Reformatting a Mac drive for XP...HOW if XP can't see it???

GooberNumber9 · Post by **GooberNumber9** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 7:21 pm

Well, I'm an MCSE nine years now and I never figured out how to format FAT32 larger than 32GB. That doesn't mean you can't do it, I just never figured it out.

I would highly recommend AGAINST using Patition Magic or any utility like that.

I highly recommend formatting NTFS or getting MacDrive and formatting HFS+. On my firewire drives I get MUCH better performance when I format NTFS than FAT32. I started with FAT32 and had tons of problems. I tried defragging and that wanted to take about three years. I copied everything off and reformatted it NTFS. Now everything works better than it ever did.

From someone who's been in your position, I'd say MacDrive is your best bet.

Todd Wilcox

jmoose · Post by **jmoose** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 8:40 pm

Dig it.

Thanks for the info Goober.

(man, I've ALWAYS wanted to call someone that! LOL I have "Fruitcake" t-shirt too!)

So here's one for you!

I had a drive that was down & out for a bit so I ended up (ahem!) borrowing me mum's 250gig USB drive in the meantime. I think it's an Accudata or something??? She got it from Best Buy or Comp USA or whatnot.

Anyway...that's a FAT32 filing system and I guess it was formatted like that at the factory. So if they can do it there...it CAN be done in theory right?

So like...how?!

digitaldrummer · Post by **digitaldrummer** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 6:24 pm

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310525/en-us

32GB is a limitation in Windows 2000 only.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/184006/en-us

XP is only limited during the installation of XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314463/EN-US/

John Jeffers · Post by **John Jeffers** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 8:08 pm

digitaldrummer wrote:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310525/en-us

32GB is a limitation in Windows 2000 only.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/184006/en-us

XP is only limited during the installation of XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314463/EN-US/

Try formatting a drive yourself in WinXP. If the partition is >32GB, it won't let you select FAT32 as the filesystem. You can't even do it from the cmd line. I tried format x: /fs:fat32. It seems to work, but after verifying, it gives a message that the partition is too large.

GooberNumber9 · Post by **GooberNumber9** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 10:24 am

I looked around for some way to get around this that OEMs might be using, and I didn't come up with anything. There is an oformat tool (for OEM Format) that supposedly is on the XP CD under support/tools that might do it.

Otherwise your only option is to go with something like Partition Magic and I've NEVER trusted that stuff.

Todd Wilcox

Platinum Samples · Post by **Platinum Samples** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 1:10 am

Format it on the Mac as MSDOS (FAT32).

Rail

Message Board

Reformatting a Mac drive for XP...HOW if XP can't see it???

Who is online