fisha

Ah - OK - i see. So, it appears as a regular mass storage device, but am i correct in saying that if you simply drag an MP3 onto it via windows explorer, it wont play because the sony device expects it to be in the obfuscated format ( something which xispe's prgram works around for most other devices )

Hi folks, I have both an XP machine and an iMac G5 seriously considering either an A1000 or A608 in the very near future. In the past i have liked Sony products and i'm not a great fan of the iPod stuff. Now I know from these posts that the MP3FileManager stuff does not seem to work properly with these devices and in the meantime I am prepared to put up with just using the XP machine for the music management. but i have a few of general questions: - for the devices that can run MP3FileManager, does the device then become visible on the Windows Explorer as a general mass storage device like a USB key would? - for those working devices, if they do appear as a generic mass storage device, has anyone plugged one into an Apple Mac to see if the Mac can read and write onto it too? - For the devices that dont work with MP3FileManager, when you plug them into Windows, what do you see in Windows Explorer? Does the device appear in My Computer as a removable drive/device ( like a USB mass storage device normally would ) but that you simply cant read or write from it. i.e. does windows essentially see a generic storage device, but something is blocking it, and the only person allowed to access it is the connect software?

Folks, hard drives are not air tight. Nearly all platter drives have breathe holes which allow for pressure expansion / contraction balancing. The reason that you're advised to not use them at higher altitudes is principally because the read -write heads use a cushion of air to float just above the spinning disc. At sea level / lower altitudes, the higher density of air probably means that the cushion is thick enough to maintiain the correct head height off the platter. higher altitudes and lower air density would mean that the air cant cushion enough to keep the head off the platter and so the risk of head crashing is greatly increased. For space use, the known lower air densities will be taken into account and hard drives probably modified accordingly. In answer to the comment of microscopic particules, the breathe holes in a drive are normally hidden behind the main labels and the air route behind the label normally has to travel through a spiral route and a filter before entereing the enclosure. some drives also have filters at the sides of the platter which catch the spinning air going round and so filter the air inside as well.