Format External Drive Partitioned OSX extended and FAT32

I am new to the concept of partitioning a drive and have found information mentioning that disk utility has a MS-DOS option for partitioning a drive. I do not have this as a drop down choice in my Disk Utility options. I have read that this is format equivalent to FAT32. I would like to partition this drive half OSX extended and half FAT32. How do I get the drop down choice and is this possible.
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Thank you Limnos for all your help. Last night I tried again and it worked! I’ not totally sure on what I did right but:
• Both volumes on the new ext. driver were HFS (from my last attempt the other day) so I looked into a simple erase of one partition/volume into a different format, but DU did not offer a way of erasing it into MS-DOS(FAT32). But I think I did a simple HFS erase anyway of the volume I wanted to format to FAT32. There was nothing “in” that volume because this was a new external drive but I figured it could not hurt anything.
• So then, I think I went back to Partition, locked the partition/volume that I wanted to keep in HFS+ for my Mac files, and (re)partitioned the other just erased volume to MS-DOS. I think I did it under the MBR option.
• It worked! Not sure why but my Mac recognized both volumes one as HFS, the other as FAT32. Maybe someone will find this useful some day!!
• Then, I hooked up the drive to my work Dell, the Dell found only the FAT32 drive (as expected), and I executed a short simple easy command I found on ehow.com (search for ‘convert FAT32 to NTFS’) to make that volume NTFS.
Thanks again Limnos and everyone else!

Similar Messages

Format External Drive for HFS+ volume and FAT32 volume with Disk Utility

I just bought a Seagate 1tb external drive from OWC and I want to partition it into a HFS+ (journaled I assume) volume and a NTFS volume. Objective: To manually backup critical folders from my wife’s Dell (running XP) to the NTFS volume and critical Mac folders from my PowerBookG4 to the HFS volume.
My plan was to have my Mac (10.4.11) do the partitioning into a 350gb FAT32 volume for Windows and a 650gb HFS+ volume for Mac – then take the external drive to the Dell and have the Dell reformat the 350gb FAT drive to NTFS.
First question – Is this possible overall?
Second question – I haven’t been able to get my Disk Utility on my Mac to do the initial partitioning into one HFS volume and one FAT32 volume the way I want it. Is this step possible?
I’m happy to be more specific about the steps I’ve taken if the basic plan is good. From what I’ve found in some forums so far, I think I’m on the right track but am unable to execute it. Thank you.

Thank you Limnos for all your help. Last night I tried again and it worked! I’ not totally sure on what I did right but:
• Both volumes on the new ext. driver were HFS (from my last attempt the other day) so I looked into a simple erase of one partition/volume into a different format, but DU did not offer a way of erasing it into MS-DOS(FAT32). But I think I did a simple HFS erase anyway of the volume I wanted to format to FAT32. There was nothing “in” that volume because this was a new external drive but I figured it could not hurt anything.
• So then, I think I went back to Partition, locked the partition/volume that I wanted to keep in HFS+ for my Mac files, and (re)partitioned the other just erased volume to MS-DOS. I think I did it under the MBR option.
• It worked! Not sure why but my Mac recognized both volumes one as HFS, the other as FAT32. Maybe someone will find this useful some day!!
• Then, I hooked up the drive to my work Dell, the Dell found only the FAT32 drive (as expected), and I executed a short simple easy command I found on ehow.com (search for ‘convert FAT32 to NTFS’) to make that volume NTFS.
Thanks again Limnos and everyone else!

