iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, Fourth Edition

Mac vs. Windows iPods

If they were all hanging out together one afternoon at the beach, it would be hard to tell a Windows iPod from a crowd of Mac iPods. On the outside, they look the same.

But just as Macintosh and Windows computers use totally different formats for their hard drives, so do Mac and Windows iPods. This makes perfect sense because the iPod is a kind of mini computer. (Note for nerds: Mac iPods use a filesystem called HFS Plus; PC iPods use the unappetizing-sounding FAT32. If you’ve ever had to back up, reformat, and reinstall your pre–Windows XP system, FAT32 may sound familiar: it’s the system Windows used for years.)

So, then, how can Apple claim to sell a single iPod model that, out of the box, comes formatted for either a Mac or a PC?

It doesn’t really. Most iPod models are all preformatted for the Mac, except for the Nano and the Shuffle, which are preformatted for Windows. When you run the installer software on the iPod CD, the program quietly reformats the iPod drive to match your operating system (except for the Shuffle, which stays as it is, as Macs have been happily reading USB flash drives for years). Details on this process, and on the cabling differences between Mac and PC, begin in Chapter 2.

Software Differences

These days, both Mac and PC fans use the same software to manage and organize what’s on the iPod: a free program called iTunes. It works almost precisely the same in its Macintosh and Windows versions. Every button in every dialog box is exactly ...