Fat32 format large external drive...

swimtech · Jul 30, 2006, 12:47 AM

Gee Whiz,
Ever tried to format a 160g external (Firewire and USB) FAT32 as one partition? I couldn't find a way to do it with XP Pro - Disk Management wouldn't let me do it anything but NTFS over about 35G in size. No boot programs from outside Windows (that I was familiar with...), including the manufacturer's boot utilities, would even see my blank external drive. I didn't want no stinkin' five partitions! I couldn't do it with any Dos or 98 utilities either for various reasons. Spent all morning and part of the afternoon searching my files, Windows settings, the web, here some, no go...

Guess what (I had forgotten...)?

Hooked up to the Macbook via Firewire, booted to OSX, ran Disk Utility and voila! One large partition formatted with "MS-Dos File System" in less than 5 minutes! Yes, it's FAT32, and I feel like a dufus, but a happy one!

gadabout · Jul 30, 2006, 01:47 AM

Well, I did a quick search and ran across this little article on how to format HD's larger than 32GB using FAT32 while in WindowsXP. So, if u or anybody else needed to format a HD using fat32 just surf on over to this website.

Dyre Straits · Jul 30, 2006, 04:47 AM

Just curious: Why do you insist on FAT32 over NTFS?

swimtech · Jul 30, 2006, 04:17 PM

Nice find gadabout, but my desktop machines (both below and at work - the work desktop has an ATI DV Wonder Firewire card, but only active within Windows) wouldn't see the external USB/Firewire drive outside of Windows at all (older Athlon and PIII chipset - KT133A VIA type...). The routine you reference will help others though surely - thanks!

Why Fat32? It's a universal file format seen by all present OS's. I use the external drive at work and need to be able to attach it and have it usable from Windows, within DOS (dependent upon chipset), Linux/Unix, and Mac platforms on various occassions - depending, and works without patching or fiddling. Flexibility. NTFS is basically only for Windows - Mac OS can read but not write it, etc... I can carry it around and all machines can use it (read and write) with minimum issues. That was also why I didn't want five partitions - kills flexibility when dealing with large files, and I know there are issues with file size, but at least my partitioning scheme won't be a hindrance. One large bucket please!

Dyre Straits · Aug 1, 2006, 08:54 PM

^^^ OK, that does make sense now.