Format external drive partition under 10.2.8

Hello. I have been trying to setup a WD My Book 500gb with 2 partitions to be used as on offsite backup unit for our business computers. We have one Mac (this G5), and 4 Windows stations (3 XP/ 1 98SE). I am trying to setup this unit with one partition using NTFS and the other with Mac HFS or HFS+ file systems. I have found a utility that allows me to format the partition that I intend to use with the Mac as a FAT32 partition. I then tried bringing the WD MyBook to the G5 and reformatting that partition as HFS. When I run Disk Utility, I click on the partition showing as Fat32 under disk2 and then click on the Erase tab, select Mac OS X Extended file system, no OS9 drivers, have tried various names (Mac BU, My Mac BU, My MacBook, etc), then click Erase, Confirm Erase. The progress bar comes up for a moment or so, says that it is erasing the volume, then exits out as if done. Unfortunately, it never mounts the drive and the volume no longer shows up in Disk Utility (only shows the Drive without any recognized partitions) until I close and restart Disk Utility. When I restart Disk Utility, the volume I am trying to format once again shows up under the drive, tho now with no name. Under Identification, it says Mount Point: Not Mounted/ Format: MS-DOS/ Capacity: 116.44gb. After doing some browsing around onthe internet trying to troubleshoot this on my own, I found some reference to Disk Utility logs (supposedly avail in upper right corner, tho didn't find there). I searched in the Library/Logs/Crash Reporter and found 'Disk Utility.crash.log' which says:
Date/Time: 2008-09-17 21:25:42 -0400
OS Version: 10.2.8 (Build 6S90)
Host: Joanns-Computer.local.
Command: Disk Utility
PID: 540
Exception: EXCBADACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERNPROTECTIONFAILURE (0x0002) at 0x01215088
Any suggestions on how I might get this partition formatted for a Mac file system? I would use Fat32, but I plan to use RSyncX to backup this G5 and would like to make the backup bootable in case of critical failure. And since I am using this drive as a backup storage device rather than file sharing system, I have no need to access files on either partition from the opposite operating system.
Thanks in advance for any help that can be rendered. Also, if more info or more of the log file is needed to diagnose, please let me know.
PS: Sorry if this is in wrong forum. Wasn't sure if this falls under Setup, Customizing or something else.

You can either format the drive entirely FAT32 that can be used on both Windows and Mac or you can format the drive entirely for the Mac, but you cannot have one partition of each on the same drive (not with Jaguar. You would need Leopard to accomplish that and an Intel Mac.)
There is this article/hint explaining a method for doing so, but I do not know if it is doable with Jaguar. Maybe Panther since the hint appeared about the time Panther was released.

Using Disk Utility to format external drive as Apple extended?

Hello - I just bought a 750G Lacie USB hard drive, am attempting to reformat it from FAT32 to Mac Extended. However, when I attempt to 'erase' the drive and replace it with Mac Extended, I get the following error message:
+2009-04-28 22:12:24 +0100: Preparing to erase : “ReadyNAS”+
+2009-04-28 22:12:24 +0100: Partition Scheme: Master Boot Record+
+2009-04-28 22:12:24 +0100: 1 volume will be created+
+2009-04-28 22:12:24 +0100: Name : “ReadyNAS”+
+2009-04-28 22:12:24 +0100: Size : 698.6 GB+
+2009-04-28 22:12:24 +0100: Filesystem : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)+
+2009-04-28 22:12:24 +0100: Creating partition map.+
+2009-04-28 22:12:26 +0100: Formatting disk1s1 as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with name ReadyNAS.+
+2009-04-28 22:12:27 +0100: Disk Erase failed with the error:+
+File system formatter failed.+
+2009-04-28 22:12:28 +0100: Erase complete.+
+2009-04-28 22:12:28 0100:
+2009-04-28 22:12:28 +0100: Disk Utility failed during an unspecified action with the error:+
I can reformat it as FAT32, no problem.
Any clues? Thanks!

Use the "partition" tab in Disk Utility, set it to "1 Partition" click the "Options" button, and choose "GUID".

How to partition/format external drive?

Hi,
I bought a WD MyBook 320 GB external drive. It is by default formatted in fat32. However, fat32 has a ridiculous file size limitation! (<4GB)
I have 2 Macs, one windows and one linux boxes at home, one linux and one windows boxes at work. I want that all the machines has access to it. But maybe I can forget windows box. I need some advice, which one is better:
1. Format it as HFS+, forget windows, maybe I can use hfsutils for windows, and maybe I can access to it by this (is there anybody using hfsutils???)
2. Format 120 GB in HFS+, the rest fat32. I will use HFS partition just for full image of my mac's harddisks, and fat32 will be accessible to every computer.
Any suggestions?
Thanks...

