Possible to format a 160 Gb Hard Drive as FAT32?

[Jingleheimer]

Is it possible to format a 160 Gb hard drive as FAT32?

The reason for this would be so that I could share my external firewire drive between Windows and Mac. So far, I have only been able to format 4 partitions of 32 Gb each. Mac will not read the extended partition if I set up three primaries and then one extended partition.

 

[bolsen]

The maximum disk size is approximately 8 terabytes when you take into account the following variables: The maximum possible number of clusters on a FAT32 volume is 268,435,445, and there is a maximum of 32 KB per cluster, along with the space required for the file allocation table (FAT).

 

[Jingleheimer]

OK...but when I try to format it using Windows XP Disk Management, it will not let me choose FAT32 if the partition is larger than 32 Gb. If I make the partition 32 Gb or less, it will let me choose FAT32 instead of NTFS.

 

[ike2010]

MS did this on purpose. You cannot format a disk using FAT32 and Windows XP on partitions bigger than 32 GB. They did this to try and force users to use NTFS since it is by far the better file system. Change your XP to NTFS if it is FAT32 now. Macs can read NTFS just fine. I share files between my Mac laptop and XP Pro desktop all the time.

 

[Jingleheimer]

Macs can read NTFS just fine. I share files between my Mac laptop and XP Pro desktop all the time.

This is true. However, I need to write to my drive also; not just read the NTFS drive. Do you know how to write to an NTFS partition using a Mac?

 

[Zepper]

Create one primary partition of 32GB or less. Set as much of the rest as possible as an extended partition. Create another extended partition to use up the rest, if possible (you may need to use the drive mfr's partitioning tool to do this - usually a free download from the mfr's web site). Create logical drives of 32GB or less within the extended partition(s).
.bh.
:brrrrrr..... Never got above zero here today.

 

[redbeard1]

Yes you can. You need to use third party software to do it though. Partition Magic is one. The drive may have come with software to set it up also.

 

[ike2010]

use SAMBA. this is what i use. you can read/write to NTFS from Macs and vice virsa.