No Fat32 option in Disk Utility

I'm running OS 10.4.11 and I have an external HD that I need to transfer files from my Mac to be used on a PC. I am trying to format the HD so it can be used on both, but I do not have FAT32 as an option.
How do I format this external HD to be used on a PC after I dump down the files from my Mac?
Thanks,

Are you selecting the top-level physical disc icon, rather than the existing logical partition's Volume icon? The Partition operation isn't valid on an existing partition, you have to select the disc, then it should show up.

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Re: How to Clone Using the Restore Option of Disk Utility

This is a revision to original post:
How to Clone Using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
4. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and click on the Erase button. Wait for volume to remount on the Desktop.
5. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
6. Select the startup or source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Select the backup or destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
8. Select the destination drive icon on the Desktop and press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. At the bottom in the Ownership and Permissions section be sure the box labeled "Ignore Permissions on this Volume" is unchecked.
9. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.

There is a checkbox option in the Restore dialog to Erase the Destination. Be sure you uncheck the option.

I used the "erase free space " option in disk utility and now my imac says the disk is full and wont let me download songs. please help!

i used the "erase free space " option in disk utility and now my imac says the disk is full and wont let me download songs. please help!

You could try repairing permissions with disk utility, I don't think you will have the option to repair the drive but you could verify it.
This may help you delete the files that DU made but did not remove when erasing the free space.
http://macosx.com/forums/mac-os-x-system-mac-software/317204-no-disk-space-after -failed-disk-utility-erase-free-space.html
When you get your SL disk it will not have the iLife applications, that would have been on the second install disk that should have been with the computer. I forget which version of iLife you will need for SL but I think it is this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-iLife-Single-User-Mac/dp/B003XKRZES/ref=sr_1_1?ie= UTF8&qid=1409607702&sr=8-1&keywords=apple+ilife+11
A search of the forums will confirm or deny this.
As to whether a clean install will cure your problem, i.e. partition the HDD and install I would expect it to be yes, but there are no guarantees it is an old machine.

Format External Drive for HFS+ volume and FAT32 volume with Disk Utility

I just bought a Seagate 1tb external drive from OWC and I want to partition it into a HFS+ (journaled I assume) volume and a NTFS volume. Objective: To manually backup critical folders from my wife’s Dell (running XP) to the NTFS volume and critical Mac folders from my PowerBookG4 to the HFS volume.
My plan was to have my Mac (10.4.11) do the partitioning into a 350gb FAT32 volume for Windows and a 650gb HFS+ volume for Mac – then take the external drive to the Dell and have the Dell reformat the 350gb FAT drive to NTFS.
First question – Is this possible overall?
Second question – I haven’t been able to get my Disk Utility on my Mac to do the initial partitioning into one HFS volume and one FAT32 volume the way I want it. Is this step possible?
I’m happy to be more specific about the steps I’ve taken if the basic plan is good. From what I’ve found in some forums so far, I think I’m on the right track but am unable to execute it. Thank you.

Thank you Limnos for all your help. Last night I tried again and it worked! I’ not totally sure on what I did right but:
• Both volumes on the new ext. driver were HFS (from my last attempt the other day) so I looked into a simple erase of one partition/volume into a different format, but DU did not offer a way of erasing it into MS-DOS(FAT32). But I think I did a simple HFS erase anyway of the volume I wanted to format to FAT32. There was nothing “in” that volume because this was a new external drive but I figured it could not hurt anything.
• So then, I think I went back to Partition, locked the partition/volume that I wanted to keep in HFS+ for my Mac files, and (re)partitioned the other just erased volume to MS-DOS. I think I did it under the MBR option.
• It worked! Not sure why but my Mac recognized both volumes one as HFS, the other as FAT32. Maybe someone will find this useful some day!!
• Then, I hooked up the drive to my work Dell, the Dell found only the FAT32 drive (as expected), and I executed a short simple easy command I found on ehow.com (search for ‘convert FAT32 to NTFS’) to make that volume NTFS.
Thanks again Limnos and everyone else!

Fat32 missing in Disk Utility?!

Hello, I want/need to format my 2GB USB stick to Fat32 to use with my Xbox 360.
I have done this successfully on my Mum's old Macbook running 10.5 so assumed the process would be the same.
I opened up Disk Utility and erased it, then in the partition tab clicked on options then "Master Boot Record" as that should give the option for Fat32, yet only Fat is available. After formatting it as Fat and hoping it would work, I got an error saying it needs to be in Fat32 to be read.
So am I doing something wrong, or is there a third party disk utility-like app that will format it to Fat32?
Thanks guys, baRRy
Message was edited by: baRRy boRRis

