Unable to format external harddrive to fat32

hi,
I am using the disk utility and am trying to format my external harddrive to fat32 and during the partition, there is no option for "MS-DOS Filesystem" for fat32. which option should I use? I'm on OS 10.6.8

Hi n,
Have you tried MS-DOS (FAT)? Or does that do 16? Sorry, it's been awhile since I've used that.

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    what are the disadvantages of formatting an external drive as FAT32?

    The best bet for most uses is FAT32 file system. For more security, other file systems are available, but you need to get third party software in order to allow windows or mac to read/write respectively.
    NTFS (Windows NT File System) is the most advanced Windows system, developed for NT, and used in windows NT, 2000, XP & Vista. Macintosh systems can read NTFS, but cannot write to it unless third party software is installed. This software may come at a price (usually around $25-$30)
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  • Can't format external drive as FAT32

    I just bought a brand new 4TB Seagate external HDD with the notion that I would hook it up to the back of my Time Capsule.  I will want this drive accessible for both Mac and PC.  According to this page my only real option then is FAT32.  Here's my problem.  When I open Disk Utility and select my drive, and then the Erase tab, no option will work for erasing the disk.  I get an error.   If I select the volume (indented under the drive) and the Erase tab, I don't get FAT32 as an option.  I have the "Mac OS Extended" and "exFAT" as my only options.  I can format the drive successfully using either of these two.  However, the Time Capsule only recognises it has been formatted as "Mac OS Extended" as expected.  Can anyone tell me how I can use Disk Utility to format the drive as FAT32 format?

    Ok, that worked.... kind of.   When I selected the Partition tab and '1 Partition' it allowed me to format it as FAT32.  I went and plugged it into the Time Capsule, and the drive shows up in the Airport Utility under the "Disks" tab.  However, something still isn't kosher here.  When I open a Finder window and click on my Time Capsule, I see the external drive.  But the file I copied onto to it immediately after doing the format doesn't show up.  It appears as though the drive is empty.  Then after about 30 seconds I get an error message that my drive can't be found.
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  • Formatting External Harddrive. What software to use?

    I have an external harddrive, a ATA RAID drive, 600gb that I use for video editing. It is connected through a SCSI connection. Basically, it was having problems when I captured video, it would drop sync. So I am trying to format the harddrive to see if that will fix the problems. I will also use Disk Warrior on it to make sure that the disks are not bad. What software should I use to format the harddrive. I did an erase using the disk utility feature on the computer, but is there any other program I need to use. All of my files have been transfered to backup, so the RAID is cleaned from important files.

    You can also use Disk Utility to format your drive, whether you want to partition it back out or keep it as a RAID.
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  • Formatting External HDD to FAT32

    Hi,
    I've got a La Cie 500GB external HDD that I want to format from NTSF to FAT32 so that I can read/write from OSX.
    From Windows, I know that u can't format greater than 32GB to FAT32.
    what is the best way to go about this?
    is there anyway to do this from OSX?
    I noticed a MS-DOS format option in the disk utility.
    what does that do?
    cheers

    The information you want is provided in LaCie's own site.In case the link doesn't end up as I see it, here's what I did: From their Home page I chose Support > Technical Support > FAQ and completed the fields as FireWire Hard Drive > Mac OS > MS-DOS. Maybe you'll find more by specifically choosing your model.
    http://www.lacie.com/support/faq/index.htm

  • Unable to Format External Hardrive

    Hello all,
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    Hi-
    Welcome to Discussions!
    Sounds like you have either damaged your hard drive(internal), or, you are having third party or font conflicts.
    Start troubleshooting by trying a safe mode boot. To start up into Safe Mode (to "Safe Boot"), do this:
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    -Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple and progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
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    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107392
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  • Mac os unable to format external drive

    I am unable to reformat Seagate Free Agent Pro external drive used for Time Machine backup. Disk Utility gives error msg; "Couldn't unmount disk." I attempt to initialize an identical external drive and receive the same message. Any ideas?

    Drive Erase for Lion/Mountain Lion
    1.  Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
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  • Disk Utility won't let me format external drive to FAT32

    Maybe this cannot be done or the answer is simple and I am missing it. I have a 1.5tb Maxtor drive hooked up via fw800. I want to have 120gb of this as Mac OS extended journaled to back up my internal drive via Time Machine. I want the other 1.38tb to be in FAT32 so I can share files between my windows and mac machines. I keep all of my external storage except for the backup partition in FAT32. I have never had an issue until I upgrades to Leopard and now when I click on the larger partition I only have the option for the 4 mac formats-- FAT32 is not available. I can format the entire 1.5tb to FAT32 but once I try and partition it only mac formats are available. I forgot to mention I just did the upgrade to 10.5.1 and the issue is still present.
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    PS. I did a search but did not find anything.
    Message was edited by: PatrickB

