Loading fat32 partition on boot

I just bought a mbp 17" C2D (standard model) and i installed bootcamp.
At boot time osx starts and i can see my desktop, dock, etc. Then computer appears really really slow for about 1 minute. When windows's partition (fat32) appears on desktop, the mbp return to be fast.
Any idea about that?
For the minute between startup and the end of loading partition my mbp is quite unusable (for example firefox takes 30 seconds to load)
Than you very much

I think your "slowness" at boot is purely coincidental and hugely unliekly to be related to the FAT32 partition. If there were a volume problem it would affect you well before the desktop was appearing. However, the creation of a Windows partition can restrict free space much more than would otherwise be and hence, can affect performance that way.

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Bug report: Option boot fails to show FAT32 partition in SR MacBooks

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I ran into the same problem when I installed Windows XP SP2 on a FAT 32 partition via Boot Camp. Unfortunately, selecting the Windows partition in Startup Disk preferences and then restarting didn't help matters any -- Windows would start to load and then my screen would just go black. I gave up after a few more tries and started all over with an NTFS partition. Things seem to be OK for now.

Cannot mount Windows partition with boot loader on Mac OS 10.8

I took out my hard drive of my Windows 7 PC, which has 3 partitions on it: C drive which contains the OS and the boot loader that the computer boots into, D drive which contains my data, and a third called "System Reserved" a few megabyte in size that I have no idea what so ever what it does besides that I cannot modify or delete it, which probably means that it is important. Now I put the hard drive inside an USB 3.0 enclosure and I am trying to mount this hard drive onto my OS X Lion Macbook air. Something strange is happening, in that the computer takes about 30 seconds or more to detect the drives presence, and then it just freezes after that. On the initial try, the system actually successfully launched DiskUtility, and I can see the drive mounted in the list of detected drives and 3 partitions "SD1, SD2, SD3" under that drive, but after repeating the procedure a few more times, nothing seems to be happening after the system freeze.
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Disk Description : INTEL SS DSA2M160G2GC Media Total Capacity : 160.04 GB (160,041,885,696 Bytes)
Connection Bus : USB Write Status : Read/Write
Connection Type : External S.M.A.R.T. Status : Not Supported
USB Serial Number : CVPO049000W0160AGN Partition Map Scheme : Master Boot Record
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Not booting after creating a fat32 partition from windows 8 from boot camp

I have windows 8.1 on a boot camp partition. I created a fat32 partition from windows looking forward to be able to share files to Yosemite OSX. But now, neither the OSX or the windows are booting. When pressing options key is only abailable one option, a disk tagged as "windows", and after trying to use it, it refers to a error message "UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME". I really really appreciate any help regarding this issue.

Your entire disk is a MBR disk. You will need to erase the disk, and start from the beginning and install Yosemite/Mavericks, and then use BC Assistant to create a Windows partition and install Windows. If you have a Time Capsule/Time Machhine backup, you can restore it after your erase using the command below.
You can erase the disk as follows
diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ OSX disk0
Here is the Usage help syntax.
diskutil erasedisk
Usage: diskutil eraseDisk format name [APM[Format]|MBR[Format]|GPT[Format]]
MountPoint|DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode
Completely erase an existing whole disk. All volumes on this disk will be
destroyed. Ownership of the affected disk is required.
Format is the specific file system name you want to erase it as (HFS+, etc.).
Name is the (new) volume name (subject to file system naming restrictions),
or can be specified as %noformat% to skip initialization (newfs).
You cannot erase the boot disk.
Example: diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ UntitledUFS disk3

Viewing contents of FAT32 partition

I am having trouble viewing the contents of my FAT32 partition. I installed Solaris 10 on c0d1. I also added a 2GB FAT32 partition to c0d1 as well for sharing files between windows xp and Solaris 10.
I added the following in my /etc/vfstab to mount the partition
/dev/dsk/c0d1p2:c - /share pcfs - yes -
But that caused my system not to load up properly.
I commented the line out and it boots up normally. Then I tried to mount the partition from the terminal
mount -F pcfs /dev/dsk/c0d1p2:c /mnt
but it says "is already mounted or /mnt is busy." I'm not sure where to go to view the contents of the partition, either in the gui (Java Desktop) or from the terminal. Can somebody please help?

