FAT32 Size Limitations?

According to this Wikipedia article, though the theoretical max FAT32 volume size is 8TB, Windows 95/98 could only create up to 127.53GB volumes, while Windows 2000/XP can only create up to 32GB volumes, without third-party software. One could surmise from this that OS X also places a limitation on FAT32 volumes of around 128GB, though I don't think that's true. However, if you were able to format the whole 500GB volume, with the size reported correctly afterwards, I would expect that the whole volume should be available.

You could always partition using Disk Utility into 2 Fat 32 partitions then use bootcamp to create a third for Windows. That will allow Mac OSX to be on one have a joint storage partition and one for WIndows as well. Avoids several of the complications that are known to happen with BootCamp and multiple partitions. The other route is get MacDrive for Windows so it can read HFS+, format Windows into NTFS and install NTFS read/write abilities for OSX.

In my experience MacFuse is pretty ok, a little flakey from time to time. The write speed is definitely lower than on FAT32 but it works and I hvent had any corruption. NTFS-3G works very nicely you just have to remember to be patient with the installation, dont try to skip steps, and you'll be fine. The one on sourceforge is solid but doesn't work with 10.3 and higher.

Hi there Spotkat,

I doubt that FAT32 has a 128GB limit, since I have a 250GB FAT32 drive and have been using it with a Mac for months, sometimes up to near the limit.

What I'm more interested in is what error message it threw up? The reason I ask is because although it stops when it gets to 128GB, the error may not be a FAT32 capacity limit, but the same problem I'm having - a filename or file that is incompatible with FAT32. Instead of throwing up an alert which allows you to skip the file in question, it tends to fail the rest of the copy process. I am trying to find a way round this myself at present.

Is there any way you can let me know what the error message was?

I have the same problem. Been looking everywhere and so far no solution. Even tried contacting Western Digital (500GB MyBook) and they weren't very helpful. They didn't even mention the 128GB limit. I went and bought a second one to see if the drive was the problem and ran into the same thing, so it's not the drive itself.

I thought this problem only effected older systems? I'm on an Intel Core Duo Macbook Pro running 10.4.

Any help?

Just to add my twopenneth, I seem to have exactly the same problem. I have:

Powerbook G4, OS X 10.4.10, Attached via USB2 to Western Digital MyBook Essential 500GB. This exhibited the Error -36 problem straight out of the box. (I have 3 of these, bought at the samer time. They all do exactly the same thing - brand new, out the box).

Same PB G4, Attached by FW800 to WD MyBook Pro 500GB, Just started doing this today. (I have 3 of these too, and I daren't even look at the other two).

The Essential has had just about everything done to it - Partitioned at all levels as FAT32; Partitioned as Mac OS Extended (Journaled and not); Sub-partitioned into smaller units, you name it. Nothing makes any difference. Drive hits a wall. Not necessarily at 128GB, and not with any particular file (although a lot of my files are similar - DV, and Photoshop/RAW images), but there's a definite wall in there somewhere. After which, I get error -36 a few times, followed by Finder Hangs if I'm persistent.

I'm going to do a "fill with Zeros" reformat tonight (it estimates 6 hours). We'll see what happens.

FWIW, I thought it might be a 10.4.10 thing, seeing as I'm on my 11th outboard, and this is the first time I've seen anything like this. BIG coincidence after the recent 10.4.10 update (with reported issues on the USB interface) but we've attached the Essential drive to my Partner's G4 (10.4.9) and it fails there too. Could be something, could be nothing.

The weird thing is the MyBook Pro's - I've had them all for a number of months, and they have had varying amounts of data on them, but since I bought the Essential's they've started failing too. By comparison, I have some older Maxtors, and they are 250GB, 300GB and 500GB - all running up to the max and been healthy for 2 years plus.

Like everyone here, I'm scouring every source for a solution, and new "sightings" are popping up daily, so I'll post what I find.

Keep posting, folks.

P.S. Sorry for the long post, but I hope I've used enough description here that people searching for this specific problem will find it more easily - I've read more than my share of unrelated iTunes and Windows SMB posts over the past couple of days.

@ oldsoul_42:

i have the exact same problem with my 500GB essential edition. tried everything (every partition scheme/ format type) - also the overwriting with zeros. same problem again. so don't bother to spend 6 hours waiting - 😉 . have you tried contacting WD directly? what about the firewire edition -same problem there too??

@ tantin:

Thanks for the head's up on the Zeroing, but I thought I'd be thorough and test the Zero theory in a controlled env. for a second time, just to prove the validity (and so we both know it's not us!!).

12 hours later (yes, twelve, plus 4 more for the data transfer), you will be pleased (?) to know that the drive still fails with Error -36 at 127.46GB even after setting the drive to zeroes and partitioning as Mac across the board (default Partition scheme is Master boot Record, even if you then partition/erase as Mac Extended - so I also tried setting this to Apple Partition Map).

Meanwhile, WD are apparently "currently experiencing higher than average email volume" (NSS!), and will be getting back to me.

Oh, and the MyBook Pro's (running FW800) are all still going strong (thankfully) at 300GB+ of data each (with various forms of partition map and base format). The Write Error I got yesterday was from an Essential.

What does it show for capacity if you select the drive and use Get Info (Command-I)? What total capacity does Disk Utility show? If they show about 128 GB, it means the external enclosure has an old chip-set that does not support large drives.

I brought one of these drives yesterday, the usb 2 only version and am having the same problem with the error code -36 when hitting 128(ish)gb of files. It is driving me nuts since I have other My Book drives that are 320gb and have never had this problem with any partition type.

I do not want to have to use a Windows machine just to add files to the drive, that is beyond acceptable to an end user. Can anyone confirm that partitioning the drive to partitions below 120gb works just fine? I hate to have to work with it that way, but if it works then that will have to do I guess.

Regards,
Peter Witham

To follow up on this after hours of copying files using a Windows machine this time it still fails around the 133gb mark. Clearly at this point it does not appear to be OS or partition format specific based on the fact that I've tried lots of partition types on both platforms.