Formatting large FAT32 partition.

[Ashmada]

So, I recently re-partitioned my internal HD.

My intended setup is:
- NTFS partition (7) ~40 GB.
- Ext4 partition (Ubuntu) ~20 GB.
- Swap partition, don't remember size.
- FAT32 partition, rest of the disk (1 TB). -> has to be FAT32 to be accessed by both OSes.


And I ran into the usual problem: can't have a FAT32 partition over 32GB.
I know it's possible to exceed that limitation, before re-partitioning, I had a working large FAT32 partition... but all I've tried thus far failed.

[hey]

If you're trying to format it in windows, use the command line to format it. There's also probably no such restriction in linux, but idk.

[Isiolia]

Windows 2k/XP/etc won't format FAT32 over 32GB.

You can either use an older boot disk or a 3rd party utility to do it, such as FAT32format.

[Ashmada]

Thanks for the answers.

Hey, that was the first thing I tried. Not only did it fail, it failed at the end of the formatting cycle, which for a ~1TB partition takes approximately 6 aeons.

Isiolia: Yeah, I tried a few 3rd party apps already, they either failed or only work with external drives. I'll try that one.

Result: That link leads to a corrupt .exe, but I found that app on another site, worked perfectly (apparently, I haven't checked if Ubuntu can access the partition yet)... and fast.
Windows tries for hours and fails, that thing did it in seconds. Thanks again.

[tripnotic]

I though Ubuntu could read/write ntfs partition natively since long time.
If your solution fail, try to :
- install ntfs-3g, works perfectly.
- format in fat32 from ubuntu using partman, gpartman or whatever

[Bockage]

I used fat32format to format a 500GB drive for my PS3. Works like a charm.

[Kohan]

I though Ubuntu could read/write ntfs partition natively since long time.
If your solution fail, try to :
- install ntfs-3g, works perfectly.
- format in fat32 from ubuntu using partman, gpartman or whatever

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=217009

FAT32's comparative inefficiency (read: file waste) becomes more problematic when you're using up more space. If you can use NTFS, there's no reason not to.

[Rellikard]

Partition Wizard FREE

What I've been using for past couple of years. When on PC I use that, when I'm on my Mac use Disk Utility.