Format a Partition to HFS from Fat 32 on an external HD?

[LionsKiss]

Hi,

I have an external HDD, with 3 partitions. Two being FAT32, one being NTFS.

Now, I would like to just format one partition into HFS(+). Is that possible with the built in tools in MacOS X, or should I look elsewhere lke running VMware fusion and using Partition Magic 8?

Cheers

 

[Neil321]

You should just be able to do this by using the disk utility highlight the drive
and click the erase button this will format it hfs+ (journaled)

 

[LionsKiss]

You should just be able to do this by using the disk utility highlight the drive
and click the erase button this will format it hfs+ (journaled)

But I only want to erase one partition, not the whole drive.

 

[LionsKiss]

OK, got one volume erased, but its just erased, not formatted.

 

[steve_hill4]

On the left hand side, you have the source list. You should see your external drive and below that, indented, will be the individual partitions on that physical disk. I'm guessing you've already got that. Select the Partition you want to erase and then go the erase tab. From the drop-down menu, select Mac OS Journaled and then click erase. That's the theory.

However, I seem to recall from experience that I could never get to format one partition as HFS+ and one as FAT32 on the same disk, so ended up with FAT32 until I no longer needed it in that format, then I just erased as HFS+.

 

[LionsKiss]

On the left hand side, you have the source list. You should see your external drive and below that, indented, will be the individual partitions on that physical disk. I'm guessing you've already got that. Select the Partition you want to erase and then go the erase tab. From the drop-down menu, select Mac OS Journaled and then click erase. That's the theory.

However, I seem to recall from experience that I could never get to format one partition as HFS+ and one as FAT32 on the same disk, so ended up with FAT32 until I no longer needed it in that format, then I just erased as HFS+.

Thanks, I did that, and got some error, and have ended up now with 200 GB FAT32, 80 GB NTFS and 200 GB of empty space.

Is there a way to get 200 GB empty space into any filesystem?

As if I cant get it into HFS, then I am happy to atleast be able to use it in some way.

 

[Neil321]

OK, got one volume erased, but its just erased, not formatted.

The erase button is what actually formats the partition,select what you want to
format it too in the volume format above the erase button,then click the erase
button,this will format it to whatever you selected in volume format

 

[LionsKiss]

Thanks,
I did that, and obtained some error.

So now I got 200 GB of empty space.

I have 2 other partitions intact, one 80 gb ntfs, and one 200 or so FAT 32.

Any idea what to do with the empty space?

 

[Wayne s]

If you are using Leopard you may have problems with disk utility, I did when I tried to format my external drive. I would always get a error message and the drive would be unreadable on OSX and Windows.

The only way that I found to fix it was format it as FAT 32 in Windows, then run disk utility from my Tiger install disk and format from there.

I believe that Leopard's disk utility has some major problems.

 

[LionsKiss]

If you are using Leopard you may have problems with disk utility, I did when I tried to format my external drive. I would always get a error message and the drive would be unreadable on OSX and Windows.

The only way that I found to fix it was format it as FAT 32 in Windows, then run disk utility from my Tiger install disk and format from there.

I believe that Leopard's disk utility has some major problems.

I am on Leopard :/....dont have the Tiger install disk anymore.



Too bad partition Magic doesnt support HFS : (

Any work around?

 

[LionsKiss]

Damn, now it seems to have become completely messed up, showing nothing at all and I cant read anything from the HDD.

 

[Wayne s]

Looks like you have the same problem I had. Like I said, the only way I found to fix it was by using the Tiger install disk.

It drove me mad for about 2 days. I am not a Mac expert but maybe some one else can offer more advice.

Good luck.

 

[LionsKiss]

It messed up the entire HDD, so just formatted it entirely to HFS+....oh well...wont use DU for sometime and will try to avoid it.