Actually, I spoke incorrectly. It did boot, but failed to load the graphical login console. Here are the errors that followed:
checking ufs filesystems
/dev/rdsk/c0d1s7: is logging
svc:/system/filesystem/local: default: 'WARNING: /sbin/mountall -l failed: exit status 1
svc.startd[7]: svc:/system/filesystem/local:default: Method "/lib/svc/method/fs-local" failed with exit status 95.
[ system/filesystem/local:default failed fatally (see 'svcs -x' for details) ]
sol console login:I also tried mounting to /, but that resulted in the same: is already mounted or / is busy.

How do I Partition Yosemite Boot Drive Using BCA?

I replaced the HD in my Mid 2010 27" IMac to achieve greater storage. The replacement went fine with no issues, and I then installed Yosemite (10.10.1) from scratch using the latest version of Diskmaker and installing the install version of Yosemite on to a USB thumb drive. The replacement drive is a 4.0Gb drive with no prior installations on it.
Everything has gone fine, and OSX Yosemite seemingly works great.
But I need to install Boot Camp and a fresh version of Windows 7, 64bit SP1, and it just won't work at the partition step before I ever get to the Windows installation.
When I use BCA I downloaded the drivers without a hitch, but when I go to the next step I encounter the error message, "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition. The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS extended volume or already partitioned by Boot camp Assistant for installing Windows".
I have found a number of references to this error message, but none seem to describe my situation with a new, clean, install of Mavericks.
I have a bootable backup (via Carbon Copy Cloner), and have loaded current Yosemite compatible versions of Partition Magic and TechTools onto the external bootable drive, but cannot see any problems with the drive.
Before I progress any further with installing apps on to the new drive and I still have a clean Yosemite installation on the new HD, I want to resolve the issue since Windows 7 via Boot Camp (and not via virtual software!) is essential. The prior smaller HD had a Windows 7 Boot Camp installation that worked fine.
Options that might work:
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2. Use low level partitioning software or terminal mode to erase the small hidden OSX restore partition, which may be why BCA thinks I have more than one partition on the boot drive. This notion shows up in some of the threads on this web site, but why would Apple allow this problem since all installations of Yosemite presumably have the hidden restore partition?
3. My new 4Gb hard drive is a hybrid SSD/HD (ST4000DX001), but this type of drive seems to be the norm now, and I do not see where this would be a problem.
4. Erase the new drive, and install a clean version of the original OSX, (Lion, I believe for the mid 2010 27" IMac) using the internet and the Cmd-R command, subsequently updating the original OSX version to Yosemite after creating a Boot Camp partition (although I don't know if BCA would work from the original version of OSX for this machine. I really don't want to do this because of the time required for the internet download, but it would take me to the original OSX image which came with the machine.
I have no issues with my Yosemite installation, and backup is not a problem since my goal was to create a clean installation of OSX uncluttered with legacy apps.
I would be grateful for any experienced suggestions, or hypotheses as to the nature of the problem.
Thanks!!!!

You can use an external disk for store files and for Time Machine, but you have to create a second volume.
To create volumes on the external disk, use Disk Utility. See > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU3.html I recommend you to put as much space as you can for the Time Machine volume, because backups consume a lot and Time Machine starts deleting backups when the external disk is full

