Unable to read HDD

I formatted a hard drive to FAT32 within Windows XP. I had to use a third party program to do this because Windows XP does not have a utility that allows you to go from NTFS to FAT32. However, I took this internal drive and made it external. When I plugged it into my powerbook I got this error:

After further inspection I went to disk utility and this is what I have:

Does anyone know what I am supposed to do? I want to be able to use this drive for both windows xp and mac osx, but i fear if I let the mac partition it or do anything to it, then it'll wind up formatted to FAT16 which is not ok with Windows at all--read or write.

I'd like not to use NTFS so I can write to the hdd. I read another thread where someone asked if the drive could be mounted, the answer for my case is no. That option is not available to me as it appears, unless that is because it is already mounted--which i think is the case. Not being familar with the terminal window I cannot tell you if fdisk sees the drive. But disk utility does so that may be a partially good sign.
Thanks!

Will it let you create a HFS partion for mac, and FAT 32 partition for windows???

When I click on Partition under Format it says:
Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Mac OS Extended
UNIX File System
Free Space

I am guessing--no.

I had to use a third party program to do this because Windows XP does not have a utility that allows you to go from NTFS to FAT32.

Click to expand...

In Windows XP how did you perform the format? Did you use a third-party disk utility because you wanted to save some data when you converted to FAT32?

You can easily format any hard disk using the FAT32 file system in Windows XP, but you cannot "convert" a disk formatted in NTFS to FAT32 (I don't believe this is possible with 3rd party utils. either). To be clear, were you trying to "convert" an NTFS partition or just erase and format a partition to FAT32? When you format, all data of course, is lost.

To format a partition to FAT32, Click START>Control Panel>Administrative Tools.

In the Explorer window, expand "storage" if necessary then click on "disk management".

You should see a graphical representation of your valid partitions. In this case, you may wish to delete the partitions created with your 3rd-party utility (esp. if created with a Symantec product!). Just right click on the partitions and select "delete" (remember ALL DATA WILL BE LOST). Also, make sure you can accurately identify which partitions are on which hard disk so you don't make a major error you'll regret.

Create new partitions by right clicking on "unallocated" disk space and selecting "new partition". A wizard will guide you through the process.

First, click "next.

Second, select the partition type. The first partitions should be "primary" and subsequent partitions "extended".

Third, select the partition size. Remember, FAT 32 partitions have a maximum size of 32 GB. You will have to create multiple partitions because or the size of your hard drive.

Select the file system. The DEFAULT file system is NTFS. Change it to FAT32 from the drop-down menu. Assign a volume label if desired.

Then click "finish".

Finally, right click on each partition and select "format". You should see a formatting progress notation on the partition showing the percentage progress of the formatting process.

I hope this works better for you.

Thanks. Unfortunately at this time windows xp will not let me format or do anything concerning fat32. I am unsure why, but all I read on some pc sites is that xp can't do this. The drop down menu does not provide me with a fat32 option.
Looks like I am S.O.L.
Thanks for trying though.

Are you using "home" or "professional"? I use pro and format FAT32 all the time.

Remember:

1) You can't "convert" a partition. You have to be willing to delete the partitions and lose everything on your disk.

2) The max size of FAT32 partitions is 32GB. If you try anything larger, your partition cannot be read by any machine. Partitioning programs will often allow you to create larger partitions, but they will be useless.

Another tried and true method is to use Linux QTParted. You can use a "live CD" like Knoppix on your PC. Your PC has to be able to boot from its optical drive. By the way, it's a great way to try out linux without installing anything on your computer. The download is about 650MB then you just burn the .iso image. QTParted is an open-source app much like Partition Magic but I find it more reliable, plus it's included on Knoppix which is a PC's emergency toolkit nowadays.

Well...actually to the best of my knowledge FAT32 will actually support drives up to 2 terabytes...however MS wishes to push NTFS upon it's users so it arbitrarily prevents it's OS's from formatting anything larger than 32 GBs as FAT32 even though it should work.

What I've used in the past to format larger FAT32 drives in XP in the past is a windows port of mkdosfs from Linux...I'm sure if you search around you can find it. It works quite well if you're willing to work from a command line interface.

I think the problem here is that she is trying to reformat an NTFS partition to FAT32. You have to delete the NTFS partition first, create a new FAT32 partition and then reformat.

Well then! Warren, I did as you asked. My issue was actually that I was expecting it to format fat32 @ 78gb. As another user said, fat32 supports up to 2 TB now, but you are right...now in windows! Gosh, all of this makes me so much happier to be on a mac today.
At any rate, the moral of the story is listen to warren the first time, and stop skipping the step that says "change to 32gb".
Thanks Warran et al for all of your help!
Formatting now, I am sure it'll work now.

Your problem is you have an untitled volume, give the volume a name. The Mac will not read the drive if it does not have a name. A drive formatted in fat 32 can be both read and written to by the Mac and a windows machine, but Mac requires a volume name... or at least that is how it worked on my external...got the same error message you showed and as soon as i gave the volume a name it worked...

Glad to be of some help, Jessica. Remember it wasn't our Mac or your PC that was at fault, it was trying to bridge the gap between the two! Knowledge is free to those who choose to seek it...

