Help buying/formatting a 1tb Fat32 hdd

[Gietzy]

Hi, I am planning on buying a MacBook pro in early April. I know they are due for an upgrade but if it isn't announced in the next 10 days I don't care, I just want a Mac. Anyway, I want a 1tb external hdd that is compatible with my ps3, xp laptop and my soon to be, osx MacBook. As far as I know, fat32 is the only possible file system that will run on all three (ps3 only reads fat32). I can't find one available in the uk. Could you please direct me towards one or give me step by step instructions as to how I could format a 1tb drive into fat32 in osx or xp. I am not opposed to having 4x 250gb partitions. I am a complete noob at macs and know very little about xp so please could any advice be as simple as possible. This is my first ever post so sorry if it is in the wrong place.

 

[MacDawg]

Check out the various file systems here: MR Guide: File Systems

You can erase and format the drive using Disk Utility
You would select MS DOS (FAT)

 

[Gietzy]

So just to make this clear; if I buy a bogg standard 1tb Ntfs or hfs+ external hdd off of amazon, I will be able to format it as a 1tb single partition fat32 hdd using disk utility without any signicant technical know how?

 

[Bennieboy©]

So just to make this clear; if I buy a bogg standard 1tb Ntfs or hfs+ external hdd off of amazon, I will be able to format it as a 1tb single partition fat32 hdd using disk utility without any signicant technical know how?

yeah it's quite easy,

 

[spinnerlys]

So just to make this clear; if I buy a bogg standard 1tb Ntfs or hfs+ external hdd off of amazon, I will be able to format it as a 1tb single partition fat32 hdd using disk utility without any signicant technical know how?

Yes, you can use any HDD you can buy to format it with your own choice of a file system.

Here is a guide on how to use Disk Utility.
http://macs.about.com/od/applications/ss/diskutilformat.htm

 

[MacDawg]

 

[Gietzy]

Thank you very much. This is a very helpful forum. I'm sure you will see me again when my new Mac arrives.

 

[bluskale]

doesn't disk utility only format fat16? there was another thread recently with a solution that involved a terminal command to get the fat32 formating...

 

[spinnerlys]

doesn't disk utility only format fat16? there was another thread recently with a solution that involved a terminal command to get the fat32 formating...

It uses FAT32, but it goes down to FAT16 with smaller storage devices as it seems.*