Using TM to reformat one (FAT32) partition on external HD

Hi all,
I'm wondering what others' experiences have been using TM's reformat feature on only one partition in a drive. In my case, I have a 400GB Seagate external HD that has been partitioned to one half HFS+ and one half FAT32. Now that my data analysis programs have all come out with mac support, I have finally said goodbye to the ole Windoze machine (yey!!). However I am still left with a hard drive that has been partially made compatible for my old PC.
Right now, all music/docs/files/etc are stored on the FAT32 side of the drive, for the practical reason of TM needing HFS+. By default, the HFS+ side of the drive is then set up to be my TM location. Both my iBook and MBP see these as two separate HD's, and can read/write both.
What I am trying to get to as an outcome is having 1/2 of the hard drive partitioned for all my music, documents, large files, etc. Another 1/2 should be exclusively TM backups. Although TM gives me the alluring option of just reformatting one half of this drive so that both separate partitions are HFS+, I just get goosebumps thinking of all the things that could go wrong. And while I have begun the process of backing up files (slowly) to A-drive, I don't want to lose those files just yet. So here are the questions:
1. Has anyone ever been so brave as to reformat only one half of their hard drive (or one particular partition) with TM? Keep in mind my Mac sees it as two separate HD's.
2. Any advice on whether I should simply keep all 70GB of my music/documents/pictures/etc on the FAT32 drive and leave the configuration as it is? I have heard rumors it's a little more unstable, but on the other hand it would be accessible from multiple operating sys if anything went wrong. I do access this regularly for iTunes, and plan to do so over an Airport Extreme/usb hub set up permanently. I have little to no need for windows compatibility, but I'm also lazy and want to have as simple of a set-up as possible. And, knock on wood, I got a Seagate specifically because of the long term stability. Am I flirting with disaster?
3. I am repeatedly getting the error that I am not able to delete folders from the FAT32 side (My Music, My Photos, etc) because "You do not have sufficient privileges". Any ideas on how to get around that?
I know the best option would be to backup everything by network/another external HD, and that is the long-term idea, but for now just wondering if FAT32 can be my permanent data access solution without any serious looming problems.
Any advice on better sites than A-drive (www.adrive.com) for permanent, relatively inexpensive cloud storage would be much appreciated as well.
Thanks for taking the time, appreciate any advice here.

Ok, I finally understand.
redhedhs wrote:
I have a separate TM drive for the Intel Mac, so I'm focusing on having an Apple partition map for my iBook backups. Right now I have a successful partition to use for TM (let's call it TM DRIVE). And another for music, docs, etc (FILES DRIVE). FILES DRIVE is currently FAT32 formatted. I haven't had any problems with it, but I'm trying to figure out:
a. If it's even necessary to reformat this to Apple partition if I'm not using it for TM (ie: what are the possible scenarios that would necessitate avoiding FAT32 for this?).
Not necessary but I would recommend it. FAT32 has several limitations. For example, TM can not back it, up. the file size is limited. unix permissions don't work on it. if a file is locked you can't delete it from OS X and have to boot from windows to do it. Much better to use HFS+ if you are not going to use the drive with windows.
b. If I do want to reformat just the FAT32 partition, is it likely/probable that I would erase the info on the other partition if I did so?
No. It's quite safe to do so using disk utility. this has nothing to do with TM which threw me off.
just select the FAT partition in disk utility and reformat it to HFS+ using the "erase" tab. this will of course erase everything currently on the FAT partition but will not affect the TM partition in any way. as i said, the operation is quite safe.
Sounds like you're saying Disk Utility would be better suited for it, wondering if I should crosspost there? Either way, I wonder if I can just reformat one partition safely?
Thanks!

Partition Map Schemes: HFS+ and FAT32 partitions with OSX and Windows

OK so I know this question has been practically beaten to death, but I keep finding conflicting information. I am using a 2011 MacBook Pro, on which I will set up Windows through Boot Camp. I recently purchased a 750 GB WD external hard drive to use with time machine for a backup on my Mac. However, I also need to be able to use part of this for Windows files. SO.. I intend to use the HFS+ partition for the the Mac (500GB) and create a FAT 32 partition (250GB) to use for backing up windows files (using it for solely computer modeling and need to be able to transfer/share files with Mac users who use Parallels as well as copying to PC desktops). My question is what to use as the partition map scheme. I have heard that when using these two partition types, a Master Boot Record is needed (so Windows can recognize the FAT32 partition) and also that a GUID partition map is required for use with time machine, meaning windows would no longer be able to read the FAT32 partition. Is there a way to reconcile this? Either using Time Machine with HFS+ partition that is set to MBR or uisng FAT32 on Windows with a GUID partition map? Also if I were to use Parallels (with a GUID setup) instead of Boot Camp, could that be the way to save the windows files to the FAT32 Partition and avoid problems with Time Machine not working with MBR? Thanks for any expertise, as I have heard that both setups that I have mentioned both will work and both will not work. Any experience with a similar situation?

