trying to format vfat drive +32 Gb

bandofmercy · 12-05-2004, 09:10 PM

i'm trying to format my slave drive (40 Gig) to be read/writable from both ubuntu linux and xp so i can use it for media. here is my attempt:

Code:

root@bandofmercy:/home/erik # mkfs -t vfat /dev/hdb
mkfs.vfat 2.10 (22 Sep 2003)
mkfs.vfat: Will not try to make filesystem on full-disk device '/dev/hdb' (use -I if wanted)

root@bandofmercy:/home/erik # mkfs -t vfat -I /dev/hdb
mkfs.vfat 2.10 (22 Sep 2003)
mkfs.vfat: Attempting to create a too large file system

i am under the impression that even though 32 gigs is windows' limit that it is actually something in the neighborhood of 8 Tbytes, so i'm wondering what the proper route for formatting this is, as well as if windows will be able to read a fat volume that big. i've been dodging having to buy partition magic for years and don't really intend to start now.

thanks

michaelk · 12-05-2004, 09:20 PM

Your correct the 32GB limitation is just XP.

You need to use the -F 32 option to format FAT32. Also make sure the partition ID type is 0xb.

Check man pages mkfs.vfat for additional information.

Electro · 12-05-2004, 09:32 PM

You can not format RAW devices which you are doing. You have to first make a partition. Use either fdisk or cfdisk, but make sure you specify type b for the partition. Then you can go ahead format as FAT32, but make sure you specify /dev/hdb1 instead of /dev/hdb.

bandofmercy · 12-05-2004, 09:34 PM

it appears to have worked... the main problem being that i was not typing the "1" after the "h" "d" and "b."

thanks again.

bandofmercy · 12-05-2004, 09:46 PM

actually, windows isn't recognizing it at all. no drive pops up and if i go into disk management it just says "unallocated." any suggestions?

thanks.

egkenny · 12-05-2004, 10:03 PM

It usually better to create windows type partitions from Windows instead of linux.

Boot into linux
Delete the the fat32 partition you created
Boot into Windows XP
Recreate the fat32 partition(s)

Once you go into linux you can find out what the partition name is and add it to the fstab for auto mounting.