Thanks to Tom Craigen for this command line method of formatting FAT32. I found this archived thread, and Tom's instructions are the last post in the thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8509160#8509160
I had to download a firmware update for my Vizio LED LCD HDTV. I hardly ever have a Windoze computer handy. I found a jump drive and used this archived thread to format the drive. Then I followed the firmware update instructions from the TV manufacturer's web site. I was able to do the update just fine using Disk Utility and Terminal command line. Thanks, Tom!
If you decide to try this FAT32 formatting using Terminal, and you are new to using Disk Utility and Terminal, and using Unix language and instructions, maybe you should get someone to help. At least read the instructions carefully, and be sure anything you do is only with the jump drive or disk drive you want to format. The commands will wipe the drive.
You can do in Terminal what Disk Utility does not (yet?) do. You still need Disk Utility to do some of the work, but Tom's command line instructions will do the formatting.
There are a couple of spots that might not be clear (in item 9, the word, "Apple" appears when he meant "Apply"), but the context should be fairly obvious. When he says to select the drive you want to format FAT32, he means this is within Disk Utility.
The instructions assume you are starting with a jump drive that the Mac recognizes, but might not have MS_DOS FAT32 formatting. Just to be sure, since I don't work in Terminal very much, I probably overdid it, formatted the drive with 1 partition, and chose the Mac OS Extended Journaled format to make a fresh start.
For one thing, if you don't start with the Mac OS format, you might not get the partition menu in Disk Utility, and that's very important. I was working with an old 126Mb jump drive, and I only needed 8Mb, so I made just one partition.
Before you make any changes to the format of the drive, while the format is still Mac OS Extended Journaled, check in the System Profiler, under the Hardware menu, the USB item. Locate the drive identifier. It will look like disk1s#. Mine, for example, was disk1s1. That's the jump drive -- not to put too fine a point on it. You really want the right disk ID, because the command line script totally erases the disk and formats it FAT32.
Once you follow the instructions, you can double-check in Disk Utility. I suggest you quit Disk Utility, then start it again. Click on the newly formatted drive in the left list of the available drives. The FAT32 format should appear in the descriptions below the window in bottom margin. If it shows up at FAT16, try the command line text again: newfs_msdos -F32 -v "yourdrivename" /dev/rdisk1s# [where # is your specific drive's number. Check Tom's items Tech Part > 4. and 5.
In my case, once I had the FAT32 jump drive ready, I had to download the firmware update file. Of course, the Mac could not do anything with it, but it did download. I went to the Downloads folder and dragged the file to the jump drive. I had to change the name of the file, following the manufacturer's instructions. I followed the manufacturer's instructions on everything, and once I had the drive inserted, and powered up the TV, the firmware update took off and did its thing. I'll watch for the hoped-for improvements in performance for a couple of days. I don't want to make the hike back to Cost**.
The beautiful thing about this TV is that it is natively 12 volts, and we plan to use it in our RV. Cool energy savings!
Please don't hold me (or Tom) responsible if something goes wrong. Go slowly and follow the instructions. If you've never used Disk Utility or Terminal, back away from this process and try something safer.
Holiday cheers,
Anne

Unable to secure erase: "Security Options" in Disk Utility greyed out.

Ancient eMac running Leopard. I have moved data to new Mac and am ready to erase old computer and sell/give away.
Went to "Erase" tab in Disk Utilities and both the "Volume Format" option and "Security Options" fields/buttons are greyed out and uneditable. According to instructions, to erase the data I need to select "Security Options" to proceed to erase all the data on my hard drive.
How do I "ungrey" that button? Is there a lock somewhere to unlock? Something to disable first?

You cannot erase the hard drive of the eMac when it is in use. You have to insert the Mac OS X install disk, boot up from there and then erase the disk from the Disk Utility software included.

No Erase option in Disk Utility for an SSD Drive!

Hi guys,
Made a time machine copy on a 500gb external hard drive of my 13" MBP with a HDD currently in it.
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Opened up 13" MBP in restore mode. Chose restore from time machine back up.
Choose the time machine external drive as source. Then chose the SSD drive to restore to.
Said it was erasing the drive... Asked for a password...
I typed in my usual password. It then said the SSD drive couldn't be erased.
Took the SSD out and put the original HDD back in.
Plugged the SSD into a firewire 800 caddy to try erase it in disk utility as an external.
This drive will show up in disk utility but the erase option isn't available.
I can repair the disk but it says the disk is perfectly fine.
I can click on the partition option but everything is greyed out and I can't partition it at all.
This drive will now no longer show up on the desktop or finder.
This is driving me crazy!
Just want to erase the SSD, use time machine to restore onto it and get busy.
Please help!
Thanks,
Chris

Aha! I only looked at 'format' list, didn't notice the 'option' list.
problem solved.
thank you !

Dynamic resize of FAT32 partition with disk utility?