Wow. Thanks for the extremely quick responses. Just for a few points of clarification.. I'm a complete newb at backing up strategies.
Steve, you would recommend to not backup files from my Mac OSX and files from Windows (also on my Mac) on the same drive, correct?
I appreciate the strategy of using it only as a backup, that makes quite a bit of sense. However, if I want to only backup my OSX files, and also store (solely as backup copies) say, a number of computer models (Rhino, Revit, etc.) that were created in Windows programs (not needing to store the entire Windows disk), would it not make sense to store these on the same drive in a different partition, creating the need for two different partition formats? And if I were to do this, maybe I should use NTFS instead of FAT32 (and reformat to GUID since that seems to be a standard for Apple and Windows 7 recognizes it..?) to keep them completely separate since the computer model files cannot be opened unless running the Windows programs.
How do you use your drive with HFS+ and NTFS if not for backups? I will not need to access the HFS+ backup files in Windows, nor need to access files from an NTFS partition in OSX, so that seems to simplify things in that, at least at the moment, I will not need any Paragon software.
Currently my drive is partitioned as HFS+ and FAT32 as MBR, with the HFS+ partition set up with Time Machine. It appears to be successful, I see my files in Mac HD -> "users" and all my docs, desktop items, etc. are listed. Seems that there is in fact no limit on TM's use of MBR maps, or else it is way above 160GB.
Third, are you using CarbonCopyClone in place of Time Machine or in addition to it? If in addition would it create the bit-wise clone on the same HFS+ partition as TM is backing up to? Or a separate drive? I'd like to only have one external that I am backing up to for simplicity's sake. I've never used TM before, so this is all new to me. Also, I suppose I have been missing the distinction between storing copies of files, and making a complete backup of a disk image... just now realizing the difference. Thanks so much.

What is the largest partition for boot camp

I'm at 34 GB now and need more room. Can I go larger? I'm running XP on my windows side.
Rick

Fortuny wrote:
Windows XP has a practical limit for partitions at 2TB due to the used MBR (Master Boot Record) not being able to address larger harddisks.
32GB is the limitation Microsoft has set for using FAT32 as file system.
Partitions over 32GB have to use the NTFS file system.
I'm sorry but that is a hoary old wives tale, it's also incorrect, the maximum size for a Fat32 partition is 8TBytes
Here's some data about it.
Clusters cannot be 64 kilobytes (KB) or larger. If clusters are 64 KB or larger, some programs (such as Setup programs) may incorrectly calculate disk space.
A FAT32 volume must contain a minimum of 65,527 clusters. You cannot increase the cluster size on a volume that uses the FAT32 file system so that it contains fewer than 65,527 clusters.
The maximum disk size is approximately 8 terabytes when you take into account the following variables: The maximum possible number of clusters on a FAT32 volume is 268,435,445, and there is a maximum of 32 KB per cluster, along with the space required for the file allocation table (FAT).
Hmmm, formatting is odd, here's a link to the original MS article

Grub Install on FAT32 Partition

Howdy Y'all,
I often remote into my home system and I need to be able to switch between my Arch Linux install and my Windows 7 partition from time to time. I am toying with the idea of installing Grub on /boot as a FAT32 partition so I can edit the Grub menu from within Windows or Arch and change the default boot OS.
That way I can remote into my system, change the grub menu, issue a reboot command and have my home system switch over to the other OS.
Would that be a good way to remotely switch what OS I am running? Or does any one have a better idea on how to do that?
Thanks!

Doesn't need to be all that difficult. Have a look at this.