You cannot format the drive with both Mac OS Extended and FAT32 partitions. If you need FAT32 you must format the entire drive FAT32. If you format the drive Mac OS Extended, then you will need software on the Window's PC that enables reading/writing Mac disks such as MacDrive.
To format the drive:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in the Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing (this does not apply to external drives.) Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Click on the Options button and select the GUID partition scheme then click on OK. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, if supported.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, if supported.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process will take 30 minutes to an hour or more depending upon the drive size.
If you prefer to format the entire drive as FAT32, then in Step 3 select the MBR partition scheme instead of GUID.
If you plan to use the external drive to backup your main hard drive then do that by cloning the main drive:
How to Clone Using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Select the destination drive on the Desktop and press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. At the bottom in the Ownership and Permissions section be sure the box labeled "Ignore Permissions on this Volume" is unchecked. Set Ownership and Permissions as follows: Owner=system with read/write; Group=admin with read/write; Other with read-only.
2. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
3. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list.
4. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (journaled, if available) and click on the Erase button.
5. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
6. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
7. Select the startup or source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
8. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
For added precaution you can boot into safe mode before doing the clone.

Guid formatted external drive and PPC

I just purchased an external enclosure to work with a 320B Seagate Barracuda drive I have. Wanting to have an Intel bootable drive running Tiger, I formatted the drive with Disk Utility into two partitions with the Guid option selected. Drive works fine on my MacBook, but isn't recognized by my PPC Titanium Powerbook running Panther. The disk won't mount on the Powerbook, and says it needs to be formatted. Disk Utility on the Powerbook can see the drive, but not the partitions.
Is this normal? I know you can't boot from the Powerbook with a Guid formatted drive, but shouldn't it be able to see the partitions? Will it help to update the Powerbook to Tiger, or do I need to reformat the drive without Guid? I haven't put much data on the new drive yet, so it wouldn't be a huge problem, except that I wouldn't be able to boot the MacBook with the drive.
I've read in the forums that Super Duper supposedly can create an Intel bootable partition on a ATP formatted drive. Anyone with actual experience doing this?
Thanks.
MacBook 2GHz Mac OS X (10.4.9)

UPDATE for anyone who is interested:
I reformatted the external Seagate drive with APM partitioning using my MacBook. I then connected the external drive to the Powerbook and it recognizes the drive with the two partitions. Then I reconnected the drive to the MacBook, and using Super Duper! copied my internal drive's contents to the external drive. I booted the MacBook using the external drive and it works!!!
However, trying to boot the PowerBook using the external drive resulted in a kernel panic crashing the PB--not surprised, since the system on the external is for the MacBook.

Pondini, I beseech thee....Time Machine won't back up external drive partitions

Pondini (or anyone else that would like to help),
I am running Mac OS X 10.7.5. At my edit bay, we utilize a Facilis Terrablock 24D for storage, which connects to our system via fibre cables. Before upgrading to 10.7.5, Time Machine would back up all of our drive partitions on the Terrablock. Since the upgrade, Time Machine still recognizes the drives, we can add or subtract files from the drives, and it appears to make and save the changes, but when Time Machine backs up, it will only back up the local hard drive. No error messages come up. It just does its thing but only for the local HD.
All of the drive partitions are Mac OS Extended Journaled. All of the permissions seem to be in order.
I have contacted Facilis and their technical support claims that they never tested their products with Time Machine (as they sell their own backup equipment) but in theory that it should work.
I'm not sure what other information you might need but please let me know and I'll do my best. I was wondering if anyone else has come across an issue like this? Thank you for your time.

LALB wrote:
Upon including this partition and all of its contents, it disappears from the exclusion list as it should AND its size is reflected in the Estimated size of full backup. But this is the kicker! Upon clicking "Save" and starting Time Machine's backup, I receive the error "Time Machine could not complete the backup. There are no disks available to be backed up." Upon going back into TM Preferences > Options, I find that the external drive / partition has been put back on the Exclusion list. It's like it is automatically rejecting the partition after I have saved my exclusion list.
That's quite strange.
TM does that if you try to back up a USB Thumb drive (I've filed a bug report), but this is the first I've heard of it under any other circumstances. Then again, I don't recall a post by anyone trying to back up from a drive connected this way.
If a drive isn't formatted for a Mac (ie, FAT32, ExFat, NTFS, etc), Time Machine cannot back it up, and will list it in gray on the exclusion list (same as the backup drive), and won't let you remove it from the list, so it's clear.
This sounds like a "cousin" of the way it treats a thumb drive, so sure seems like a bug. TM will back up USB, FireWire, and Thunderbolt drives without a problem, if they're formatted right.
If you have any Macs under 90 days old, or covered by AppleCare, a call to them is free, and the best way to get a quick answer (you may have to escalate to a "specialist" however, and it still may take a few days for something unusual). Otherwise it's $50 U.S.
An alternative is to file a Bug Report, per the green box in Reporting a Problem to Apple. That most likely won't get a response for quite a while, though.
Sorry, wish I had a fix!
Let us know what, if anything, you find out.

