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
