Format External Harddrive

[llewynx]

Grrrrr....

Just got a 300gb external harddrive which needs to be formatted so that it can read and write from/to both a PC and a Mac. Been googling but can't find a good walkthrough... It seems I can't make a FAT32 partition larger than 32gb using the normal Windows disk management program, does anyone know of any third-party software that will let me format FAT32 larger than 32gb from windows? If I format on the mac instead (not using HFS, but FAT32), can the PC read it? The ideal would be to have the whole hdd formatted FAT32, only one partition, is that possible? I already have an external with one FAT32 partition (250gb, it was formatted when i got it), so it must be possible somehow...? Sorry, lot's of questions, is there a solution?

[percy2]

Grrrrr....

Just got a 300gb external harddrive which needs to be formatted so that it can read and write from/to both a PC and a Mac. Been googling but can't find a good walkthrough... It seems I can't make a FAT32 partition larger than 32gb using the normal Windows disk management program, does anyone know of any third-party software that will let me format FAT32 larger than 32gb from windows? If I format on the mac instead (not using HFS, but FAT32), can the PC read it? The ideal would be to have the whole hdd formatted FAT32, only one partition, is that possible? I already have an external with one FAT32 partition (250gb, it was formatted when i got it), so it must be possible somehow...? Sorry, lot's of questions, is there a solution?

I have an external 300g HD that I access with both mac and M$.

I'm sure I used the mac to format and the options made it really clear which to choose , I think FAT32. no partition.

[eugengeri]

Grrrrr....

Just got a 300gb external harddrive which needs to be formatted so that it can read and write from/to both a PC and a Mac. Been googling but can't find a good walkthrough... It seems I can't make a FAT32 partition larger than 32gb using the normal Windows disk management program, does anyone know of any third-party software that will let me format FAT32 larger than 32gb from windows? If I format on the mac instead (not using HFS, but FAT32), can the PC read it? The ideal would be to have the whole hdd formatted FAT32, only one partition, is that possible? I already have an external with one FAT32 partition (250gb, it was formatted when i got it), so it must be possible somehow...? Sorry, lot's of questions, is there a solution?

I have an external 300g HD that I access with both mac and M$.

I'm sure I used the mac to format and the options made it really clear which to choose , I think FAT32. no partition.

IMO the only way to work with the drive on both platforms is to format the drive in fat 32 not in mac osx to do this just go into disk utility under mac os x and select the drive and select erase or format what ever it says to erase the drive then select for a partition ms dos and it will format in fat 32.

[llewynx]

Thanks guys, will try and see what happens