Geek needed for advice on Techo shit

[Motoracer]

Hey all, specially you lot good with computers.

I bought an external HD (250GB) and I need to format it in FAT file system, not NTFS. When I go to make a new partition, it's not giving me the FAT option and it's only giving me NTFS.

I use a Mac at Uni and a PC at home and apparantly to transfer data between the 2, I need to format the drive in FAT file system.

Any help and advise would be much appreciated.

Cheerio :sunny:

[Whynot]

unless i am terribly mistaken the maximum partition size for a FAT32 drive under windose is 32GB ....

im not sure if you can create the partition under another os and still be able to use it however.

[Whynot]

"Windows 2000 and Windows XP can read and write to FAT32 filesystems of any size, but the format program on these platforms can only create FAT32 filesystems up to 32 GB"

from here ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table

[MOTOXXX]

yea and you cant copy a single file bigger than 3.9 gb? i think.

is this fat or fat32

[Jeremy]

Format on 2K and XP will only create Fat32 partitions up to 32GB. Though to memory under Win98 you can create them up to ~128GB. However 2K/XP can read partitions up to the max size of 2TB.

This seems to be the best avenue of attack for you: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030613121738812

[Motoracer]

unless i am terribly mistaken the maximum partition size for a FAT32 drive under windose is 32GB ....

im not sure if you can create the partition under another os and still be able to use it however.

YOU ARE THE MAN!!!! :Punk:

Thanks man! That worked!

[WarlockNZ]

Format on 2K and XP will only create Fat32 partitions up to 32GB. Though to memory under Win98 you can create them up to ~128GB. However 2K/XP can read partitions up to the max size of 2TB.

This seems to be the best avenue of attack for you: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030613121738812

They are right ...32Gb is your max under FAT32 .. you will need to create multiple partitions on your drive.. beats me why you don't use NTFS .. please correct me if i'm wrong ... but can't Mac's read from ntfs ???

[Motoracer]

Format on 2K and XP will only create Fat32 partitions up to 32GB. Though to memory under Win98 you can create them up to ~128GB. However 2K/XP can read partitions up to the max size of 2TB.

This seems to be the best avenue of attack for you: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030613121738812

Awesome! :)

One question though, what's HFS+? Do I need to worry about it?

[Motoracer]

They are right ...32Gb is your max under FAT32 .. you will need to create multiple partitions on your drive.. beats me why you don't use NTFS .. please correct me if i'm wrong ... but can't Mac's read from ntfs ???

The Macs were reading just fine. They just couldn't write. After trying everything else, the tutor sujested that I try FAT32.

Cheers!

[WarlockNZ]

The Macs were reading just fine. They just couldn't write. After trying everything else, the tutor sujested that I try FAT32.

Cheers!

Sounds like a security/permissions issue ... if you can read .. you can write ... check the NFTS permissions on your drive and set it to everyone .. full control

[WarlockNZ]

Format on 2K and XP will only create Fat32 partitions up to 32GB. Though to memory under Win98 you can create them up to ~128GB. However 2K/XP can read partitions up to the max size of 2TB.

Thats more of a SCSI limit then an OS one .. i ran into this problem a few months ago ... but thats off topic :)

[awesker]

hey, I got an idea..
1: open window
2: pick up mac
3: throw mac out window

as far as I can see your problems solved right there..

[Motoracer]

Sounds like a security/permissions issue ... if you can read .. you can write ... check the NFTS permissions on your drive and set it to everyone .. full control

I tried everything else dude. Even the IT help desk at AUT gave up. It's not a faulty drive either cause I swaped for another one from the shop.

How do you get to the permission option then?

[limbimtimwim]

Use the mac at school to format the whole disk in FAT.

Seems arse about face I know, the PC will read it fine, the Mac will read it fine.

It is a stupid restriction done by MS for no fuckin' good reason.

Blah blah cluster size blah blah - Macs suck, Windows sucks more blah blah. Shut up, he just wants it to work

[WarlockNZ]

I tried everything else dude. Even the IT help desk at AUT gave up. It's not a faulty drive either cause I swaped for another one from the shop.

How do you get to the permission option then?

Plug it back into your winblows machine (no thats not a typo*) .. and right click the drive letter and click properties ... click security .. thats where it is :)

* being a windows 2k3 AD domain admin ... i am qualified to call it winblows .. :P .. lol

[far queue]

I bought an external HD (250GB) and I need to format it in FAT file system, not NTFS. When I go to make a new partition, it's not giving me the FAT option and it's only giving me NTFS.