    It may depend on the type of partition table scheme you are using (see bottom of page in disk utility for that says Apple Partition Map/APM, GUID Partition table/GPT or Master Boot Record/MBR partition map).
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    On the Mac side, all 3 schemes are readable (for bootability, you'll need APM on PPC Macs, GPT for Intel Macs). Time Machine doesn't need a bootable disk, but I'd suggest APM/GPT if you are using PPC/Intel macs respectively (but I'd think either will work for Time Machine, if you have a mix of Macs).
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    I suspect unless you are on an Intel Macs (OS X) and use only 64 bit MS-Windows (using GPT)/Itanium, using the same disk for TM and FAT32 sharing between Mac and Win worlds is not possible. Not the desirable answer.
    If you do want to experiment, make a temporary setup and try it out on both Mac side and Windows side first (on all your machines), before making a "production" system. You can select the DISK (first line on Disk Utility for that disk, not second line) and click on Options at the left bottom (it might have to be erased first) and then select the type of partition scheme. Note formats like HFS+/FAT32 are a level lower in the hierarchy than partition map/table.
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  • Formatting external drive to FAT32?

    Hi, I have trolled thorugh the forums for an answer to my external hard drive formatting problems, but alas, I cannot find it.
    So here's my question:
    My external hard drive is formatted to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) but I want to transfer some files from my PC.
    I have tried to format it to FAT32 in Disk Utility, but the only options I have to format the disk to are Mac OS Extended (there's a couple), MS-DOS File System, and UNIX file system.
    That's it. The drive is supposed to be Mac and PC compatible, so can anyone tell how I can format it so I can get these files from my PC?
    Thanks.
    MacBook    

    Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
    On a Windows PC:
    Connect the HD to your Windows PC
    Go to My Computer
    Click right on the external HD icon
    Chose the format option
    Now you get a little programm
    Here you can select FAT32
    I don't know how big your external HD is, but the maximum size for a FAT32 partition is 32 GB. If the HD is larger, you can only use the first 32 GB! Maybe you didn't know this.
    With this application you can acces a Mac OS Extended formatted HD on your Windows (you will really like it!):
    http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive6/
    Probably this is a better solution if your HD is larger then 32 GB.
    Hopefully this is helpfull or solved your problem.
    (please see the "helpfull" and "solved" button's above this message)

  • Can´t format external harddrive iomega 250 MB

    It was previously formatted under Windoes XP Home-Edition.
    I tryed to erase with apple disk utility but it seems that the application locks up.
    No reaction after erasing or partitioning the drive.
    Can someone help ?
    Connected via USB 2.0.
    HardDrive can be formatte without problems under my WinXP Pro Notebook.

    Hello.
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    I've had my share of problems with Partition Magic on PC's creating non-standard partitions that couldn't be properly removed (even with Partition Magic). So, I would do everything I could without Partition Magic just to make sure it isn't the problem.
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    http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive6/
    The 15-day trial is free, and it should be long enough to get this working.
    With MacDrive, you can read, write, and even create Macintosh compatible disks on the PC.
    So, if nothing else works, try using the trial version to setup the drive as a Macintosh drive. Then, take it to the Mac and see if you can reformat it and do what you want.
    I hope this helps.

  • How to format external harddrive  for mac use!

    Should I use My new external hard drive right out of the box for back-ups, or re-format it? Its a 1 (TB) drive?

    Unless the drive is specifically intended for usage with Macs, use the Disk Utility in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder to reformat it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If you’ll be using it with Time Machine, Time Machine will do that itself if needed.
    (117075)

  • Unable to format external drive as Mac OS Extended

    I just bought a WD 3TB My Book Essential external hard drive so I can free-up space on my Mac Mini. When I used Disk Utility to erase the data and reformat the drive as Mac OS Extended, I got the following error:
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    Not sure what the problem was on the MacMini (10.5.8), but I just managed to format the disk on my MacBook Pro (10.6.4).
    Problem solved!

  • Non-formatted External Harddrive not showing in Disk Utility

    I have an empty external hard drive that is not formatted. I would like to format this and use for storage of some of my larger files. However, it doesn't show up in Disk Utility, or also doesn't show up when checking off "Show External Drives" in finder preferences. If I have it plugged in to the mac during start up, I only get a grey screen, the mac will not start. I've tried this on my 2010 Macbook Pro and 2012 Macbook Pro, same results. I have to unplug it for the computers to start. Both are running OSx Yosimite. Any suggestions of programs that will format this

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  • Unable to format external hard disk as mac os extended (journaled)

    Have just bought a 750gb Western digital HDD. To be able to use it to store video to use in i movie it needs to be formatted in mac os extended (journal). However when I try to do this in disk utility I get a volume erase error reporting an error on exit. the resulting disk is then unreadable until it is formatted back to MS-Dos (fat) again. Any tips or have I just wasted my money on a disk that is not compatible. On the box it says it is compatible with OSX 10.2.8+?

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