How can a format an external hard drive to Fat 32 format

how can i format an external hard drive to a Fat 32

Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your 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. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to MBR then click on the OK button. Set the format type to MSDOS (FAT)  Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

Similar Messages

  • How can I use my external hard drive for my iphoto instead of my mac book pro memory?

    i don't know if this question has been asked before: how can I use my external hard drive for my iphoto instead of my mac book pro memory? just like itunes all my song are save on my external hard drive. make sense?

    Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
    And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
    And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
    LN

  • How can i reformat my external hard drive without loosing any data?

    how can i reformat my external hard drive without loosing any data?

    Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
    It's impossible to format a hard drive without losing the data. One thing you can do before formatting is to copy the files from the external drive to your internal drive, and then, format the external drive. After formatting, copy the files to the external drive again, and everything will be as before formatting it

  • How can I partition my external hard drive supporting mac OS in one partition and windows OS in another?

    Hello everyone, how can I partition my external hard drive supporting mac OS in one partition and windows OS in another?

    OK. Start with:
    1. Open Disk Utility in your 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. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to two (2). Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
    4. Click on the Erase tab in DU's main window. Select one of the two partitions, preferably the first one, change the Format type: to MSDOS then click on the Erase button.

  • How can I backup an external hard drive using Time Machine?

    How can I backup an external hard drive connected to my MacBook Pro using Time Machine?

    Attach drive, open Time Machine preferences, be sure external drive is not in the Exclude list.

  • How can I make my external hard drive writable?

    I have a 60GB external hard drive (half used, so got about 20 free GBs on it)
    It is writable by Windows and Linux, but is "read only" on Mac.
    Is there a way I can partition part of it to be writable with Mac?

    So FAT32 then?
    Ok, so in the future if I ever buy a new external hard drive, I should format it right away to FAT32... that's good to know
    I was thinking of buying a 500GB drive, so maybe I'll wait (rather than partition the 60GB one) and format it to FAT32.
    When I got the 60GB, it came already formatted as NTFS.

  • How can i add an external hard drive to my time capsule

    How can i add an exteranl hard drive to my time capsule

    yes, plug a USB drive .. correctly formatted.. in.

  • How can I format an external hard drive to Fat 32?

    My brother wants to connect an external hard drive to his Sony PS3 for backup purposes. He bought a Western Digital 3TB "MyBook for Mac".
    The PS3 requires the drive to be Fat 32 format. So I hooked the drive up to my new-ish iMac and went into the Disk Utility, selected "Partition", then said I wanted one partition.
    I named the drive "FAT32", selected "MS-DOS (FAT)" for the Format.
    HERE'S THE PROBLEM: when I go into the "options" menu in order to select "Master Boot Record", it is grayed out. One guy told me that it was because my computer was corrupted, but the same thing happens on my parents (older) iMac.
    Another person said it had to do with the fact that the drive was 3TB. Whu...?
    If anybody could help with this issue, I would be VERY grateful.

    Thank you AnaMusic... this is a nice resource for information.
    However I am still not sure I understand why I can't actually DO the partition/formatting. Any idea why the "Master Boot Record" is grayed out? That's the part that has me stymied. As far as I can tell I'm doing all of the required steps correctly.
    Again, thank you for your help.

  • How can I reformat my external hard drive from the time machine format to regular format?

    Ok so when first starting out I got an external hard drive for my time machine, little did I know I would run out of space really fast and would need to buy a bigger and better hard drive. Now that I did that, I have my old hard drive that I would like to use for copying material form my laptop to my desktop. However, it is still set as my time machine and tries to back up my lap top every time I plug it in. Also, it says that about half of it is still filled with stuff. I erased everything on it. I just want to reformat it so that it is like I just bought it.

    Tirrel wrote:
    I had the same idea as you however when I tried going to Disk Utility and I tried to erase it an error message came up telling me that it is unable to erase.
    Unable to erase, or unable to unmount?
    If Time Machine is trying to back up to it, or some other process is using it, Disk Utility won't be able to unmount it.   Turn Time Machine OFF; if you have the drive open via the Finder or any other app, close it or quit the app(s).
    At worst, start up from your Install disc or other alternate source and erase it from there.  If you're not sure how to do that, see the yellow box in #1 of Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks.

  • How can I use my external hard drive on both pc and mac, but also being able to use it to back up my mac data?

    I want to be able to transfer some of my files from my laptop to my macbook, but not all of them. I have a NTFS external hard drive and I have heard about reformatting it so that it can read/write across both systems, but can I still use this hard drive to back up the data on my macbook? If I can, how should I go about reformatting the hard drive?

