Formatting partition as MS-DOS?

I have a large external HD with three HFS+ partitions. I would like to reformat one of the partitions as FAT32, but in Disk Utility's Erase tab, I've only got the options to format it as HFS or UFS, no option for "MS-DOS File system." However, if I select the entire disk to erase (rather than the one partition I want to change) I DO have the MS-DOS option.
Is there any way to only reformat the one partition using Disk Utility, and if not, what about other disk software?
Thanks.
Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Hi Clint;
No.
Allan
If you are interested in donating your spare CPU cycles to science, please try
http://teammacosx.homeunix.com/index.html

Similar Messages

Formatting a particular partition to MS-DOS(FAT)

I have a 1TB Lacie external hard drive with two partitions (300GB and 700GB). Both are Mac OS Extended (Journaled) right now. I want the 700GB partition to be MS-DOS(FAT) but when I select the partition and go to the erase page it does not give me the MS-DOS(FAT) format option in the pull down menu. If I click on the entire disc and choose to format both partitions back into one it DOES allow me to use the MS-DOS(FAT) format but not if I only have one partition selected. Why is this? Is there any way to just format one partition to MS-DOS(FAT)?

Done reformatting and it worked. Thanks!
Here's something off topic: I was concerned with formatting a partition to fat32 because I wanted to use my external drive with my PS3. When my drive was formatted with the APM scheme my PS3 didn't pick it up, even when it was fat32. But now that it is GUID it works on the PS3 as well. So, two problems solved.

Unable to format partition, disk may be damaged

I was experiencing a problem with my Windows XP installation on Bootcamp. The Windows side kept restarting, and I could not find the reason, so I formatted with the Windows XP disc and tried to re-install it, but it didn't work. I forget the exact error as to why. So I went back to the Mac side and re-formatted the partition sing Bootcamp, and now when I try to re-install the Windows XP on the Bootcamp partition, I get the error:
Unable to format partition, disk may be damaged
What can I do? I don't understand, because this disk has worked before and I am on the mac side right now, so the actual disk does not appear to be damaged. What can I do?

Do a full format as it will check for errors and mark bad clusters if it finds any (full format = quick + chkdsk /x ), but only create one OS partition e.g like 30GB or something , this will be plenty enough for the os ,instead of the whole drive . Will save you time .
Wait with partitioning the rest of the drive as an extra partition until the OS is installed using diskmanagement .
Also make sure sata-dma is enabled in bios .

Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying and Repairing Disks

Disclaimer: Apple does not necessarily endorse any suggestions, solutions, or third-party software products that may be mentioned in the topic below. Apple encourages you to first seek a solution at Apple Support. The following links are provided as is, with no guarantee of the effectiveness or reliability of the information. Apple does not guarantee that these links will be maintained or functional at any given time. Use the information below at your own discretion.
This tip links to my web site (too large for this forum).
*Please click here:* Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying and Repairing Disks
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Please use the Contact link there for suggestions, changes, or corrections.
This is the 1st version of this tip. It was submitted on September 12, 2010 by Pondini.
Do you want to provide feedback on this User Contributed Tip or contribute your own? If you have achieved Level 2 status, visit the User Tips Library Contributions forum for more information.

Hi Pondini,
Page: 9. Duplicating a CD or DVD, item 4...
Based on articles like
How to copy previously-burned DVD-R video discs
and
Creating a disk image
I always selected "DVD/CD Master" as the image format when making images from discs.
Is that not necessary?
Thanks,
Nubz

Clone Leopard GUI Partition to Apple Format Partition

My main drive in my iMac is running 10.4 with an "Apple" format on its partition, and not GUI. It has one partition for the main drive (10.4) and one for random files on this disk. I also have an external USB 2.0 drive that I've installed Leopard on, because unlike the 10.4 drive, this was formatted with GUI.
So my question is; *Will Leopard 10.5 run on an Apple format partition scheme when I use carbon copy cloner to copy it?*

Stealthgear wrote:
My main drive in my iMac is running 10.4 with an "Apple" format on its partition, and not GUI. It has one partition for the main drive (10.4) and one for random files on this disk. I also have an external USB 2.0 drive that I've installed Leopard on, because unlike the 10.4 drive, this was formatted with GUI.
So my question is; *Will Leopard 10.5 run on an Apple format partition scheme when I use carbon copy cloner to copy it?*
yes but as I understand it you won't be able to install any system updates on that drive once you boot from it so you might not want to do that.

