External Hard Drive

Hi Guys,

I was wondering if anyone could help me?

I have recently brought a macbook for home use however still use a PC at uni and anywhere else I access a computer. I have just brought an external 320GB LaCie Hard Drive and have partitioned it but it only allocates 32GB for use between Mac & PC.

Is this the case for all portable hard drives?

It seems a bit silly that I have 320GB of space but can only use 32GB for PC and Mac.

Is there a HD where the whole amount of space can be partitioned?

Thanks in advance.

This is because you are partitioned as FAT32, which has this limit.
I will allow someone else to opine about which format you need, because systems differ.

If you partition the drive on your Mac, Disk Utility can partition and format the entire partition as FAT32 - just choose the MS-DOS (FAT) option. If you're using Windows to do the partitioning and format, at least XP and earlier, cannot. Haven't tried it with Vista or 7. The 32 GB is a Microsoft imposed limit, not a limit of FAT32.