BTW, external FAT32 drives don't need a volume label...it will show up in Finder as "no name" and still be readable and writeable--I have done this with my external Firewire drive.

Just to clear up a couple of things mentioned:

You can easily format any hard disk using the FAT32 file system in Windows XP, but you cannot "convert" a disk formatted in NTFS to FAT32 (I don't believe this is possible with 3rd party utils. either

Click to expand...

Yes you can. Its very simple. Once a drive is converted to NTFS and you want it back to FAT32, you can utilise many ways of doing this, the most common being fdisk. Boot to fdisk, choose to delete the non-fat partiton (NTFS), and create a new one in FAT32 - it really is as simple as that.

The max size of FAT32 partitions is 32GB. If you try anything larger, your partition cannot be read by any machine. Partitioning programs will often allow you to create larger partitions, but they will be useless.

Click to expand...

If that was the case, all machines running WinXP (or other FAT32 drives) would be stifled at 32 GB regardless of size of hard drive. You can do a FAT 32 partition to what size you want basically, as long as your BIOS supports large hard drives.

The 32 GB and 8GB limit, was a restriction of the BIOS, not the hard drive partition.

It seems to me that you need to delete and recreat the partition (did you delete and recreate or did you just format?) - use a simple method like Fdisk, as it appears you are trying to format NTFS to FAT 32 which will NOT wwork unless you delete and recreate.

The volume should not need a name, but its up to you if you choose one. If you can then mount the drive on the Mac, it should be recognised no problem.

Hello, Jessica. What you should do is click on the erase tab, in the "Volume Format:" drop down menu, click on MS-DOS File System. If you reformat your hard drive with this format, your hard drive will work in between Windows and Mac, and both will read and write to it with no problems. There will be no partitioning involved.

Kyomii said:

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The 32 GB and 8GB limit, was a restriction of the BIOS, not the hard drive partition.

...

Click to expand...

Let me repeat once again...the 32 GB format limit in Windows XP is not a BIOS limitation. It is an OS specific restriction. Windows XP has always and currently will mount and work with a FAT32 Disk larger than 32 GB just fine...it just will not allow you to reformat a drive that way inside of the OS. I might be mistaken, but I believe that the reason (or at least their stated reason) for this was that the size of the FAT could become rather large in drives larger than 32 GBs under FAT32. (I personally believe it's just a ploy to get people using a more proprietary allocation system myself ) I've got a 160 GB external drive formatted FAT32 that works just fine in WinXP and has never experienced this horrible performance or gargantuan FAT size that some like to believe in.

The only BIOS limitation on drive sizes that I've seen lately was LBA48 which by now should be incorporated into the BIOS's of all but the oldest of computers.

Yes you can. Its very simple. Once a drive is converted to NTFS and you want it back to FAT32, you can utilise many ways of doing this, the most common being fdisk. Boot to fdisk, choose to delete the non-fat partiton (NTFS), and create a new one in FAT32 - it really is as simple as that.

Click to expand...

You need to look up the meaning of the words "convert" and "delete" in the dictionary. Like I said, you cannot "convert" NTFS partitions to FAT32 partitions. You must delete the NTFS partition and then create a FAT32 partition. You said this yourself, but this is not conversion, this is deleting and then repartitioning. All data is lost, it is not converted.

I've got a 160 GB external drive formatted FAT32 that works just fine in WinXP and has never experienced this horrible performance or gargantuan FAT size that some like to believe in.

Click to expand...

NTFS is a journaled file system that is much more efficient and repairable than any FAT partition, particularly FAT partitions larger than 8GB. I don't know why you are clinging to this technology. What size are your clusters? The empty slack on your drive must be a significant percentage of your disk space.

To each his own, but I am very interested in other people's opinions. I am not trying to argue any points here, just gather other points of view.

My personal preference is to avoid external drives when possible and just like Scott McNealy says, "The network IS the computer".

warrenbert said:

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NTFS is a journaled file system that is much more efficient and repairable than any FAT partition, particularly FAT partitions larger than 8GB. I don't know why you are clinging to this technology. What size are your clusters? The empty slack on your drive must be a significant percentage of your disk space.

To each his own, but I am very interested in other people's opinions. I am not trying to argue any points here, just gather other points of view.

My personal preference is to avoid external drives when possible and just like Scott McNealy says, "The network IS the computer".

Click to expand...

Oh it's not called clinging...it's called being a computer professional and needing the utmost compatibility possible. If this were an external drive for my own use only on machines that I know would always support NTFS...then sure...why not use NTFS it is a much better system IMHO as well. But when you're never sure what server or PC you'll be working on tomorrow...I assure you that you'll err on the side of compatibility as well. All I'm saying is that in all the times I've used my drive...I've never had an issue with performance...I use it most often for taking Ghost images of servers I work on...so the only issue I run up into often is FAT32's 4 GB per file limitation. Oh well...the verison of ghost that we use is only compatible with external drives formatted with FAT32...so I guess I'll just have to live with it.

Thanks, mcsenerd. I didn't know that the FAT32 size limitation was OS-specific. I suppose there aren't many people who need or want to exceed the 32GB limit nowadays. Every place I've worked acquires and distributes disk images via ethernet remotely.

Perhaps one day everyone will be using the same file system like ReiserFS. Oops, I must be dreaming again...