Unable to format/partition hard drive

So I've recently decided my previous three partitions, including a partition with windows on, are not needed so backed up the files and am trying to simply format the whole hard disk. It lets me format two of the old partitions, but not the one with windows OS on it (erase is greyed out).
In terminal I tried
diskutil reformat /dev/disk2
but get
disk2 does not appear to have a valid file system format
Usage: diskutil reformat MountPoint|DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode
Completely erase an existing volume with the same name and format as the
original. Ownership of the affected disk is required.
You cannot erase the boot volume, nor can you reformat any device which
does not have a valid file system (instead use diskutil eraseVolume).
The partition table is master boot record for the HDD. That's about as far as I can get. Anyone?

Hi there LazyGenious,
At this point you may need to boot into the Recovery HD to repartition and reformat your HDD, then reinstall OS X.
To boot in the the Recovery HD, choose Apple menu > Restart. Once your Mac restarts (and the gray screen appears), hold down the Command (⌘) and R keys. Once booted, you should be able to launch Disk Utility. At this point you will want to repartition the HDD using the steps outlined in the User Guide below. If you are going to be reinstalling OS X, make sure to select the GUID Partition Table option.
Partition a disk - Disk Utility Help
Partition a disk
Select the disk in the sidebar, then click Partition.
If you’re partitioning an external disk, make sure it’s connected to your computer.
Click the Partition Layout pop-up menu, then choose the number of partitions.
You can enter a size for each partition or drag the divider between the partitions to change their sizes. If a partition’s name has an asterisk beside it, it’s being shown larger than its actual size so the name can be displayed clearly.
Click each partition, then enter a name for it.
For each partition, click the Format pop-up menu, choose a format, then enter a size.
Mac OS Extended (Journaled): Uses journaling to protect the hierarchical file system integrity.
Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled): Uses journaling and is case sensitive to folder names. For example, folders named “Homework” and “hoMeWOrk” are two different folders.
MS-DOS (FAT): Use for Windows disks that are 32 GB or less.
ExFAT: Use for Windows disks that are over 32 GB.
Free Space: Use to extend the free space for the disk.
Click Options, then choose one of the following:
GUID Partition Table: Choose this partition scheme if you’ll be using this disk only with Mac computers.
Apple Partition Map: This partition scheme should only be used if you’re working with Mac computers using Mac OS X version 10.4 or earlier.
Master Boot Record: Also known as “fdisk,” choose this partition scheme if you’ll be using the disk as a secondary disk for the Windows operating system you installed using Boot Camp, or for an external disk you’ll be using on a Windows computer.
Click Apply.
Once this is process is complete, quit Disk Utility and reinstall OS X using the steps outlined in the article below, starting from step 2.
OS X Mavericks: Erase and reinstall OS X
-Griff W.

Time Machine & newly re-formatted/partitioned external hard drive.

A couple of weeks ago I wanted to reformat a WD external hard drive, entitled "My External", from MS-DOS format into Journaled Mac OS X format.
I backed up my "My External" files to another separate external hard drive using Time Machine. When the back-up was complete, I proceeded to create 1 partition and reformat half of "My External" into the Journal Mac OS X format.
When the process was finished, the new sections were entitled, "Mac Only" and "Et Al". I entered Time Machine, expecting to see "My External" on the Finder window sidebar so I could restore files. However, all I saw was "Mac Only" and "Et Al" all grayed out.
Where did the back-up files for "My External" go? And is there any way I can get them back? PLEASE help. I thought using Time Machine would cover and back-up everything.
Thanks in advance for your time.

