Formatting a 4TB external disk using exFAT

[goudeuk]

Hello

I am using an iMac which was bought last year and recently purchased a 4T disk. I would like to
format the disk using exFAT filesystem but whenever I try to do that using "Disk Utilities" I get the error:

Invalid Request

Does anyone know why? As far as I know there aren't any partition limitations with exFAT.

Thank you

 

[IWT]

A warm welcome to Mac-Forums.

You are correct. ExFat does not have partition limits (for others following this thread, here is a link explaining all the formats & their strengths/weaknesses: http://www.howtogeek.com/235596/whats-the-difference-between-fat32-exfat-and-ntfs/ )

The first thing I would ask, is the External Hard Drive (EHD) working? It is not unknown for a EHD to be dead out of the box. Have you tested the EHD, say by trying to format using OS X Extended (Journaled)? Will it format?

Next, and I mean no offence, how are you formatting the drive? - are you doing it on the Disk name or the indented partition? Does the drive (make might be helpful, please) come with pre-installed software?

Ian

EDIT. This link goes through the process of formatting just in case... http://www.howtogeek.com/255251/how-to-erase-and-format-a-usb-drive-on-your-mac/

 

[chscag]

If you purchased a 4 TB disk, it came pre-formatted as NTFS. We strongly recommend that you do not use exFAT as it is a non journaling file system susceptible to errors especially with a drive that large. I suspect the reason you want to use exFAT is so that you can read and write to it for both Windows and Mac OS X? If so, it would be better to purchase a NTFS driver and install it to your Mac. The one we recommend is "Paragon NTFS" from Paragon Software. ($19.95) This is a stable driver which will allow you to read and write to the drive from your Mac.

 

[goudeuk]

Solved

Hello Ian and chscag


I managed to format the disk to exFAT but I had to create a partition first, using the "partition" tab in Disk utilities.
I have heard about exFAT being more prone to errors but I think if I am careful and let copies finished and eject the drive first before I unplug it, I should be fine.
I will have a look at the paragon software anyway.

Thank you

 

[IWT]

Thank you for the feedback.

I will have a look at the paragon software anyway.

Good idea!

Ian

 

[harryb2448]

Yoiu got the best advice from chscag. Lash out the $20 and save yourself from exfat problems.