OSX Panther import/export on FAT32 FW drives

Anyone have any issues with this? I recently had to gather some files for a client from another studio onto one of our Firedock drives that was FAT32 formatted. The files (SDII) tranfered from their G-4 running Panther without a hitch, yet are unreadable by Protools here on our G-4 in either OS9/PT5 or OSX(Panther) PT6. I've done this in the past many, many times and never had a problem... we've transferred files with these same drives(and same formatting, FAT32) from our mac to other DAWs, and from other DAWs to our Mac with never any issues. The reason they are FAT32 formatted is we use a Mackie HDR24/96Pro as our main machine, importing the files into that generally, and it uses FAT32 format, but we also run an 001 sync'd to the HDR for additional tracks, and regularly imort to the mac as well. We often transfer files from teh HDR with these drives to the Mac for PT editing then back to the HDR, again no problems. The other studio claims it is not possible to do this transfer these files with a FAT32 formatted drive, and that we are to blame for the files not being readable. I suspect they are trying to make us look bad in an attempt to sway the client against us and not lose their business. FWIW the client approached us to continue his project here, we did not solicite him, that's not our style. So, my question is, have any of you crossplatform users had any issues like this?

The mac should be able to read the FAT32 partition. Are you getting a specific error message?

I only have have experience with OSX Panther, but it reads my Windows/FAT32 firewire drive without a hitch. Maybe that other studio has intentionally made the drive inaccessible. People are amazingly short-sighted... I hope that's not the case. Good luck. Jace

Protools cannot import the files, in the import window when I select the files it says they are unreadable by Protools. Thanks for confirming what I suspected, this studio is trying to make us look bad so they can keep the client. I'll be sending this link to both the client and the studio.

where, I've seen this happen every now and then when "Enforce PC/Mac Compatibility" has not been checked when making a session. I would hope that it wouldn't be chicanery that does not allow you to read the files. I hope you're able to resolve your problem. Good luck to you,

Where, do you have a PC and wavelab? You can open SDII files with wavelab and do a batch conversion to wav or aiff. That would probably fix the import issue. You could always try one of Rail's apps as well. Good Luck. -Chris