format a new hard disk into a FAT32

[offbeat]

hi there!

i've installed a new Hard disk on My G5 that was before installed in a pc (NTFS), now i'm trying to format it in FAT32 in the Mac!! no way!! i don't know how!!

please help

thanks guys

[joe_burban]

I understood that mac uses HFS files system. See http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=8647

[offbeat]

i know that the mac is HFS, and also to format an NTFS disk i can move it into a pc and format it to Fat32 easily ! but without doing so, how can we format an NTFS disk to FAT32 in the Mac????( it's an internal Hard drive, so to open the mac, unplug the disk, and install it on a pc is not very practical

please help

[nixgeek]

To use the hard drive as a system drive, you have to format it in HFS or HFS+, s that's the filesystem used by OS X and especially for use with Classic mode if you have a PowerPC-based Mac. NTFS, FAT, and all derivatives of FAT are only for MS-based operating systems.

While OS X can read and write to FAT-based filesystems, NTFS is read only on OS X. The same goes for operating systems like Linux and other open source operating systems. However, if you have a Windows computer that uses NTFS for the filesystem but is sharing out it's hard drive to other computers over a network, Mac OS X can read and write to it since it's using the SMB protocol to share over the network.

Hope this helps.

[ElDiabloConCaca]

If you wish to format the drive as FAT32 on the Macintosh, simply open "Disk Utility" from /Applications/Utilties, highlight the disk in the left-hand sidebar, select the "Erase" tab, and select "MS-DOS File System" from the volume format pull-down menu.

[JeffFun]

Thanks!
I was looking for a simple (and safe) answer to a simple question and you provided it!

[lex19]

You're my hero! It was indeed a simple ad very useful answer for a non-geek like myself with computer problems.

[csavard]

Relating to FAT 32

I'm upgrading to Snow Leopard and installing XP on a MAC Pro Book.
I booted from the OS X CD an erased the entire hard drive, then installed the new OS
I then ran boot camp and partitioned 50MB for WINDOWS.
I then erased the WIN partition making sure the format was FAT32.

My relatively new XP CD offers 4 options on formatting:
1) NTFS (Quick)
2) NTFS regular
3) Convert existing format to NTFS
4) Leave the existing format

I want to access files from both OS so I select 4, then load the OS.

After copying WIN files, I get an error when trying to re-boot
DISK ERROR, PRESS ANY KEY TO START

I can hold ATL and boot back into OS X but not WINDOWS.

Someone wrote that you MUST format FAT32 during the install. For some reason, my WIN install disk does not offer that option (they usually do as I've done many WIN installs).
In this case, MAC erase (FAT32) is not sufficient.Maybe I have a different issue?
Any ideas?