Rini718 wrote:
Before, I do remember going back in time the cascade and seeing My External in the Finder sidebar and being able to click around in it. That's why I had assumed that it also backed up My External via Time Machine.
I tried your tip for the no-longer-connected drives; it seems that you're right about the MS-DOS AKA FAT32 format not allowing for back-up via Time Machine. I feel so ignorant/lied to by the display. -sigh-
I really don't think you saw the data. You probably saw the icon and name in the sidebar, and didn't notice that they were grayed-out on the backup windows (it's not particularly obvious, unless you're looking for it). And/or, you saw it on the first +Today (Now)+ window, and didn't realize it wasn't a backup. You would not be the first, unfortunately.
What do you suggest I do? I have the newly reformatted/partitioned Mac Only/Et Al External. I have not written anything to it since the day this all occurred, but I have let a salvaging program read it for a preliminary scan (the attempt did eventually fail though). Reading it shouldn't do anything to the data that may still be in it, si? Only writing to it?
That's my understanding.
The app mentioned here most often is +Data Rescue 3,+ and it seems to get good reviews, but I haven't used it myself, so can't recommend it over any of the others.
Some of these have a free "trial mode," that will tell you if there's anything to be recovered, and perhaps recover a single file. For more, you have to pay the $$.
You'll also need another drive to receive anything it can recover.
Look for apps or services under +Data Recovery+ via Google, VersionTracker.com, or MacUpdate.com.
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Once this is sorted out, I'd strongly suggest keeping secondary backups. See #27 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

Satellite U400 - How to get back formatted partition with HDD Recovery

Hello,
I have bought a new Satellite U400 notebook with Vista Home preinstaled on it.
I went throught initial configuration and after it has been done I realised that HDD partitions do not suits my needs.
So I resised the "Vista" partition (acctually I have shrinked it) and made the "Data" partition bigger.
I did not do anything with hidden partition.
Unfortunately when I did this procedure I formated the "Data" partition.
Now when I want to make backup DVD with TOSHIBA Recovery Disc Creator I got the error message saying that it is not possible because I have formated the "Data" partition.
Are there any suggestion how to solve this error?
The system goes fine, the only thing is that I am not able to backup and restore OS.
Thanks Vecerka

Another possibility besides getting yourself a new copy of recovery DVD is, that you could use 3rd party programs to make an image or backup of your actual system.
I think Norton Ghost or Acronis TrueImage are good programs, but I only used last named one, so can't tell if Norton tool is equal to Acronis.
And if you do not want to order recovery disc online, you always can visit your local ASP for doing this job for you. ;)

Unable to format partition

Trying to setup a dev box with a 4TB HD. The last partition on the drive wont let me format it. Image link below.
http://i.imgur.com/R3OFgLa.png
http://i.imgur.com/7HhxqtI.png
What am I doing wrong?

I'm not sure about that. If it's a fresh install of win7 you can try, if not you might have to find alternative ways to convert it.
If it will fix the issue; it's only a suggestion. Normally you will always have disk's larger that 2tb as 'gpt' as it supports bigger partitions.
Best Regards,
Jesper Vindum, Denmark
Systems Administrator
Help the forum: Monitor(alert) your threads and vote helpful replies or mark them as answer, if it helps solving your problem.

Unable to format / partition hard disk

First start with some up front info:
- This all started when the partition table on my SSD became corrupt out of no where (the result of a system freeze)
- I am using a 3rd party SSD from crucial (The M4)
- I have tried formatting it by using a USB connector and it works fine, connecting it via SATA on the MacBook has problems.
- Tried two different SSDs and the same result.
When I have the SSD connected via the SATA cable in my MacBook the drive is recognized as being unformated. Using Disk Utility I'm trying o create a partition to install OS X but Disk Utility tends to stall on "unmounting" the drive and creating the partition map with an expected wait time of up to 40 minutes (no secure erase selected, just a partition of the disk). Same result on two drives and connecting them via USB partitions the drives normally within a minute. Plugging the drive back into the SATA connector on the MacBook results in the partition not being seen by disk utility (the drive is seen though).
Is this a hardware failure of the MacBook Pro? I made sure that the SATA connector is firmly connected on the board and on the drive.
Any help would be appreciated.

