I purchased a 2.5TB Elements external drive (let me know if model # or anything would help and I’ll nab them off the box and post). I primarily use a Mac (OS 10.4.11), which is why I would like it to be set up as FAT. My work laptop is a Dell, so I do have access to a computer with Windows XP if that would be any easier to do the conversion/formatting on.
Anyway, whenever I try to follow the WD instructions on how to do this on my MacBook (using Knowledge ID# 287), Disk Utility locks up as soon as I select the drive and click “partition.” I’ve tried this multiple times on multiple occasions and the result has been the same. So, that’s when I decided I’d hook it up to my Dell and just do it on there. That was about a month or two ago, so I don’t remember the specifics, but it wasn’t working, either. Then, I tried on my parents’ PC with Windows 7 and we couldn’t get it, either.
If anyone has advice or insight on how to convert this (even if it’s only a 2TB partition of it because it can’t be more), I would greatly appreciate it. I’ve tried scouring the net quite a bit before resorting to this post and I’ve found some overlap in what others have gone through, but I haven’t found a very clear solution.
Fat 32 has a max file size of 4G will that be a problem? Something else to consider. Leave the drive formatt as is NTFS for Windows. Then on the Mac install NTFS-3G http://mac-free.com/download/NTFS-3G.html and you should be able to use drive on both Windows and Mac. FAT32 is also more prone to corruption.
I went ahead and downloaded the NTFS-3G program you linked (thank you, by the way). When I plug the drive in, it’s still not showing up unless I go to Disk Utility. Any suggestions? Based on the user manual for the program, it just works and you don’t have to do anything with it, but I tried looking in Applications and didn’t see it even though it’s been installed and I’ve restarted the computer.
I don’t know much about Macs but on Windows you just plug in drive and it installs a driver. I don’t know what Mac calls it but in Windows sometimes you need to go into Disk Management and give the drive a letter.
I just thouht of a couple more things. For drives larger that 2T they need to be formatted GPT instead of MRB in Windows. Does your Mac recognize drives larger than 2T? That was a problem earlier this year. So you might want to checkout your Mac and make sure you have all of their updates.
I ended up formatting the drive on the laptop using XP. I was thrown off initially because the knowledge base ID said for XP that it wouldn’t recognize drives larger than 2TB, but that must have been a 32-bit/64-bit thing. I formatted it into a 2TB partition and a 380GB partition; both NTFS. After that was complete, the Mac brings them both up perfectly, now, thanks to the NTFS-3G program you suggested.
Thank you for the help, Joe, and particularly for that program, as that was the only reason I wanted to use FAT32 on my externals.