Formatting External drive for Mac05

I am trying to format a Western Digital external drive for Mac05 Extended (journaled) in order to transfer photos from my I photo program to free up space on my hard drive, as per suggestions received in this support site. I have downloaded information from Western digital, but it is coupled with 'How to partition and format an internal slave drive or an external drive in a Mac OS X." Once I select Disk utility, the drives are not displayed. Anyone have any suggestions how to format the external drive for Mac05 Extended (journaled)??

I am trying to format a Western Digital external drive for Mac05 Extended (journaled) in order to transfer photos from my I photo program to free up space on my hard drive, as per suggestions received in this support site. I have downloaded information from Western digital, but it is coupled with 'How to partition and format an internal slave drive or an external drive in a Mac OS X." Once I select Disk utility, the drives are not displayed. Anyone have any suggestions how to format the external drive for Mac05 Extended (journaled)??

Format External Drive with Disk Utility, Make it Windows Compatible

I have formatted my external drive using disk utility, and it works great on my Mac. But no Windows PC can read it, and I need to use it on Windows PCs. I tried formatting as MS-DOS FAT but that didn't work either. What can I do?
Thanks so much in advance.

I've run into the problem fairly regularly were I format a drive as FAT32 on the Mac, but Windows won't read it. I just reformat it from the Windows machine as FAT32. My Mac always reads and writes to it just fine, so it has never been a problem, just a minor mystery.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Transfer files from Mac formatted external drive to PC formatted drive

i need to transfer quicktime files (that were captured from video with FCP) to a PC formatted external drive (for editing them in after effects on a PC). the files can be transfered by burning them on a DVD, but that will take a very long time and waste many DVDs because i have 60 GB of material... can this be done (without having to purchase expensive software)?

thanx tom,
first of, i like that you made the link appear as one word. how did you do that? it's really cool!
i downloaded the program, but i'm not sure how to use it... reading the guide just made me more confused... if i understand correctly, it will automatically reformat ALL my files to NTFS-3G ones, which are not as stable... i'm a little scared to install it... though i may have totally misunderstood what it says. i see mostly black when i try to read these kind of things...
anyone out there have experience with this program?

How to access an ex fat formatted external drive on OS 10.6.8

How do I access an ex fat formatted external drive on OS 10.6.8 ? Drive has audio files and was originally formatted and created by a Windows PC.
When the La Cie drive is plugged in to my mac mini, it says can not recognize formatting.

Read this thread
exFAT mounting problem

External Drive Partitions Corrupt

I have an external hard drive with 3 partitions. Lately, seemingly at random, the partitions are becoming unmountable (usually one per day). Running Disk Utility always repairs the partition without issue. Its very annoying. Any suggestions?

I just noticed that when this happens if I simply unplug the external drive's USB cable and plug it back in, the partitions all mount properly. The only way to mount them without unplugging is to "repair" them.

My TM is backing up my external drive with iPhoto, iTunes, and other media, I don't want it to, but it persists even unless I disconnect the drive

I have two external drives, one for TM and one for iphoto and itunes. I don't want them backed up. Why can't I get this to happen except when I disconnect the itunes/iphoto disks

Check System Preferences -> time Machine - > Options and add the external hdd to the list of things to not Backup.
It is always a good idea to backup important files like Photos - nothing is worse than losing the Photos and having to explain it to the significant other who has an emotional attachment to them.

I backed up my bookmarks to an external drive, rebuilt my system, and now when I try to restore from that file, I get "unsupported file type" How can I restore from this file?

