Formating fat32

[Grumpybear2000]

Can you format a 3TB hard drive fat32, friend has this external drive and wants to load with movies and tv will only recognize fat 32

[Skiz]

If memory serves, FAT32 has a max partition size that's pretty small. Something like 4GB.

[Grumpybear2000]

That is in windows but partition magic lets me do 160gig in fat32.

[Expeto]

Its not about the max part size you can make, its about the max size your TV can read. Largest fat depends on cluster size, technically the largest fat 32 you can create is 8tb with 32k clusters. default tool(mkfs.vfat) of linux handles this quite easily, but I not sure which windows software can create such a partition.

[Appzalien]

The problem with fat32 is the actual file size. You cannot put a movie (or any files for that matter) larger tha 4gig on a fat 32 partition so dual layer rips or HD 8 gig movies would be a no-no. If he is a 700 - 1400mb avi file collector, it shouldnt be an issue.

Besides, he can always use the larger external with his PC as NTFS and buy a few 500gig drives for his movies. The smaller the hard drive the faster media players can access it (they tend to read the entire drive to create their menus).

[anon]

If memory serves, FAT32 has a max partition size that's pretty small. Something like 4GB.

That's the maximum file size. As Expeto said you can create FAT32 partitions of 8 and even up to 16TB by fiddling with the cluster size.

[Expeto]

HD 8 gig movies would be a no-no. If he is a 700 - 1400mb avi file collector,

or he can just divide the movie into two files

[tesco]

Can you format a 3TB hard drive fat32, friend has this external drive and wants to load with movies and tv will only recognize fat 32

What model TV?
The reason I ask is because I think your friend might be mistaken, since FAT32 is limiting file size to 4GB and all TVs these days are HD, what would the manufacturer be thinking?
It might support exFAT, which I think is becoming the new standard. Maybe I'm wrong. It also might be for flash drives only.

[Expeto]

Be sure to check for a firmware upgrade or an unofficial firmware for your TV

[zot]

I always multi-partition external hard drives with both fat32 and NTFS partitions.

This way, the drive can be used for large file sizes that fat32 can't handle, as well as can be read by systems that don't recognize NTFS.

Then I just move files/folders between partitions as circumstances warrant.