Format external HD for Mac and XP

nyc2phx

I have a 40G external HD. At school we have both PCs and Macs. I want to be able to use it on both. I am told that if I format one partition FAT32 that I will be able to transfer files from the PC side of the disk to the Mac side of the disk (on the external HD). I am also told that the limit on partition size for FAT32 is 4G.



I don't mind if the PC partition is only 4G. I only have 40G to work with an am on Macs more than PCs. I just want to be able to transfer files from the Mac partition to the PC partition and back again, whether I am, on a PC or a Mac. Is there a way to do this? I would like both partitions to be readable and writable on both kinds of computers.



I am told there is a way to do this using Terminal on the Mac. Is that true. I found a procedure on this forum on how to do it. But the post is 4 years old so I don't know if it still works. Also, how do I set the partition size when using Terminal? Or is that something I could do in Disk Utility.



Thanks in advance for your help.



Scott

Marvin

The partition isn't limited to 4GB, the size of a file is limited to 4GB. You can just go ahead and format the whole thing with Disk Utility by selecting the drive itself in the tab, which then shows the MS-DOS option and just click erase. The drive can then be read and written by both Mac and PC.