Changing format to an external hard drive

so my external hdd is in NFTS and i want to change it to FAT32 so i can modify some files in my mac aswell as in my pc, but i'm scared of changing my disk format because i have a lot of important files in there which i cant backup because of its size and im not sure if changing the disk format with disk utility will erase my files
http://www.macworld.com/article/1165513/how_to_share_an_external_drive_between_a _mac_and_a_pc.html
I'm following this tutorial
can i change my hdd format without deleting all my files in it?
does the files inside are in any danger when changing the hdd format?

Changing a drive's format erases its contents.
(80436)

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Formating Western Digital External Hard Drive gets an error

Hi!
I just bought a 500GB Western Digital External Hard Drive (uses Firewire 400), primarily for storing HD iMovie and Final Cut Express files. When I checked the iMovie support, it recomends to format the external hard drive as Mac OS X Extended (Journaled). I opened Disk Utility, selected the hard drive (My Book) and followed the steps to both erase and reformat it. I have gotten an error numerous times that says:
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Try doing it this way:
Extended Hard 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. 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. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. 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.) 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.) 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.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.

Format a seagate external hard drive

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how can i format it to fat32.
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I am trying to format a new external hard drive. It is attached via a USB 2.0 docking station. It does not show up in Disk Utility or Terminal, but does show up in System Profiler. How can I get my MacBook Pro to recognise it?

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The problem is that it is a Western Digital 3.5 inch internal hard drive housed inside a hard drive caddy. So the only way to connect it to my computer is through a dock.

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Disk Utility doesn't really offer me a comprehensive comparison of UFS and Mac OS Extended (Journaled), or any of the OS Extended derivatives.
Since Everything is either:
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Nick

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OS X requires the Mac OS Extended (HFS+) file system formatting scheme. Details on file format schemes are in http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Performance/Conceptual/FileSystem/Artic les/MacOSXAndFiles.html
ICBMs (Intel-chip-based Macs) require the GUID Partition Table scheme. Details on partition mapping schemes are in http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/universalbinary/universal_binary_tips/chapter_5_section10.html and further information on GUID is in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUIDPartitionTable.
Erasing. When you erase a volume, you delete the volume's file directory (when you erase a disk, you also destroy its partitions and directories); and, when you zero out the data, you write 0s and 1s to the disk and map out bad blocks.
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In addition to what Templeto Peck said, make sure that you select the formating to be OSX Extended.
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Hello all,
I have a Western Digital MyBook 2.0 500GB External Hard Drive that is formatted in fat32 format. The problem is, the files I wanted to back up are all 6-8GB dmg's and fat32 only supports the transfer of files up to 4GB (more like 3.75 in reality...).
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Except for my Xbox 360
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Cheers

looks like you formatted it as NTFS
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Do this when you're ready:
Drive Partition and Format
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 GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
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(12804)

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So i recently got a new television and found that i could plug my WD Elements hard drive into it and watch my movies etc.
the hard drive hadnt been updated in a while, so last time i had updated it was before we got a mac. i plugged it in the other day to put new things on it and my mac recognized it but it said it was read only and wouldnt allow me to put new things onto it. After doing a bit of googling i realized i needed to format it. I thought i would give it a go see what happened. after looking on the forums i formatted it through either exFAT or NTFS. and my hard drive changed to read & write and i could put my things onto it. But when i plugged it into the tele it said no media was found(still recgonized my hd though)
I'm guessing ive done something wrong. i just don't know exactly what. any tips or suggestions on what to do next would be much appreciated! thanks
oh and my mac's version is 10.9.1

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Changing format to an external hard drive

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