I need to format a 1.5Tb external harddrive in FAT32 so that it can be used on a mac (read/write). Im aware there may be applications to make the mac support NTFS, but as its not my mac, or somebody who would be confident messing about, i would rather format in FAT32. Does anyone know a method of doing this in Windows 7? Thanks
It seems Win 7 doesn't allow to format for any other filesystem than NTFS with certain size drives (and with good reason, but that's another story), so you can try several paid for utils like Paragon Partition Manager, or you can download the Ubuntu Live CD, boot from it and format the disk there.
if it could not be done, i wouldnt be asking... i have one already formated in FAT32 (i didnt format it, so dont know how it was done) anybody?
the gparted live CD should be able to do it. GParted Live is like Acronis Disk Director or Paragon's.
Just remember this: You cannot create a file larger than (2^32)-1 bytes (this is one byte less than 4 GB) on a FAT32 partition. So if your friend tries to transfer any file that is larger then 4GB to his 1.5TB external hard drive, it will not transfer. That is a huge downside....hopefully he has nothing but small files < 4GB that he is going to put on there. I would never format a large hard drive FAT32, forget about putting large ISO files and big movie files on there.
What about FreeDOS? Didn't check it recently, so don't know how it's format utility works with large partitions, but since Dell/HP pre-install FreeDOS often on new machines, probably it should do the job.
thats a good point, i was going to put loads of movies on for hium but alot are 6 gig or more (x264) i think ill leave it as NTFS and let him worry about it on his mac!! thanks to all of you for helping do appreciate it!