    FORMAT TYPES
    FAT32 (File Allocation Table)
    Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
    Maximum file size: 4GB.
    Maximum volume size: 2TB
    You can use this format if you share the drive between Mac OS X and Windows computers and have no files larger than 4GB.
    NTFS (Windows NT File System)
    Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
    Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
    To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X, here are some alternatives:
    For Mac OS X 10.4 or later (32 or 64-bit), install Paragon (approx $20) (Best Choice for Lion)
    Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and Lion, but is not advisable, due to instability.
    AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
    Maximum file size: 16 TB
    Maximum volume size: 256TB
    You can use this format if you routinely share a drive with multiple Windows systems.
    HFS+ ((((MAC FORMAT)))) (Hierarchical File System, a.k.a. Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Don't use case-sensitive)
    Read/Write HFS+ from native Mac OS X
    Required for Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! backups of Mac internal hard drive.
    To Read HFS+ (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer
    Maximum file size: 8EiB
    Maximum volume size: 8EiB
    You can use this format if you only use the drive with Mac OS X, or use it for backups of your Mac OS X internal drive, or if you only share it with one Windows PC (with MacDrive installed on the PC)
    EXFAT (FAT64)
    Supported in Mac OS X only in 10.6.5 or later.
    Not all Windows versions support exFAT. 
    exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table)
    AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support exFAT
    Maximum file size: 16 EiB
    Maximum volume size: 64 ZiB
    You can use this format if it is supported by all computers with which you intend to share the drive.  See "disadvantages" for details.

  • How can I use my external hard drive on my mac and a windows computer?

    Hello,
    Can anyone help...I have recently purchased a new external hard drive for my macbook pro, it is a 1TB hard drive. I use it for time machine back ups which only takes up about 250gb of space so obviously I have a lot more to use. I'm at University and the computers there are Windows so I'm hoping to be able to drag my uni work to my external HD and connect it to the windows computers at my university so that I have my work there as well - however I'm not sure how I should format my HD???
    Thanks

    You will eventually use all of that 1TB external for the Time Machine backups, that is if you do regular Time Machine backups (It is NOT a One Time thing). So using that same external for anything else is not a good idea.
    You would be much better off buying a large USB thumb drive, like 64GBs in size, and format that to one of the Windows formates that both Mac OS X and Windows can read from and write to. Those would be FAT32 and exFAT. If you are moving file less than 4GBs in size then format it FAT32. You can then copy files to it from your Mac and Read those files on the Windows PCs the school has and just stick that Thumb drive in your pocket.

  • How can I use my external hard drive for storage?

    I just bought a new external hard drive, the My Book Premium Edition II. I have totally spent all of the memory on my hard drive and want to transfer my music to my new hard drive and use it as my iTunes directory, but everytime I try to move my music files, it tells me I cannot because the drive cannot be formatted. On the box it says Mac OSX compatible but when I open up the Get Info it says, Format: Windows NT Filesystem. It is 1Tb. How can I get this to work????? Help please.

    jbsilliman
    That's because Macs can read from NT FS drives, but can't write to them. Microsoft have maintained NTFS as a closed system. To use the drive you'll need to reformat it to something the Mac can read and write to.
    Regards
    TD

  • How can I use my external hard drive from PC to Mac without reformatting???

    Ok, so I am computer illiterate. I have always used PC's and have just bought a MacBook. When I plug in my external hard drive into my new Mac, it says it needs to be reformatted to use with Mac, which would cause all data to be erased. Is there anyway to get around this?
    Please help me!

    OK... as Woggledog indicated, OS X cannot write to NTFS formatted drives. NTFS is a proprietary Microsoft format. Conversely, Windows can neither read nor write to an OS X formatted drive.
    Both Windows and OS X can read and write to FAT32 (this is a fairly old format). The down side to FAT32 is that the largest file you can work with is 4GB. That is probably fine for most people... but if you're working with large files (videos, virtual drive images, large backup files, etc...) FAT32 is not suitable. There are applications that you can purchase for both Macs and Windows machines that will allow them to read and write to the other format.
    An immediate option provided you have the space on either your PC or Mac is to create a folder on either machine and move everything from your external drive into that folder. Then you can format the drive to FAT32 and then copy everything back over to the external drive (and delete it from your Mac or PC's internal drive). It might take some time depending on how much data you have... but you'll only have to do it once... and this is assuming you have enough space on one of you machines to copy the data from your external drive.

  • How can i use an external hard drive with my ipad

    I just got a new ipad 2 I am trying to see it is possible to connect a external hard drive to take  my picture and documents with me.

    Basically you can't, though there are a few (fairly expensive) drives coming onto the market which are said to be compatible. There is no USB port on the iPad, and the optional camera connection kit is only for the transfer of photos/videos, so wouldn't recognise other file types - if you were able to connect a drive via it then the drive would need it's own power source, the photos would have to be in a specific format, and there is still no guarantee that it would work.
    There are apps available for the iPad which can use/access cloud services such as Dropbox.

  • How can I use an external hard drive to both back up and free up storage on my macbook?

    I've used a hard drive to back up my 2012 Macbook Pro via Time Machine, but I'm not sure how to use it as external storage to move things like video and music off of my Mac to free up memory and then how to move the same things from the hard drive on to other devices like my iPad or iPhone.  For instance, I have a ton of movies and would like to store most of them on an external hard drive so that they aren't taking up all of my memory on my Mac, but want to be able to move them easily back onto my phone or iPad.  Also, can I use the same hard drive to both back up my computer and use it for external storage?  If so, how do I do that?

    Always use two drives for this: one for backup; the other for storage. Don't mix the two uses on one drive. There's a greater risk of data lost without that redundancy.
    If you plan to backup using Time Machine, then be sure the backup drive's capacity is at least twice that of the drive you are backing up.

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