FAT and Mac OS Extended combined formats...?

Discussion in 'MacBook Pro' started by yanathin, Sep 6, 2008.

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  1. yanathin, Sep 6, 2008

    yanathin macrumors member

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2006
    #1
    I recently just swapped out the 320GB hard drive that was in my external WD Passport with my 200GB MBP hard drive, and I cloned the disk that was originally in there so everything would be exactly the same. Well, it seems like it's the same, everything is running perfectly, but I noticed something in Disk Utility. When I look at the actual hard drive's options, it says it's formatted in FAT, but when I click the actual partition below it, it says it's Mac OS Extended. Which one do I believe? I really would like to know this, since I don't think it's very safe to run my main hard drive when it's formatted in FAT. Oh, and if I click "Get Info" on the actual hard drive in finder, it says it's Mac OS Extended. Attached is a picture of what I'm talking about, since it was kinda hard to explain.
     

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  2. tyr2, Sep 6, 2008

    tyr2 macrumors 6502a

    tyr2

    Joined:
    May 6, 2006
    Location:
    Leeds, UK
    #2
    It's because your drive has a partition type of MBR (Master Boot Record) rather than the default of GUID.

    Your partition IS OS X Extended Journaled, the info at the bottom of the disk utility pane is the correct info. The reason you see FAT in the 'Erase' section when looking at the whole disk is because that's the default of MBR labelled disks.

    TBH I'd just leave it as it is and don't worry about it. The only time you might have a problem is if you want to put BootCamp on the disk but I'm not sure. Unfortunately you can't change between GUID and MBR without erasing the contents of the disk.
     
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