[Scottish] USB memory sticks and SuSE 9.3

[Robert Barbour]

========================================
 Message Received: Jan 13 2006, 08:20 AM
 From: "Alan Rutherford" <alan at nonsite.co.uk>
 To: rlbarbour at castleventures.fsnet.co.uk, "SLUG-list" <scottish at mailman.lug.org.uk>
 Cc: 
 Subject: Re: [Scottish] USB memory sticks and SuSE 9.3
 
 Robert Barbour wrote:
 
 >I did this and sent a reply to scottish, but it didn't get into the system.
 >Could this be because it had a file attached?
 >Anyway, I think study of the log might confirm the suspicion that the format of the stick is the problem.
 >So how do I get round the format problem for file transfers - I have Linux, Apple and (reluctantly) MS?
 >Regards
 >Rob
 >
 >========================================
 >Message Received: Jan 09 2006, 03:16 PM
 >From: "Martin Habets" 
 >To: scottish at mailman.lug.org.uk
 >Cc: 
 >Subject: Re: [Scottish] USB memory sticks and SuSE 9.3
 >
 >It seems time to open up a terminal window (that's Konsole in Suse).
 >After you insert the stick, open the new 'floppy' icon, and get the
 >error message... after all that, type in these commands in the terminal
 >window and send the output here:
 >
 >mount
 >dmesg | tail -100
 >
 >That should give us a start to figure out what's going on.
 >If you're couragous you could look up a line for 'sda' in the mount
 >output and try to browse that directory.
 >
 >My guess is the floppy icon is used because the filesystem on the USB
 >stick is msdos.
 >
 >Martin
 >
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 >Scottish at mailman.lug.org.uk
 >http://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/scottish
 >
 >  
 >
> I had the exact same problem with Suse. As soon as I re-formated the USB 
 >memory stick, in FAT using Windoze, it worked!
> 
 >Alan
 

OK, what is FAT (File allocation Table?) and Windoze? Where do I get them (it)?

I can't re-format the stick, as it doesn't belong to me, and the lender still has files (MSDOS) on it.

But when I acquire my own usb mem stick, how do I format it to allow file interchange with linux, Apple and msdos?

Regards
Rob