I backed up my bookmarks to an external drive, rebuilt my system, and now when I try to restore from that file, I get "unsupported file type" How can I restore from this file?

Make sure that the backup file with the bookmarks has the correct file extension: .html for a HTML backup and .json for a JSON backup. 
You can check that via the right-click context menu of that file and open the Properties. 
If you are not sure about the file type then you can open the file in Firefox via "File > Open File" 
A JSON backup will show as one long text line without line breaks and a HTML backup as a web page with clickable links. 
A JSON backup starts with: {"title":"","id":1,"dateAdded": 
An HTML backup starts with: <nowiki><!DOCTYPE NETSCAPE-Bookmark-file-1></nowiki>
You may need to add quotes ("") around the name to rename the file to the correct file extension.
See also:
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Backing_up_and_restoring_bookmarks_-_Firefox

External Drive Space, Scratch Disk and other things...

Hello,
I've been editing my first feature on FCP 5.1.4, I have an Intel Mac Pro.
All the footage (shot with a Panasonnic HVX200 using P2 Cards) is about 500GB and it's stored in two different T-Bites for safety, one of which I'm using for editing.
Since I started editing, I've made the mistake of changing the Scratc Disk a few times with the result that some of my Media Files are now stored in one T-Byte, and some in the other T-Byte.
I've tried to transfer all existing media files to both the terabytes so that, when my editor starts to really cut together the assembly I've been working on, he won't need both my external drives (like I do now) and, at the same time, I can continue to work on one of the drives.
The problem is that, although I haven't used any complicated effects or other things that would require a long rendering process- only some color correction here and there (to see how things look like) - right now, both my terabytes are practically full and I cannot transfer any media file anywhere because there is no space available.
I'm not sure if I've done something wrong but how much space do you need to edit 500GB of footage into a feature? And, most importantly, how would you organize the editing so that I can have my external drive to work on and my editor can do the same on another external drive and still have the safety of a back up? Are three or four terabytes necessary?
Have I made mistakes in the way I've been saving/storing the project?
I also have a second question:
How do I open a project made in FCP on an Intel-base MAC from a Power PC-based MAC? Is it possible?
I'll greatly apppreciate some hep with these issues.
Paula
Dual Core intel Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Paula Paula Paula...Man, you have edited yourself into a corner. I am not sure how to tell you to get out of it.
Are you saying that you have the original MXF files on one of these drives? or BOTH? and you are ALSO using them as Scratch Drives? What is going on here?
Here is what you NEED to do. And you might have to get another hard drive to manage this.
-Use one drive for the original CONTENTS and LASTCLIP stuff...the original camera masters. Have them in nice separate folders and on a shelf...in storage.
-Now...you want TWO sets of drives with the same media? So that you and your editor can have the same footage? OK...then you need to have a drive to copy and consolidate all the footage to. So that all of the captured media and render files are on one drive.
-Copy all of this stuff to another drive for the editor. JUST THE CAPTURED FOOTAGE. Keep the original MXF files on the shelf. The render files will differ after time, as he or you will render and those will be on that local drive only, but if you share projects then when you get a cut from the editor, all you have to do is render and you are fine.
HOW TO DO ALL OF THIS? Manage the media and copying and all that stuff...I can't help you there. I don't know how your drives are structured or what is where. This is something you'll have to figure out on your own. Thus the reason for the third drive...to be an intermediate place to work.
I'm not sure if I've done something wrong but how much space do you need to edit 500GB of footage into a feature?
What do you mean by that? How much space does 500GB take? 500GB. Like asking how long is an hour...an hour. 60 min. 500GB is 5000MB. What do you mean here?
If you want you to have footage, your editor to have footage and then there to be a back up, then you need 3 sets of drives...and another set for the MXF files.
Have I made mistakes in the way I've been saving/storing the project?
So far? Yes. Fixable? Yes. Take time? Yes.
How do I open a project made in FCP on an Intel-base MAC from a Power PC-based MAC? Is it possible?
Yes...as long as you both have EXACTLY the same version of FCP. 5.1.4...what have you.
-shane

Format External Drive Partitioned OSX extended and FAT32

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