FAT32 external HDD on MAC OS X

rp2000

rp2000

rp2000

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Hi,

I have a 80GB usb 2.0 (2.5 inch) drive. It is formatted as 1 80gb fat32 partition and my windows machines see it fine. I am certain I have used it on my Mac before but I could be mistaken as it doesn't seem to recognise it at the moment. Its a vanilla 1.83 mac mini with no fancy software or file system support added etc.

Should it work or does it have to be a 32GB or smaller fat32 partition? Just need a quick answer to figure out if there is an issue with my mac, usb hdd or neither. Don't want to reformat till I'm sure as there is a lot of data on there .

Google says it needs to be 32gb after a quick search but need to be certain.

cheers in advance


rp2000
 
It should see it just fine. It's the Windows formatter that refuses to create partitions larger than 32 GiB. The OS X formatter works just fine and both should be able to mount, read, and write the partition.
 
Yeah - should be fine. It may not be mounting for some trivial reason. Have a look to see if it appears grayed out in Disk Utility - if it's there then manually mount it using the button on the toolbar.
 
I've been happily mounting a FAT32 formatted 400Gb disk on both recently, just the one partition.

I think I may even have some files over the limit, but I'm not getting out of bed when I feel like crap to find out. :p
 
WotDa said:
I've been happily mounting a FAT32 formatted 400Gb disk on both recently, just the one partition.

I think I may even have some files over the limit, but I'm not getting out of bed when I feel like crap to find out. :p
Click to expand...


I will do some tests tonight and check out the disk utility (Which is the same as Disk management in windows xp/server).

I think I formatted it using partition magic 8.0 on windows xp. On normal USB sticks etc they just appear on the mac desktop as soon as I plug them in.


rp2000

edit: will be tomorrow actually, lent it to someone today!
 
I first used mine straight out the factory, so not sure what they used to format it, then I split it in half, one NTFS and one Mac OS journaled. Then, I used Disk Utility to put it back into one FAT32 lump.

It does take about 30 or so seconds to spin up the drive and mount it mind you.

Have a picture.

 
WotDa said:
I first used mine straight out the factory, so not sure what they used to format it, then I split it in half, one NTFS and one Mac OS journaled. Then, I used Disk Utility to put it back into one FAT32 lump.

It does take about 30 or so seconds to spin up the drive and mount it mind you.

Have a picture.

Click to expand...



Realised the problem. On the back of my mini I have one of those 1 meter usb extenders (just so it is easy to connect stuff without fiddling round the back each time).

If the usb hdd goes through that (on any usb ports) it won't mount and makes the kind of sound you get when a usb drive does not receive enough power from a usb port (drive sounds like it spins up, then down, then up etc).

Going direct in the back works fine on any slots. Weird thing is my USB sticks (tried 3 different ones) all work fine with usb extension cable.

Not bothered now as I found the problem. Off the top of my head I am thinking it is because I have the 1 metre usb extension plus a 1 metre lead on the usb hdd. Maybe length issue.


fixed anyway.


rp2000
 
USB flash drives wouldn't need as much power, and therefore would work over the extension.

The extension it's self would cause a drop in current(?), and therefore not have the power to power the HDD.

Nice to see you found the problem. :)


Glad I went for one that I needed to plug in now tbh, as I basically need the USB extender to reach the desk.
 
WotDa said:
USB flash drives wouldn't need as much power, and therefore would work over the extension.

The extension it's self would cause a drop in current(?), and therefore not have the power to power the HDD.

Nice to see you found the problem. :)


Glad I went for one that I needed to plug in now tbh, as I basically need the USB extender to reach the desk.
Click to expand...


I'm gonna try to find some really short extenders instead. At the moment the 1 metre extender is all tied up and is just used from the length of the back of the mac mini to the front, so maybe 20-25 cm. I dunno if the fact I have the excess all tightly coiled up is hindering it as well.

For now it is not gonna kill me to reach my hand round the back and plug in the usb hdd.

I think this picture shows where the usb cable is if you look closely:

http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/8227/setupmy9.jpg



rp2000
 
Last edited:
BillytheImpaler said:
A powered USB hub would solve your problem as well.
Click to expand...


not really keen on plugging anything else in to be honest from the mains.

In that picture alone is a Desktop PC, a mac mini, the hdtv, ps3, 360, NAS, wifi router and the amount of cables annoy me. I am trying to reduce the amount of stuff so may actually get rid of the 360 (when the ps3 games get better!!!) and get rid of the Desktop PC (when my mac skills get better!!!).

I guess the other solution is the NAS has a USB port in the back that can be used to mount mass storage devices, and the MAC can see that over the network.

Decisions, decisions...



rp2000
 
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