Mounting ntfs partitions at boot up read only and starting X at boot

Hi,
I want to mount my windos partition at boot so I can build a library in amarok without having to copy all of my music to my linux partition. However I only want to mount read only, as I don't want to risk messing the partition up. I followed the instructions on the wiki here:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NTFS_Write_Support
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# /etc/fstab: static file system information
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
none /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
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Thanks in advance,
Calef13

Thanks a lot for the speedy replies, this is a great community here btw, very helpful. You were right mixtr, I got away with just
"/dev/sda1/ /mnt/sda1 ntfs-3g user,ro,auto 0 0"
And adding kdm to the deamons line solved my problem. I was trying to add it to the rc.d file rather than the rc.conf
I had my doubts at first but I really like the fact that arch doesn't hold your hand and leaves everything up to you, I have already learned loads about the config files for linux among many other things and have come ot appreciate the lack of abstraction in arch. I really prefer this to previous OSes, but wish I had installed kdemod as the 'vanilla' kde from the repositories installs pretty much everything imaginable, but my system still runs very quickly.
Calef13

Games keep crashing under Windows XP SP2 32Gig FAT32 partition

Hi All!
Hopefully somone can help me. We just purchased an iMac Core 2 Duo 20" from Best Buy. I was able to install BootCamp and install Windows XP Pro SP2 on a 32Gig FAT32 partition. I installed all the updates for WinXP. When we play games like Black & White 2 or Zoo Tycoon 2, the games seem to run fine until they crash, which seem to happen at random interval (several minutes into the games i.e. 20-30 minutes). I've tried updating the games, but no go.
Running under Mac OS X (10.4.9), the machine has never crashed...it is rock solid. Not so when running Windows XP SP2. I've tried wipping the XP partition (using the BootCamp application) and starting over from scratch, only to get the same results. Has anyone experienced something similar? Most importantly, has anyone gotten around this issue? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
wynken
Imac Core 2 Duo, 20" (Late 2006), 2.16Ghz, 250Gig HD, 1Gig RAM Mac OS X (10.4.9) Also have WinXP SP2 32Gig FAT32 partition

Just an idea for you. There is an entire Apple Discussion forum dedicated to Boot Camp and Windows XP.
Whereas, not everyone here with an Intel iMac has installed, tried to install or has experience with BC & XP, everyone there has or at least has an interest. You may attract help more quickly there.
The Forum is at the bottom of the main Apple Discussions page under Windows Compatible Technology.
Here is a link;
Forum: Boot Camp Public Beta

How to create a FAT32 partition on the internal HDD?

I'd like to set up a partition that can be shared between OSX and Windows.
I tried using a GParted LiveCD, but then OSX won't recognize the partition. I haven't installed Windows yet, but I've read that formatting the partition from Windows will prevent OSX from recognizing it as well. Any ideas? Thanks.

If you are reformatting your internal drive, you will loose your OS X install and have to re-install. That being said, boot from your os x install disc and reformat the first partition as _free space_ for your Windows install then install OS X on the second partition formatted as HFS+. After the install and boot of the OS X install, restart with your Windows disc and install on free space. It will format the partition for you as NTFS or Fat32 if you choose. Mac's can read and write to both. Fat32 is native and NTFS requires MacFuse and the ntfs-3g plugin...both free.
After the install you will need to set up a boot option. I have used Super Grub Disc
http://www.supergrubdisk.org/
and booted the partitions seperatly. There are other BootLoader programs that will allow you to choose which partition to boot from. A really nice one with a great GUI is Cameleon
http://chameleon.osx86.hu/articles/chameleon-20rc1-is-out
Hope this works for you,
Glynn

I partitioned my MacBook Pro and installed Windows 8 in it.....now I can't find my partition when I pressed option key when booting up.....so how can I do to find the partition to boot...I can see it in the disk manager in Mac....any ideas? thanks..!..

I partitioned my MacBook Pro and installed Windows 8 in it.....now I can't find my partition when I pressed option key when booting up.....so how can I do to find the partition to boot...I can see it in the disk manager in Mac....any ideas? thanks..!..

Hi LamboMong,
just try this:
http://refit.sourceforge.net
install, reboot twice and choose the Windows-Partition on next startup.
(The apple-bootloader doesn't display all bootable harddisks.
With rEFIt you can boot from all partitions/harddisks on your computer.)
I hope that will solve your problem.
Daniel Fernau

Loading fat32 partition on boot

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