Formatting an External Hard Drive for windows and osx use?

[masse]

Is there a way I can format my external hard drive to have a FAT32 partition as well as a MAC OS extended partition? I've snooped around and can't seem to figure out a way to do this with disk utility.

Not sure if this matters much but I have about 200 gigabytes (of 500) used as it is already formatted to mac. I want to shrink this partition and use 32gig free space for a FAT 32 partition. I'm also considering a NTFS partition and then getting another external for time machine.

Hope this is sensible.

 

[RITZFit]

yeah, you can do all that through disk utility. just select the hd for DU, and from the partition tab choose how big you want your mac partition to be, then format the remainder or however much as fat32

 

[masse]

it doesn't let me format a partition to FAT32 (or MS-DOS Format). I only see the option if I opt to reformat the entire drive, which in this case is out of the question.

 

[dimme]

I spent the weekend trying to do the same thing. I gave up. I tried gpart live CD but for some reason the HFS+ partition would not mount. I did fine a program called ipartition that will do it but I am too poor (cheap) to spend the money on it. Let me know what you turn uo.

 

[RITZFit]

is the whole drive currently formatted as mac? either way, you should be able to drag the little partition slider to resize the drive's current partition, then you should be able to format just the empty space just allocated...atleast that whats worked for me every time

 

[masse]

is the whole drive currently formatted as mac? either way, you should be able to drag the little partition slider to resize the drive's current partition, then you should be able to format just the empty space just allocated...atleast that whats worked for me every time

Yeah that's the first thing I tried. No FAT32 option. I guess I'll get ipartition. Maybe there is a trial or something.

 

[mgclayton]

Yeah that's the first thing I tried. No FAT32 option. I guess I'll get ipartition. Maybe there is a trial or something.

Wait!
I have an 80GB drive split in 2, one half is FAT32, the other HFS+. If it were bigger I'd have NTFS too, and all I've used is Disk Utility. The trouble is I did it a while ago and can't quite remember...
I think you may need to save off your data and re-partition the disk if you can. Choose 'Master Boot Record' as your Partition Map Scheme. This will allow Windows and OS X to see it. Then just split it into your 3 partitions: NTFS, FAT32 and HFS+ (or whatever). OS X can read all 3 but not write to NTFS (unless you get extra software), whilst Windows can just see the NTFS and FAT32 (without extra s/w).
I don't think buying iPartition (or anything else) will allow you to do this non-destructively.

 

[mx12]

Master Boot Record

You need to make sure that the hard drive is formated with a Master Boot Record Partition Map Scheme. You can do this is Disk Utility, then you should be able to have partitions of both fat32 and Mac OSX Extended.

 

[toxic]

resize the HFS partition in disk utility, you might need to change the number of partitions or something. Then go into windows and either format the the other partition in NTFS or use fat32format to format it in FAT32 through the command prompt.