsung Bar 64GB flash drive, bought online. I'm a design guy, and I've seen the packaging, it looks pretty neat and legit to me. But can't confirm if this is really manufactured by Samsung. *Follow me along and please bear with me with this quite long story of how we got here. The flash drive is once working tonight, and now it can't be both detected and shown on Finder and Disk Utility app, but when listed on Terminal on diskutil list, it still does shows. Please follow along if I did anything stupid on any of these actions, and is there any way I could recover/re-erase my flash drive again. This is quite expensive and I don't want to buy another again any time soon. I want this to be an educational and lesson to me again on Pros and Cons of formatting disks on Mac, and what I should and shouldn't do, I'm mostly a Windows guy all my life, and I'm new to Mac and I am still unfamiliar on some things so maybe that's also part of it.* So my intention is, to watch movies on that flash drive, but for some reasons, the format I choose when I formatted it on my Mac, first time plugging in is exFAT, the thing is our Android TV box doesn't support that so I tried formatting it there: - But since it's just a low level computer, for some reasons when I switched inputs on HDMI, it looks like while formatting that 64GB flash drive (for that big, I thought it'll be longer than usual) it forced stopped, so I ended up with unreadable flash drive on Android. - Plugged it in on Mac, it still can be shown and read on Disk Utility and Finder, I formatted it into MS-DOS (FAT), I assume it actually format it as FAT32, as it says that's the most universal file system, Android, Mac and Windows supports. It finished, but when moving back files to it, it is incredibly noticeably slow, that at some point it got stuck copying just a 200MB file, I figured maybe it's because of the buffer files from the previous exFAT format, so figured out that I should do deep format, so on Erase on Disk Utility > Advanced Options > I amped the settings to the 7 pass. - The problem is suddenly, the power went out, but this Mac is already old. This is 2011 MacBook Air running Catalina, and got very fragile battery. While the electricity is out, I figured it'll never finish on this pace, and I'll run out of battery on this very fragile Mac battery, also this Mac always throttles performance because of the fragile battery so I figured, it'll not finish anyways without being plugged in, so rather than ran out of battery, I'll just force quit the 7 pass Erase on Disk Utility. I did it. - For some reasons, I can still access the drive on the Finder, and I tried copying back that 200MB file again, it got stucked again so forced quit the copying again - and power went back, checked and replug it again, this time it can't be shown on the Finder and the GUI Disk Utility app, but when you run diskutil list on Terminal, it still shows

Last login: Sun Nov 24 21:13:24 on console

The default interactive shell is now zsh.
To update your account to use zsh, please run chsh -s /bin/zsh.
For more details, please visit https://support.apple.com/kb/HT208050 .
Steves-MacBook-Air:~ steven$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         250.8 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +250.8 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Mac - Data              70.5 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 24.7 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                711.9 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 GB     disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume Mac                     10.9 GB    disk1s5

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *63.5 GB    disk2
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:       Microsoft Basic Data SMSNG 64GB              63.2 GB    disk2s2

See the last part, I think I messed it up that I did two failed erase, that Mac tried to reformat, make new volume of 63 GB when the total capacity of the flash drive, is basically just 64GB. And I even did it, two failed attempts at two different file system, 1 from exFAT, I think 2 times on MS-DOS FAT. The one is kinda successful fastest format, the other is the 7 pass format that I forced stop (btw I did that by Quitting Terminal or using Activity Monitor "Force Stop") This is what it shows when I diskutil info disk2

Steves-MacBook-Air:~ steven$ diskutil info disk2
   Device Identifier:         disk2
   Device Node:               /dev/disk2
   Whole:                     Yes
   Part of Whole:             disk2
   Device / Media Name:       Mass Storage

   Volume Name:               Not applicable (no file system)
   Mounted:                   Not applicable (no file system)
   File System:               None

   Content (IOContent):       GUID_partition_scheme
   OS Can Be Installed:       No
   Media Type:                Generic
   Protocol:                  USB
   SMART Status:              Not Supported

   Disk Size:                 63.5 GB (63454533632 Bytes) (exactly 123934636 512-Byte-Units)
   Device Block Size:         512 Bytes

   Read-Only Media:           No
   Read-Only Volume:          Not applicable (no file system)

