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My goal: to format a 100GB drive to FAT32 so I can use the drive on both Windows and Mac.
10.4, however, does not give you the option of formatting to FAT32. There is apparently a way around this using Terminal, as demonstrated here:
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20030613121738812
I ran the command newfs_msdos -v FAT_VOLUME_NAME -F 32 and got the response newfs_msdos: FAT_VOLUME_NAME: bad volume name.
I also have access to a Windows 7 machine, so I attempted to reformat on that computer. Come to find out, Windows 7 does not format to FAT32, and even if I were to format on an older Windows computer, FAT32 is not available for drives larger than 32 or 36 GB (though I've heard you can get around this if you format by command-line). Even if I could format it in Windows 7, the drive does not even show up under 'My Computer' when it is plugged in. It can be found under Computer Management->Disk Management, but there were no formatting options listed.
If I could get the drive to show up as a letter named drive, I could format it on the Windows computer:
http://geekdrop.com/content/how-to-format-hard-drive-to-fat32-in-windows-7-or-vista
Are there different command prompts for 10.4? (I know nil about command lines, I just followed the instructions.)
So what are my options here? Can I format with my computer? Is there an easy way around my problems with Windows? And either way, do I need to use three 32 gig partitions with FAT32 or will I be able to format the whole drive? Thanks!
10.4, however, does not give you the option of formatting to FAT32. There is apparently a way around this using Terminal, as demonstrated here:
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20030613121738812
I ran the command newfs_msdos -v FAT_VOLUME_NAME -F 32 and got the response newfs_msdos: FAT_VOLUME_NAME: bad volume name.
I also have access to a Windows 7 machine, so I attempted to reformat on that computer. Come to find out, Windows 7 does not format to FAT32, and even if I were to format on an older Windows computer, FAT32 is not available for drives larger than 32 or 36 GB (though I've heard you can get around this if you format by command-line). Even if I could format it in Windows 7, the drive does not even show up under 'My Computer' when it is plugged in. It can be found under Computer Management->Disk Management, but there were no formatting options listed.
If I could get the drive to show up as a letter named drive, I could format it on the Windows computer:
http://geekdrop.com/content/how-to-format-hard-drive-to-fat32-in-windows-7-or-vista
Are there different command prompts for 10.4? (I know nil about command lines, I just followed the instructions.)
So what are my options here? Can I format with my computer? Is there an easy way around my problems with Windows? And either way, do I need to use three 32 gig partitions with FAT32 or will I be able to format the whole drive? Thanks!
