Re: A Related Maxtor External HD Problem



"Anna" wrote:

>
> > "Mike K." <MikeK@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> > news:519CCBB5-D737-4647-9024-82D0C72409FC@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >> I'm afraid that I can only share in your misery around this problem. I
> >> think that our problems are related.
> >>
> >> I also have a Maxtor One Touch External Hard Disk (200GB with USB 2.0)
> >> that I would like to use for both a Mac (OS X10.4 Tiger) and a Windows
> >> (XP Home) computer. In my case I'd like to create a single large
> >> partition to hold a large and growing collection of pictures and video
> >> clips. Ideally either
> >> computer should be able to read or write to the external hard disk.
> >>
> >> Option 1: When I format the disk with XP in NTFS, the Mac can read but
> >> not
> >> write to the HD. Actually with older versions of Mac OS (I tried 10.2)
> >> you can't even read NTFS.
> >>
> >> Option 2: When I format the disk with the Mac, the XP machine sees the
> >> disk as a FAT32 formatted volume. I tried copying a few files and it
> >> crashed the hard disk in less than five minutes. Neither computer would
> >> recognize it.
> >>
> >> Option 3: Reformat the disk with FAT32 file system using either an older
> >> Windows operating system or a third party utility. Actually I haven't
> >> tried this option yet. I was hoping to learn something about clusters
> >> and block
> >> sizes that would sensibly use the disk space before I start to populate
> >> it.
> >>
> >> Hope someone has better insights to either or both of our problems.
>
>
> "Yves Leclerc" <yleclercNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:%236dbglVkFHA.572@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Creating a FAT32 partition in XP has two limitations! 1) FAT32 partitions
> > can only be created to a maximum of 32GB with XP's Disk Management (do not
> > know why this limit?) and 2) File sizes on FAT32 can not be greater than
> > 4GB each.
>
>
> Mike:
> First of all, let me say that I've had so little experience with a Mac that
> the last thing I should presume to do is to try to give any advice involving
> that computer and its operating system.
>
> However, in your Option 3 you mention the possibility of formatting a USB
> external hard drive with the FAT32 system. I'm assuming from your comment
> that by doing so the data on that EHD will be accessible to the Mac and
> thereby be useful to you. If that assumption is wrong, then read no
> further...
>
> But if it's right...
>
> You can, as you surmise, format FAT32 that 200 GB external HD with a
> bootable DOS floppy disk, e.g., a Win9x/Me Startup disk. I assume you would
> know how to use the FDISK & FORMAT commands that would need to be invoked.
> Understand that you could *not* accomplish that partitioning/formatting of
> your EHD in an XP environment using the DOS bootable floppy. Under those
> circumstances DOS will not (unfortunately) see an external device. If you
> could remove the HD from its enclosure and install it (temporarily) as an
> internal drive in your computer, then you could use the aforementioned
> procedure. But I believe that's not practical in your situation because your
> unit may be a kind of one-piece sealed affair where the drive is not readily
> available for removal. And even if it is there may be warranty issues to
> contend with.
>
> While you can partition/format your EHD using XP's Disk Management utility,
> I assume you're aware of Yve's comment that XP is unable (*unwilling* is
> more like it!) to create a FAT32 partition > 32 GB. That, of course, is the
> dilemma here. And there is that 4 GB limitation that Yves also mentions re
> moving/copying files in a FAT32 environment. I don't know if that's
> particularly significant to you inasmuch as (I assume) you'll be working
> with large photo & video files. BTW, don't get overly concerned with cluster
> sizes and such with respect to working with an external hard drive. It's of
> little or no import when you're using that device simply for storage as
> apparently is your intention.
>
> There is another way you can create a single FAT32 partition for your 200 GB
> EHD without removing it from its enclosure and within an XP environment. The
> process involves invoking a Linux-developed file (freely available) within
> an XP environment. It's a fairly simple straightforward process. If you or
> others are interested, please so indicate and I'll detail the steps.
> Anna
>
>
>
Anna & Yves,
Thanks to you both for your input. If it means that I can swap the external
200GB HD between the Mac and XP computers, then I am definitely willing to
live with filesizes <4GB. Anna is correct that I'm unwilling to open the HD
case, mount it as an internal IDE just to run the DOS formatting, so I'd be
happy to get some details on a third party (Linux) tool to perform the
format. Hopefully the tool will run in the XP environment (is that asking
too much?)

One remaining aspect of this puzzle is an explanation to my Option 2
failure. Why would a Linux FAT32 formatting be different to the FAT32 format
that was made with the Mac X10.4 OS? Are there important options to be
selected when formating FAT32? Even without answers, I'd be happy to give it
a try and report on my results. I haven't started to populate the new EHD
yet, so I'm still willing to crash it a few times, in the name of educating
myself.

Thanks again for your help.
.

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