External Hard Drive Formatting (FAT32, HFS+)

This is kind of a question and a comment.

I have an external drive which I plan to use for Mac and
PC.

I know Macs do not support NFST file system so I have to
format to a FAT32 or an HFS+ file system.

Would I have to format from a mac to get the HFS+ or
FAT32 because I just dont have that option on my pc.

I run windows XP. I create a partition and then move on
to formatting in which case I am given the option to
format to NFST(not really much of an option). So how do I
format to a FAT32 or HFS+?

If anyone can tell me a step by step or a general
overview of how to or a website that has this that would
be really cool.

Tech Support people for my external drive are salesmen so
they don't know anything.

Josef Kumka wrote:

>This is kind of a question and a comment.
>
>I have an external drive which I plan to use for Mac and
>PC.
>
>I know Macs do not support NFST file system so I have to
>format to a FAT32 or an HFS+ file system.
>
>Would I have to format from a mac to get the HFS+ or
>FAT32 because I just dont have that option on my pc.
>
>I run windows XP. I create a partition and then move on
>to formatting in which case I am given the option to
>format to NFST(not really much of an option). So how do I
>format to a FAT32 or HFS+?

XP will not format a partition bigger than 32 GB as FAT 32, but insists
on NTFS. If you have DOS drivers that allow the drive to be seen from a
DOS (eg a BIOS with legacy support that allows it to be seen) you might
achieve it with a Win98 startup floppy and its FDISK and FORMAT: other
than that, one third party program that will do it is BootIT NG, from
http://www.BootitNG.com ($35 shareware - 30 day full functional trial)

With that, download to a folder of its own, expand to extract files, run
bootitng..exe to make a boot floppy.

Boot that, cancel Install, entering Maintenance, click Partition WOrk,
and you should be able to see the drive and create a partition, in FAT
32, going on to Format it.

XP will then be able to use the larger than 32 GB partition, even though
it will not make one


--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K. Alexn@mvps.D8E8L.org (remove the D8 bit)