Hi there.
I have a 1TB external FAT32 drive with 300GB of data on it.
I want to convert it to HFS+, but I know there's no easy way to do that.
What I want to know is can I resize my FAT32 partition to 500MB and keep all the data?
Then I'll move it to the new HFS+ 500MB partition, delete the original partition and resize the HFS+ partition.
Or do I have no hope of that?
Thanks
Greg

Greg,
You're probably out of luck on this one. If the drive was partitioned and formatted by a PC (every drive has a partition map, whether there are multiple partitions or only one), it almost certainly has an "MBR" partition map. This would preclude a dynamic resizing by Disk Utility. It will need to be partitioned using either GUID (Intel) or APM (PPC).
Scott

No partition option in disk utility

I'm using 10.4.11 and Disk Utility 10.5.6 and see no "Partition" option in the DU menu. The DU version on the Tiger install disk is 10.5
Greg

As brody cryptically suggests - you can't format the drive you have booted with.
Got to boot with another drive or the install CD/DVD.
Also, to partition, you furst have to format (erase) the disk.
Also suggest you consider downloading the OS X 10.4.11 combo update

No gui option in disk utility for new hdd in white unibody mbp

Hello,
i replaced the harddisk in my white unibody macbook with an
Samsung Spinpoint M9T 1TB HDD out of a seagate backup portable drive.
disk utility can erase it, and partition it, but it does not show the option to create a GUI partition.
restoring from time machine backup does not work
installer for leopard, from the original dvd states that it needs that.
what can i do?
hope to hear from you.
ps:
on my imac and my mbp the bootable disk is mac os extended(journaled)
so no 'gui-partition' there

Aha! I only looked at 'format' list, didn't notice the 'option' list.
problem solved.
thank you !

Using the restore option in Disk Utility

I have a quick question. I'm trying to restore a .dmg file onto a external hard drive using disk utility. By doing this will it erase my files on my external hard drive? When I click restore it says this:
+Restoring will copy new data to WD 500gb. Continue?+
This is not going to delete my files on my external HD???

There is a checkbox option in the Restore dialog to Erase the Destination. Be sure you uncheck the option.

Explain Image Format options in disk utility

I have a DVD full of jpeg files. I want to make an exact replica. I've read the explanation of how to do this in the Disk Utility help section. There are four options under the Image Format dropdown menu. Presumably there are advantages and disadvantages to each of those options. Where do I find an explanation of those choices? What is my best choice for making an exact replica that can be read by any other DVD drive?

Finally stumbled across the explanation buried in DU Help:
IMAGE FORMAT DESCRIPTION
read/write
Choose this if you want to continue adding files to the disk image after it’s created.
sparse bundle disk image
Choose this if you want to continue adding files to the image and want to conserve space. The disk image is just large enough to hold the files in it and expands to its maximum size as you add files to it. For example, if you create a 100MB sparse bundle disk image, its maximum size is 100MB.
read-only
Choose this If you don’t need to add more files to the disk image.
compressed
Choose this if you don’t need to add more files to the image and you want to conserve space. The data is compressed so the disk image is smaller than the original data.
CD/DVD master
Choose this if you want to use the disk image with a third-party application. The disk image contains a copy of all sectors of the disk, whether they’re used or not, and copies them to other CDs or DVDs bit for bit.

Cannot boot. volume disappeared from boot option after Disk Utility (GUI) repair

I have a 13-inch MBP with the latest OS X version.
Problem
Yesterday, I went to the Recovery Mode and performed Repair on my boot volume. I was not having a problem, but I just wanted to verify and repair as a regular maintenance. The Disk Utility said some kind of error (I cannot remember, but something about EFI?), and I cannot start my computer since then (question mark folder icon when I try to boot).
I have tried the following
I tried to recover the drive by going into the Recovery Mode, but when I press Option key for boot options, I just have an empty grey screen have no option(not even the recovery volume). I have also tried to enter into the Single User Mode, but it goes straight back to the question mark folder icon. Just in case, I performed PRAM and SMC reset, but still no dice.
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If you need further details, please let me know! Please save me!

Hello jukim,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Great troubleshooting done so far. Since you're still booting to the flashing question mark, even after repairing the disk, the next step would be to reinstall OS X.
A flashing question mark or globe appears when you start your Mac
https://support.apple.com/kb/TS1440
OS X Mavericks: Reinstall OS X
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13871
Take care,
Alex H.

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I have a Seagate GoFlex Desk 2TB external hard drive. I use it as a backup drive for Time Machine. When I plug it into my iMac it dosen't open, I opened Disk Utility and clicked "Verify Drive" and then I got this...
I have backups on this drive. If I click "Repair Drive" will I lose the data on the drive?

After I Repair the drive this is what I get...
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I can't change any options in disk utility

When I try to select a partition option (1 partition) it just takes me back to the current option as soon as I have changed it. The same also happens in the erase Tab, I can erase the drive to MS-DOS but when I select any other file system it just changes back to MS-DOS. Any help will be appreciated.

After about 10 minutes, I thought this was taking too long and clicked on skip.
The fast setting in erase will take about a minute, more secure settings can take hours. Redo the erase and wait until its finished.

No Fat32 option in Disk Utility

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