Disk Utility Won't Reformat Drive

[swwack91]

I need to reformat a drive from FAT32 to Mac OS Extended. Disk Utility won't do it because it says that there's a "filesystem error".

Is there another program that will reformat it? I need to get this drive formattted and in use! 😕

 

[swwack91]

i can successfully take the drive and reformat it back to FAT32 and it works just fine. but when i try to get it to Mac OS Extended, it errors out and goes back to being an "unrecognizable disc"

 

[old-wiz]

are you trying to reformat the entire drive or just the partition? I think you have to be addressing the entire drive to change it to osx extended.

 

[HBOC]

i think to reformat the way you want, you have to use the install disk and go from there. I could be wrong, but i tried to reformat yesterday, but it will not let me do it without the install disk.

 

[BobZune]

If it is for Mac only use, you may want the GUID partition table (or APM if you want it as a boot disk on an older PPC Mac). See http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/partitioning_tiger.html for a How-To (esp. last picture).

 

[old-wiz]

i think to reformat the way you want, you have to use the install disk and go from there. I could be wrong, but i tried to reformat yesterday, but it will not let me do it without the install disk.

You only need disk utility from the install disk if you're going to reformat the boot drive.

 

[JPamplin]

Listen to Bob - I had the same issue until I figured it out. In Disk Utility, highlight the target drive on the left, then click Partitions on the right. Then click "Options" and select GUID (I think it's the first choice), then create your partition. Should work fine at that point.

JP

 

[HBOC]

aha, got cha.