Questions on Fat32 + Win2000 + max partition + Mac OSX HELP

[IamtherforeIthinkpad]

Greetings,
Hope you can clarify

I will be using Fat32 because I will access my external HD on MacOSX .

I am assuming I can partition on my Mac with greater than the 32GB maximum,
Will Win2000 be able to read a greater than 32GB partition?

If so, then all is OK.

Does anyone know if a software such as Partition Magic will partition in Win2000 greater than 32GB

Thanks so much.

[GomJabbar]

You cannot format a volume larger than 32 GB in size using the FAT32 file system in Windows 2000. The Windows 2000 FastFAT driver can mount and support volumes larger than 32 GB that use the FAT32 file system (subject to the other limits), but you cannot create one using the Format tool. This behavior is by design. If you need to create a volume larger than 32 GB, use the NTFS file system instead.

Microsoft Knowledge Base article: Limitations of FAT32 File System

Here seems to be a solution:
Solution for formatting a volume bigger then 32GB in FAT32

[IamtherforeIthinkpad]

Ok,
SO it looks like I should be able to read data on a Fat32 >32GB disk, but not create it in XP or Win2000

Thank you

[leoblob]

I have run (and am still running) a computer with an 80GB drive in WIN2K using FAT32. I did it with Acronis True Image.

I had everything installed the way I wanted... but on a small drive. So, I cloned it over to the 80GB drive and it worked (and still works) perfectly.

[arni]

Just like GomJabbar noted. Theoretically you can FAT32 can handle up to 8 x 2^40 bytes partitions. That's 8 Terabyte binary when using 32KB clusters.

But you won't be able to format a drive with FAT32 with Windows (2000, XP, Vista). Do do that you can either use Acronis DiskDirector or go with a Linux Live CD and use GParted to create the partition.

I have an external USB-Drive attached to my Fritz!Box router as a file sharing drive. Since it only can read/write FAT32 i partitioned the drive (500GB) with DiscDirector and never had any problems. Not on the Fritz!Box an so on any Windows XP, Vista and Ubuntu Computer.