I want to format FAT32

Question

I have a hard drive in a USB enclosure and I need to format it FAT32 from my Mac. Can I do this and confirm that it's FAT32?
chris

Answer 1

First: Check to make sure MS-DOS (FAT) shows up, this is FAT16 NOT FAT32 as everyone says it is. I am 100% sure as I checked the block size on linux and windows.
This part can get very TECHY for some, so don't go any further unless you know what I am talking about.
If you are not seeing MS-DOS in the erase or partition tabs this means the MBR (Master Boot Record) has not been added to the Hard Drive. Doing so will ERASE everything.
Adding MBR (open disk utility):
1. Click your HARD DRIVE on left you want to format
2. Click Partition Tab
3. Click the "Volume Scheme" Pull down, Partition 1, 2 and so on.
NOTE: Before you begin, if you have a Firewire 800 Drive, i recommend you partition most of you space as Mac OS Extended. This is so you can take advantage of the Speed on FW800 and size of individual files. On a FAT32 partition you have a limitation on a single file size. If you are NOT doing video then this is not really a problem for you. I think the limit is 2GIGS per file in FAT32, on Mac OS Extended its unlimited.
4. Once you select a partition type you should see the "Options..." button enabled.
5. Click "Options"
6. Select "Master Boot Record", Click "OK"
7. Set your first partition to your larger of the two, (Example: 300gb to Partition 1, 200gb to Partition 2).
8. Select the Format you want under "Format" menu, do this for both partitions or a single partition if you choose to do a single FAT32 partition.
9. Click "Apple" when done, keep in mind this will erase everything on the drive
Tech Part: This may damage the drive if not used correctly. Be very careful what you type. BE WARNED!! I am not responsible for your damages.
1. Select the drive you want FAT32
2. Right Click the drive select Information (or press Apple+I)
3. Disk Identifier is what you are looking for, should be something like disk1s#
4. Right Click the drive select Unmount
4. Open a terminal (Application->Utilitiies->Terminal.app)
5. Type:
newfs_msdos -F 32 -v "MyDriveName" /dev/rdisk1s#
The drive should be the same exact name as you noted above, only with the "r" added to the beginning of the name.
Be sure to DOUBLE check everything, this will wipe the drive.
After running newfs_msdos, you can mount your drive by going back into Disk Utility right click the drive and select Mount.
Also, be sure the first step of checking if "MS-DOS (FAT)" is an available option. If it is not, you will get an error when running the newfs_msdos command on the drive when inside "Disk Utility" and repair will NOT work on the drive.
I hope this helps someone. As it took me a few hours of playing around to get this to work correctly. I still don't know why apple does not have FAT32 as an option yet you can do it via the command line.