I/O error is usually caused by a bad block.
The standard erase only overwrites the area where the directory will live. It does nothing to the rest of the data blocks.
On a rotating drive, the standard way of scrubbing out bad blocks and substituting spares was to write Zeroes to every block. This takes several hours, but if it finishes without error, you have 100 percent good blocks. On an SSD, there is an underlying problem with deleted data being carried along as if it were good data, and making the drive eventually seem near-full at all times. This can cause the drive to misbehave.
I recommend you try TRIM Enabler, a simple, Free utility that patches the SSD driver to pass TRIM commands to all Internal SSD devices, not just Apple Brand. When you run Disk Utility ( Repair Disk ) you get an additional line of output, " TRIM-ing unused blocks" and the drive may TRIM for several minutes.
TRIM-ing an "erased" SSD will cause all those newly unused blocks to be available for the SSD drive controller to shuffle around in ways that it deems best. This will allow the drive to know which blocks are actually free, and it can do a better, faster job for you.

Disk Utility won't format/partition external HD

I was just using this HD earlier tonight because it had a VMware image on it that I use. (Drive previously formatted under Tiger's disk utility) Well, I decided I wanted to repartition it so I could have a LeopardInstallDVD partition and a partition for my VMware images. When I tried to repartition the HD in Disk Utility, it just kinda froze and I just got the spinning beach ball, so I had to Force Quit. I tried it again; same result. I tried to restart the computer, but it froze, so I had to hard boot it. Upon restart, I was greeted with a message that one of the disks was not recognized by the OS. Guess which one? Yep, not only did it no longer show up in Disk Utility, but now the other external drive I was using for my Time Machine backups was no longer showing either. I turned off that hard drive and turned it back on and luckily it mounted and all my backups seem to be intact. However, I still couldn't get the other one to show up. So, I unhooked it and attached it to a windows machine and it showed up as "uninitialized disk". I was able to initialize it and reformat it as NTFS. I then unhooked it, plugged it back into my Mac and it recognized it as a NTFS drive with one volume called "new volume." I again tried to partition it and all I get is the spinning beach ball and I have to force quit. I can't even do an "erase" on the drive; I just get the spinning beach ball. What is going on here? Did Leopard corrupt my drive somehow?
Edit: I just hooked up the drive to my windows machine AGAIN and formatted it as NTFS and I copied some files to it to make sure it works. Then I hooked it back to my Mac and it recognized the drive and one volume called "new volume" and it automatically mounted. I can see the files that I copied to the drive. The drive still works, but apparently only under Windows now. Why can't I partition the drive with disk utility?

Well, since it's an 80GB drive, XP wouldn't let me format it as anything other than NTFS, so I had to create smaller partitions in order to use Fat32. I created a 10GB fat32 and a 30GB fat32 and left the rest unallocated. I connected it back to my mac and it recognized both partitions in disk utility and it let me erase the 10 GB and format it as HFS+. However, I wanted to make it a GUID partition and I don't know how to do this besides repartitioning the disk. I clicked on the hard drive itself, clicked partition, created 1 partition to test (using the whole 76GB), and all I get is the spinning beach ball. I don't get it.

NTFS format partition problem - install Windows 8.1

I cannot install Windows 8.1 from USB via bootcamp, on Mavericks late 2013 rMPB 15"
When I get towards the end of the Windows Setup screen the Bootcamp partition is showing as not NTFS format
There is no 'advanced options' to click, under the 4 partition options.
I have pressed Option and tried installing through either the 'Windows' partition and the 'EFI' partition - both have the NTFS format problem.

Just hit the 'format' button - looks like it might be working now

External HD Format-Partition?

I just purchased a CAVALRY 500GB External HD (NTFS - SATA)to store mac and pc video, audio, and pics, deamweaver web sites, msword files, and ms excel files. It connects via USB. I wish to be able to use this both on my win xp computer, and my ibook g4 currently with osx 10.3 and soon to be updated to 10.4 or newer if out soon.
Mfg description said pc and mac useable - i can't copy to the cavalry - tried to copy an imovie file to it and got error relative to not being able to write to the drive.
Should/can i choose one format for this drive to reformat so i can use it as i wish
-or-
(not sure about this) should/can i divide the cavalry into 2 volumes, one volume formatted for mac files and one for pc
-or-
is there a more effecient way to accomplish this?