Any help and advise would be much appreciated.I'm not a geek, so I don't understand that gibberish, the only bits I recognise are HD and FAT - you're having trouble with your Fatboy perhaps? I suggest you take it to your local Massy Ferguson dealer.

[Motoracer]

Plug it back into your winblows machine (no thats not a typo*) .. and right click the drive letter and click properties ... click security .. thats where it is :)

* being a windows 2k3 AD domain admin ... i am qualified to call it winblows .. :P .. lol

It's not there man, no such tab for security or permitions.

I am using Win XP Pro with SP2

[WarlockNZ]

It's not there man, no such tab for security or permitions.

I am using Win XP Pro with SP2

Right out of the box i would imagine ... you need to switch to classic mode .. and are you right clicking from windows explorer ?? .. xp hides all that shit by default ... thank you microsoft! .. for making choices for me ... fuckers!

[Filterer]

Im sure you will find that macs can't write to NTFS

Its the same for linux you can read NTFS but they can't write back to it properly altough there are some apps that can do it you cant do it natively and its pretty easy to corrupt your data...

It is not a secutity/permissions problem

Don't touch it with a broom unless ur only using windows xp/2000

[WarlockNZ]

Im sure you will find that macs can't write to NTFS

Its the same for linux you can read NTFS but they can't write back to it properly altough there are some apps that can do it you cant do it natively and its pretty easy to corrupt your data...

It is not a secutity/permissions problem

Don't touch it with a broom unless ur only using windows xp/2000

And this is based on what ?? ... please quote you source and or experience. :)

[WarlockNZ]

ohhhhh ... forgot to ask ... what OS level of Mac are you running ??? ... LOL

[Whynot]

And this is based on what ?? ... please quote you source and or experience. :)

that sounds familiar actually ....

[WarlockNZ]

that sounds familiar actually ....

Its a BS detection system ... lol ..

[WarlockNZ]

Heres the bottom line ... if your running the latest V of Mac OS .. you should be able to write back to an NTFS drive .. seeing as how you are using a Uni mac .. the odds of it being the latest os are slim to none ... if thats the case .. your only option is to create 32Gb partitions on your disk .. Mac OS can write to NTFS but only in the last 6 months or so.

[Whynot]

Its a BS detection system ... lol ..

:moon:


:bleh:

[John Banks]

And this is based on what ?? ... please quote you source and or experience. :)

Based on NTFS write support being still pretty sketchy in Linux, let alone Mac, which (rightly so) will not release something without it being rock solid.



OR you can just fucking google it (http://www.justfuckinggoogleit.com/search.pl?query=ntfs+write+mac)

[Badcat]

hey, I got an idea..
1: open window
2: pick up mac
3: throw mac out window

as far as I can see your problems solved right there..

hey awesker - why don't you do it, but follow the mac?

[Lias]

Awesome! :)

One question though, what's HFS+? Do I need to worry about it?
HFS+ is a newish Apple file system. Its not readable under winblows so I wouldnt worry about it if your sane..

Then again you admit to using a mac, so your mental stability may well be in question :Pokey:

[Motoracer]

I made the 31.5GB partition. Took it to school to format on a Mac cause I couldn't format at home for some reason. But then the Mac at school could only format to FAT16 not 32.. Since I didn't know how to make the partition smaller from 32 to 16 GB, I picked the other File system option which was MS Dos instead of MS Dos FAT16. So format was successfull. I wrote data and it read it in my computer in the 32GB partition!

W00T!

Cheers all for the help! :Punk:

[Street Gerbil]

There are 3rd party utilities that format big HDs to fat32. I used one of them (freeware) to format a 100Gb HD for my digital wallet. Try Googling. If it won't help, let me know, I'll check when I get home. I may still have it somewhere.

[scracha]

There are 3rd party utilities that format big HDs to fat32. I used one of them (freeware) to format a 100Gb HD for my digital wallet. Try Googling. If it won't help, let me know, I'll check when I get home. I may still have it somewhere.

Had exactly the same problem with a customer a few moons ago. Solution was to use an Ext2 (Linux) filesystem.

On the Muckintosh (presume you're using tigger or similar), use.
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=64713&package_id=61952&release_id=257437

On Windoze, use
http://www.fs-driver.org/

And of course your get out of jail free CD is
www.knoppix.org

I'm not a linux hippy but don't mind using it when necessary.