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General discussion

Changing the File System on Maxtor OneTouch III

Jul 29, 2006 5:45AM PDT

hi,

I have a new maxtor onetouch III 300gig external hard drive, which is currently free of any data and using the NFTS file system. I'd like to be able to use the drive on both mac and PC platforms, which would require a change to FAT32 file system. Can anyone help me with info on how to do this, and what the drawbacks are of using the FAT32 system as opposed to NFTS. Any info would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Discussion is locked

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Since it clean with no data...experiment a little
Jul 29, 2006 7:15AM PDT

Using XP disk Management...delete existing partition and then repartition. First partition would have to be FAT32 and it will be limited to 32GB on the PC (perhaps you could make it larger if partitioned and formatted on the MAC)... partition and format whatever's left over to NTFS.

I setup an external HDD like that (first partition FAT32 and 2nd partition NTFS) mainly for potential compatability with older system's using FAT32 FS and other devices which don't recognize NTFS. So far so good

Let us know how it works.

VAPCMD

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Sounds like a plan
Jul 30, 2006 6:00AM PDT

Thanks VAPCMD, I'm going to try that. does is matter which partition comes first? i.e. can I make the FAT32 partition the 2nd partition on the disk?

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Give it a try.......I made my first partition FAT32 because
Jul 30, 2006 6:35AM PDT

some devices I wanted to connect to wouldn't recognize the FAT32 partition unless it was first.

It would certainly appear you could create an NTFS partition using the PC and the FAT32 with MAC. You could also create both on the PC but I don't think XP will let you set a FAT32 partition greater than 32GB.

Let us know how it works between the PC and the MAC.

VAPCMD