change drive from NTFS to FAT32

rs170a wrote on 6/12/2007, 3:33 PM
I know this isn't what people usually ask to do but I have a good reason for asking this.
I'm doing a location shoot in a few days with a guy who uses FCP to record direct to disk.
I've got an external drive I can use but it's formatted NTFS and he needs it to be FAT32.
I've tried using (under Start - Run) format x: /FS:FAT32 but it's not working for me.
Is there another command line option I should be using or another way to go about this?
And no, I don't have a laptop I can load Vegas on :-(

Mike

Comments

farss wrote on 6/12/2007, 3:56 PM
The later versions of OSX can mount and read NTFS volumes.
However if he needs to write to your disk then yes it needs to be FAT32 unless you buy a copy of MacDrive which will let you format a HFS disk and read and write to it.
rs170a wrote on 6/12/2007, 4:16 PM
...if he needs to write to your disk ...

He does - and I was hoping to so this without buying anything.

Mike
nolonemo wrote on 6/12/2007, 4:28 PM
Since you're using Vegas with NTFS volumes, you must have XP or win2k as your OS. Can't you just go into windows explorer, right click on the drive, select format from the popup, choose the format type from the dropdown, and away you go?

Or else, from Control Panel, go into computer administration, drive management, from where you should be able to repartition the drive in question.

rs170a wrote on 6/12/2007, 4:37 PM
I'm using XP PRO SP2.
When I try to do either of the things you suggested, all I get is NTFS as a format option :-(
I'm obviously missing a step somewhere but I have no idea what.

Mike
riredale wrote on 6/12/2007, 4:39 PM
MS in their infinite wisdom decided to allow for conversion from FAT32 to NTFS, but not vice-versa.

A variety of third-party tools can go the other way; I use PartitionMagic.
rs170a wrote on 6/12/2007, 4:45 PM
Thanks riredale !!
You saved me from going crazy looking for a feature that doesn't exist :-)
Now to find that old copy of Partition Magic I have lying around somewhere.

Mike
farss wrote on 6/12/2007, 5:15 PM
Just one small word of caution, hopefully you do appreciate that FAT 32 limits file size to 4GB?
fldave wrote on 6/12/2007, 5:34 PM
And does the software know to split video files at the 4GB limit automatically?
rs170a wrote on 6/12/2007, 6:50 PM
Bob, I am aware of the 4 GB file limit.
fldave, I'm assured that FCP does seamless splits.
Whether a PC recognizes it or not is another matter. I'll report back once I find out what happens.
Just in case, I plan to run tape as a backup.
I'm just hoping to avoid a lengthy ingest time for this event, our college convocation - 4 X 2 hr. each :-(

Mike
blink3times wrote on 6/12/2007, 7:32 PM
Goto disk management and delete the entire NTFS partition. Then create a new partition and format as FAT32
GlennChan wrote on 6/12/2007, 8:04 PM
On Windows, you can't format big FAT32 partitions. The size has to be below 32GB or something.

On other platforms, you can format bigger FAT32 partitions... though theoretically they are out of spec.
rs170a wrote on 6/12/2007, 8:11 PM
Goto disk management and ...

Tried it. Doesn't work :-)

Mike
DrLumen wrote on 6/12/2007, 8:53 PM
You might try to debug partition of the drive. I have it had it bring drives back from the dead. Theoretically, windows will see it as a new blank drive.

Partition Debug Details

intel i-4790k / Asus Z97 Pro / 32GB Crucial RAM / Nvidia GTX 560Ti / 500GB Samsung SSD / 256 GB Samsung SSD / 2-WDC 4TB Black HDD's / 2-WDC 1TB HDD's / 2-HP 23" Monitors / Various MIDI gear, controllers and audio interfaces

riredale wrote on 6/12/2007, 10:10 PM
Glenn:

On XP you can format very large FAT32 partitions. I have several 120GB drives formatted as one big FAT32 partition, and so no reason why I couldn't go larger (done that way to remain readable by an old w98 system).

On a practical side, I think very large partitions result in very large clusters, so even a 1-bit file would eat up 32KB of disk or something like that.
vitalforce wrote on 6/12/2007, 10:15 PM
One other option as a way of being sure the drive is compatible with FCP: Give the drive to the FCP user who is therefore using a Mac computer which will have the ability, at least in OSX, to format a drive one of two ways--either as HFS or as "MS-DOS" which is Apple's term for FAT32.
craftech wrote on 6/13/2007, 5:15 AM
Change the boot order in the BIOS to boot from the floppy drive first. Use a W98SE startup diskette and FDISK command in DOS. Use the full capacity of the drive and "enable large disk support". That will create a FAT32 partition. If you need an updated FDISK you can download it here. Some startup diskettes don't have it and some have older versions of FDISK that display incorrect drive size information.
Then you can download the free partitioning software from the hard drive manufacturer and use it to format the drive. For a Western Digital drive (for example) you would download Data Lifeguard Tools for DOS. Or you can boot to DOS again with the W98SE disk and use the format command. Limit would be 137 GB drive.

John
Steve Mann wrote on 6/15/2007, 8:06 PM
Drives are too cheap to spend this much energy partitioning, formatting, managing - just buy a new drive and let him format it.
rs170a wrote on 6/15/2007, 9:18 PM
Thanks to everyone that replied.
I ended up taking Bob's (farss) suggestion, checked out MacDrive and bought it.
It'll save me a lot of hassles and it's only $50 which I consider money well spent.
I plan to pick up another external hard drive & case and dedicate it exclusively to Mac use.
From time to time I work with students who use Macs so this tool will pay for itself in no time :-)

Mike