You can use the instructions in this article to partition the drive, with one partition intended for use with each OS. Other options include formatting the whole drive as FAT32(can't be used as a Mac OS X startup disk and can't accomodate files 4GB or larger), use MacDrive and format the drive as Mac OS Extended(cost and can't be used as a Windows startup disk), or install MacFUSE while leaving the drive in its current format(harder to set up and cannot be used as a Mac OS X startup disk). Since the drive is an USB drive, you can't use it to start up Mac OS X on a PowerPC Mac anyway.
(21262)

Windows installer won't format partition correctly.

I'm not very tech minded so Ill try to explain best I can. I am trying to partition mac to install windows.
First step: I use Bootcamp to create the partition, the mac restarts and boots to windows installer. However the product key can't be verified, windows won't help with the issue they say it is valid and its apples problem.
Second step: Im advised by apple support to restart the mac while holding C button, at this point I have the USB drive in and the windows installation disc. The mac boots to windows installer and I enter product key, it accepts the product key. Great that problem is fixed. It now asks me to select the partition I want to install on. I select Bootcamp partition is says the format is GPT partition style. Ok I look for fix on internet it says click the format option for that partition. Warning message saying that it will erase all files on that partition. I click ok and it formats it. The word Bootcamp on the partition is removed. So I select this partition again but windows still says its still in the GPT format even though it has just formatted it. How can I fix this formatting issue ? Also I checked the partiton in disk utility and the format is displayed as NTFS, this is what it should be. However windows just disagrees and keeps telling me its in the GPT format.
Anyone got a fix for this problem formatting problem ?
If not what about a fix for the product key not being verified when doing install through bootcamp, if I can fix that I think bootcamp will sort it all out itself. (Yes I have an internet connection when entering product key before anyone asks)
PLEASE HELP!!!! Apple won't help as they don't deal with windows. Windows say that the problem is with Apple.

Try the following steps:
1. Go to Microsoft website to fix install and Unistall problems. Click "Run now" from Fix it to remove all iTunes & related installer files:
http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Program_Install_and_Uninstall
Be aware that Windows Installer CleanUp Utility will not remove the actual program from your computer. However, it will remove the installation files so that you can start the installation, upgrade, or uninstall over.

How do I format partition as NTFS?

I'm trying to install Windows Vista on my Mac Pro, second hard drive. I printed out the instructions for the Bootcamp process. I'm using a single partition drive and letting Bootcamp set up a second partition for Windows. Everything works okay, but it won't install. I get this error message: "Disk 1 Partition 3 Bootcamp. Windows cannot be installed to this disk space. Wiondows must be installed to a partition formatted as NTFS.
What I should I do to correct this problem. I thought this would be a pretty easy process using Bootcamp on Leopard.
Thanks for the help.

I have the exact same problem, I got a new 8 core Mac Pro with 2 HD. I was planning to install Windows on the second drive but kept getting the "Windows cannot find system volume..." message. I tried every combination and workaround I could find (including those in this thread) and the ones on the various Windows support sites but nothing worked.
I finally gave up and tried to install on the HD in Bay 1 (drive 0), so I used bootcamp assistant to split the disk 0 (bay 1) that has my mac partition with a Windows Partition, followed the instructions for bootcamp and it worked as expected! No more errors.
So I wonder if there is something about those secondary drives that Windows does not like (I read somewhere it could be a problem with the SATA driver)
Since I still want to have my windows and mac on the 2 separate drives, I wonder if swaping them - putting disk in bay 2 in bay 1 and the one in bay 1 in bay 2 and putting Leopard on what was the drive 1 instead of drive 0 and windows on the old drive 0 - could help. I have not tried it yet since I'll have to re-install Leopard from the disks and need to backup the system first. If I try I'll post back the results to this thread.
For now it looks like your only option is to split your primary HD with a windows partition and not use the separate internal drive.

Formatting partition as MS-DOS?

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