   Device Location:           External
   Removable Media:           Removable
   Media Removal:             Software-Activated

   Solid State:               Info not available
   Virtual:                   No

But it clearly says on just diskutil info that it's still 64GB and is on FAT file system now. This is what it shows when diskutil verifyDisk disk2

Steves-MacBook-Air:~ steven$ diskutil verifyDisk /dev/disk2
Started partition map verification on disk2
Checking prerequisites
[  \   \   \   \   \   \   \   \   \   \   \   \   \   \  ]

It's just stucked like that, and won't respond. This is what it shows when diskutil repairDisk disk2

Steves-MacBook-Air:~ steven$ diskutil verifyDisk /dev/disk2
Started partition map verification on disk2
Checking prerequisites
[  \   \   \   \   \   \   \   \   \   \   \   \   \   \  ]

To those that are saying I should be patient, I got a smaller 16GB flash drive here, and tried the same thing, it just works instantaneously, no more "Checking prerequisites" This is what it shows when diskutil zeroDisk disk2

Steves-MacBook-Air:~ steven$ diskutil zeroDisk disk2
Started erase on disk2
[ \   \   \   \   \   \   \   \   \   \   \   \   \   \   ]

Should I keep waiting it like that? Or no hopes and it's already stuck like that forever? Please help me reformat, erased and make my 64GB flash drive usable again to be formatted correctly and completely on any file system. I don't want to buy an expensive and big flash drive again because I did something wrong here. Is it still recoverable or this is no hope now and I destroyed it? What things did I did wrong, and what should I prevent doing in the future, did I effed up all the way? Or is it maybe just the flash drive is faulty and I should return it? **Please any advice or help would be incredibly appreciated**

I intend to use a USB drive with Lightening port support (for use on iOS device), such as this: - https://www.amazon.ca/SanDisk-iXpand-Flash-Drive-iPhone/dp/B01CIEBS74 or this: - https://www.amazon.ca/HooToo-certificated-Connector-compatible-Expansion/dp/B01I1B5KFY/ If I put movies on either one, and the plugged it into an iPhone, would it be able to play those movies? If so is it through the Files app or something?

I have been trying to upgrade my iPod 3G to use a 64g CompactFlash card, as outlined in this [blog post](https://systemfolder.wordpress.com/2016/02/10/3rd-gen-ipod-upgrade/) . I have had partial success. I can format the iPod using Disk Utility. I can get iTunes to see the iPod, and even sync songs to it. But I cannot get the iPod to work by itself. When it boots, it always gets stuck on the exclamation mark / folder icon: I have tried repeatedly to use "Update" to fix the iPod's software. I connect the iPod to my Mac via USB, and I connect the FireWire cable to a charger so it has power. The update process seems to work fine on the Mac side. iTunes eventually tells me to disconnect the iPod, and connect it to a power supply, so it can fiinish the update. The iPod itself says "OK to disconnect." Just like in the blog post, the iPod never resets itself. It just sits at the "OK to disconnect" screen, even after I disconnect it. If I manually invoke a reset (as the blog author did), I end up back at the exclamation/folder icon. The update process never completes. I have tried almost every variation of this process I can think of, using several Macs. I know the iPod itself is okay. If I switch back from the CF to the stock hard drive, it works fine. I guess I'm about to give up on this upgrade, but wanted to see if anyone else might have suggestions how to get the iPod to complete the update process and boot normally.

I am seeking a low-profile USB flash drive (in either 2.0 or 3.0) that would sit nearly flush with the side of the MacBook. This way I can leave it in through reboot cycles, and hopefully find that macOS will mount it without needing to insert anew after every reboot. The SanDisk "Ultra Fit" looked promising in Amazon's pictures, until I found that it protrudes quite a bit. It means that if I pull the MacBook from its bag and inadvertendly knock the flash drive, I will risk also knocking the logic board—possibly a very nasty event. Does there exist a solution that sits nearly flush with the side of a MacBook? Ideally it would protrude just enough so I can grab it when necessary, but even if I need a special tool (such as two tiny screwdrivers) to pull it out, that is also good. Another option is from Elago Do you have any experience with this product? Does it nearly vanish inside a MacBook?