Formatting a Harddrive?

Marshmule · 3 Apr 2006 at 18:22

Hi

I need to format my hard drive for my mac so it has to be in FAT32 format, i am going to borrow my friends PC to do this will i have an option to format it in FAT32 or am i going to need some special software to do this?!

thanks

Werewolf · 3 Apr 2006 at 18:35

windows should give the option

(as should the mac - assuming it's not been deemed too technical by Jobs and co).

nyzrox · 3 Apr 2006 at 18:45

Hahaha, you are doing what i hve done then i see. Installing Windows on a intel mac

Marshmule · 3 Apr 2006 at 19:36

nyzrox said:
Hahaha, you are doing what i hve done then i see. Installing Windows on a intel mac

No Its a hard drive that i used on my pc now i just wanna format it and use it as my hard drive on my mac running osx

Type_R · 28 May 2006 at 22:02

I am thinking of doing this as well.

Could someone please confirm...I am buying a new unformatted hdd for my new macbook on which I wish to run OSX and format on my PC!

Do I format it as fat32 under winXP?

Type_R · 29 May 2006 at 10:02

Right just got this info...worth reading for anyone upgrading an hdd on a mac:

MacOS X (all versions)
If adding as an extra (additional) drive

1. Install hard drive (normally set drive to slave).
2. Check connectivity and turn on machine the as normal.
3. Once booted into OS X, navigate to your (existing) hard drive.
4. Open the hard drive and navigate to the Applications Folder.
5. Navigate to the Utilities folder.
6. Open / Run Disk Utility.
7. You will see a window appear with the hard drive on the left.
8. Select the new drive (this is the one without a volume attached to it).
9. In the right hand window you will see and option for "Erase" (see picture below).
10. Double check this is the right drive, then click "Erase".
11. You may partition the drive from this screen also.
12. The drive will then appear on the desktop and is ready to use.

If Adding as main drive (i.e. no others)

1. Install the hard drive (normally set drive to master).
2. Check connectivity and turn on machine as normal.
3. Open and insert your Mac OS X Bootable CD.
4. Allow machine to boot.
5. From the File Menu select "Open disk utility".
6. You will see a window appear with the hard drive on the left.
7. Select the new drive (should be only one).
8. Double check this drive does not contain any of your important data.
9. In the right hand window you will see and option for Â“EraseÂ” click this button (see picture below).
10. You can partition your drive from within Disk Utility also.
11. Once the drive has formatted, restart machine (this step is important).
12. Once machine has re-started go through the normal install procedure.