FAT32 external hard drive larger than 32GB?

Question

FAT32 external hard drive larger than 32GB?

I have two external drives from LaCie, both 80 Gb. The old one came in NTFS format, so my mac can only read it. I tried to convert it to FAT32, but I can only create 32Gb partitions (which apparently is some limitation of FAT32). However, I just bought a new external drive, also 80Gb, but it came as a single 80GB FAT32 partition !

Anyone knows how to create one of these *extra large* partitions so I can read/write in my old external drive (while keeping windows compatibility of course)?

Posted on Sep 15, 2005 3:24 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 17, 2005 12:53 AM in response to Fernando Cucchietti

I recently purchases an iBook G4 and have an NTFS 40GB LaCie HD I use with an IBM Thinkpad. Were you able to get your Mac to read and write to the drive once you converted it to FAT32? Since my drive is only a 40GB HD, I don't mind creating a 32GB partition.

How did you do it, and were you able to use the existing files on your older LaCie?

Thanks for the help in advance!

Norman

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Answer 2

iFelix

Level 8

35,167 points

Sep 17, 2005 1:19 AM in response to Fernando Cucchietti

] but I can only create 32Gb partitions (which apparently is some limitation of FAT32).

No this is a limitation of Windows XP, not FAT32, XP can read FAT32 partitions larger than 32GB but can not create them.
] Anyone knows how to create one of these *extra large* partitions so I can read/write in my old external drive (while keeping windows compatibility of course)?

Disk Utility on the Mac can do it, as can Windows 98 or a specialist third party tool such as Partition Magic.

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Answer 3

iFelix

Level 8

35,167 points

Sep 17, 2005 1:20 AM in response to Norman Ajlouny

] Were you able to get your Mac to read and write to the drive once you converted it to FAT32?

Macs can read and write to FAT32 formatted drives.
] How did you do it, and were you able to use the existing files on your older LaCie?

Windows can format a drive as FAT32 or Disk Utility, however you will lose all the files currently on the external drive if you change the formatting usually.

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Answer 4

Sep 17, 2005 1:46 PM in response to Norman Ajlouny

Like IFelix says, you can use Windows XP to format the drive in FAT32. The Mac will be happy to read/write to it, no configuration needed.

I would go with his advice and boot up from a Windows 98 CD and use the whole 40Gb.

I don't know if I understand the question about me being able to use the existing files in the older LaCie. Transforming it to FAT32 involves formatting the drive, so you better back it up before doing so.

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Answer 5

Sep 17, 2005 2:04 PM in response to iFelix

Thanks for that very useful detail. Apparently it's because some computers can't handle more than 32Gb, so microsoft decided to avoid problems by limiting in the software.

I tried a couple of years ago to do it with Disk Utility and couldn't I'll try now maybe they changed it a little.

On another topic, I see you have an iPAQ. I have a 4700, do you know how to sync contacts/calendar/etc with your Mac?

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Answer 6

iFelix

Level 8

35,167 points

Sep 18, 2005 2:20 AM in response to Fernando Cucchietti

] Thanks for that very useful detail. Apparently it's because some computers can't handle more than 32Gb, so microsoft decided to avoid problems by limiting in the software.

I was under the impression that Microsoft wanted you to use NTFS instead...
] On another topic, I see you have an iPAQ. I have a 4700, do you know how to sync contacts/calendar/etc with your Mac?

There are applications such as MissingSync and PocketMac which allow you to sync a PocketPC with your Mac.

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Answer 7

Sep 18, 2005 6:36 PM in response to Fernando Cucchietti

Partition Magic 8.0 on the Windows XP system was the ticket for me.

I had an external 200GB that I wanted to read/write on both my mac and PC. So with Partition Magic I was able to very very quickly format the whole drive as a 200gb partition in FAT32. So now it is read/writable on both the OSX and XP platforms.

Good luck.

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Answer 8

Tobor 3

Level 1

39 points

Sep 18, 2005 8:17 PM in response to Fernando Cucchietti

I found a different solution.

After years of using FAT32 formatted volumes and trying to ignore the ._ files that showed up on the Windows machine, I found some software that can help.

MacDrive6 from MediaFour allows Windows computers to read and write to Mac formatted disks. It also hides the ._ files making things much easier to find on the Windows machine. See my reply here (its Post # 12):

Anthony Turenne, "Setting up an external hard drive" #12, 09:01pm Sep 18, 2005 CDT

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