01-09-2010, 10:04 PM

I just bought a Western Digital 320 gb WDElements portable hard drive. I want to format it (on tiger) for use with my playstation 3, however there doesn't seem to be an option for FAT32 on disk utility when I hit the erase tab. Can anyone let me know what I'm doing wrong? Are there any other programs or options (preferably free ones).

I've read several forums on this topic and everyone seems to revolve similar issues but none quite like the one I'm dealing with. It's even brought up in a few but never directly addressed. Is my hard drive too big? I would like to be able to just have all my data on it without partitioning if possible so I can easily just have one place to access all my files (such as music, movies, pictures, and documents). I also have a good amount of interactions with Windows computers on campus and don't want to limit my ability to connect with them. Any help you can give me would be much appreciated because, again, I know that this is addressed many times on other boards but I have been unable to find one to address this specific issues. Thanks!

01-09-2010, 11:26 PM

Know nothing about what will or will not work with a PS3.

However,

The MS-DOS (FAT) selection in Disk Utility is FAT32.

You must partition the drive even if you only have one partition.
You'll not be able to store data on the drive without partitioning and formatting.

01-09-2010, 11:30 PM

Originally Posted by bobtomay

Know nothing about what will or will not work with a PS3.

However,

The MS-DOS (FAT) selection in Disk Utility is FAT32.

You must partition the drive even if you only have one partition.
You'll not be able to store data on the drive without partitioning and formatting.

It must be partitioned? Do you know what size? I don't think PS has any specifications I just want to know how much space I can have. Will the other part of my drive still be able to be used? If not doesn't that mean I'll end up losing space? Sorry I just don't know much about this.

01-09-2010, 11:50 PM

sup man, that 320gb u have is fine, actually u can fit 500gb in the ps3 no problem.

the WD though iv had to repair some before and there is a problem that occurs pretty often, i dont know how old or new yours is but the usb interface it has the adapter from the SATA connection to the usb usually craps out and when that does, you can't get to ur HDD.

were you planning on just plugging it into the ps3 via usb?

if you were, can i suggest taking the hdd out completely. take it outta of the casing and format it for ps3, if you need something to connect an hdd id def. recommend DriveWire google it, its not expensive and its def. worth it i've had to use it several times and it has saved me!

basically what you do is: (if ur external hdd is SATA, because ps3 uses SATA) you take the hard drive its self out of the enclosure take the adapter that i mention above off and plug it into the DriveWire, or what ever your using format it for ps3 and you can use the DriveWire to hook up the old ps3 hdd and transfer everything frm the old hdd to the new 320gb.

if you know all of this then im sorry lol but incase some else is reading this then well hopefully this helps some one.

01-10-2010, 07:08 AM

Originally Posted by arwelsh510

It must be partitioned? Do you know what size? ...

Whatever size you want with Disk Utility. Am assuming here you want to use the entire drive in a single partition. So, do it.

Microsoft put a size limit on FAT32 partitions in Win 9X. This is not the case with practically any other partitioning software, including that of OS X.

01-10-2010, 02:39 PM

no guys, the issues isn't the hard drive... i unboxed the hard drive less than 24 hours ago, there is no possible way there is anything at all wrong with the hard drive. i can access it just fine... i think i actually just solved it myself to be quite honest. i read all the how-to's and they all said to select fat32 format so i would always look for the first "f" in the list, nowhere was it said that it was listed in disk-utility as "ms-dos file system." so thanks for the help but i'm fairly certain i've figured it out