Formats a 1Tb HDD to Fat32

rocks911 · 25. Jul 2011, 04:07 PM

I recently purchased a WD external 1Tb HDD that I want to reformat to Fat32. My home PC runs XP and I need the HDD reformatted to work with my PS3 gaming system.

Is this not possible or recommended?

Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance

Ritho · 26. Jul 2011, 06:27 AM

Yes you can format it to FAT32, but it will not be very efficient compared to NTFS. The cluster size grows quite huge, and you will lose a considerable amount of space. I seem to remember seeing a way to add NTFS support to a PS3. Obviously a hack of some sort, but I may be well worth checking into.

You can't format an entire terabyte drive to FAT 32 in Win XP (your limited to 32GB I think) so you will need to use another system or install a program that can handle it. I believe the Easeus Partition Manager or the Minitool Partition Wizard reviewed here http://www.techsupportalert.com/cont...on-manager.htm will do it. I am 90% certain that the Easeus program will do it for you.

J_L · 26. Jul 2011, 08:40 AM

Fat32 also has a 4GB file size limit, so watch out for large data.

rocks911 · 28. Jul 2011, 04:20 PM

I found a free program called Fat32Formatter which did the trick but the 4Gb limit has shot my plan full of holes. I was going to use the external HDD as a movie server into the PS3 but the 4Gb limit prevented me from loading movies onto the external HDD.

That was a waste of $100

J_L · 29. Jul 2011, 12:29 AM

You could split or encode the files, but that can be less than satisfactory.

There's this: http://www.ps3crunch.com/playstation...nally-ps3.html

eyeb · 30. Jul 2011, 04:30 PM

try this program
http://www.pendriveapps.com/format-f...ger-than-32gb/
i've used it before to format things to fat32, but not for such a large size (only have 8gb drives....) but it worked well and I've had a good experience with that site before so I'm fairly sure that they wouldn't review/support bad products

25. Jul 2011, 04:07 PM	#1 (permalink)
rocks911 Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 6	Formats a 1Tb HDD to Fat32 I recently purchased a WD external 1Tb HDD that I want to reformat to Fat32. My home PC runs XP and I need the HDD reformatted to work with my PS3 gaming system. Is this not possible or recommended? Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance

26. Jul 2011, 06:27 AM	#2 (permalink)
Ritho Foundation Editor Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Planet Earth Posts: 1,391	Yes you can format it to FAT32, but it will not be very efficient compared to NTFS. The cluster size grows quite huge, and you will lose a considerable amount of space. I seem to remember seeing a way to add NTFS support to a PS3. Obviously a hack of some sort, but I may be well worth checking into. You can't format an entire terabyte drive to FAT 32 in Win XP (your limited to 32GB I think) so you will need to use another system or install a program that can handle it. I believe the Easeus Partition Manager or the Minitool Partition Wizard reviewed here http://www.techsupportalert.com/cont...on-manager.htm will do it. I am 90% certain that the Easeus program will do it for you. __________________ The smallest good deed is better than the greatest intention.

28. Jul 2011, 04:20 PM	#4 (permalink)
rocks911 Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 6	You are both correct I found a free program called Fat32Formatter which did the trick but the 4Gb limit has shot my plan full of holes. I was going to use the external HDD as a movie server into the PS3 but the 4Gb limit prevented me from loading movies onto the external HDD. That was a waste of $100

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26. Jul 2011, 08:40 AM	#3 (permalink)
J_L Co-Author, Best Free Security List Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 1,475	Fat32 also has a 4GB file size limit, so watch out for large data.

29. Jul 2011, 12:29 AM	#5 (permalink)
J_L Co-Author, Best Free Security List Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 1,475	You could split or encode the files, but that can be less than satisfactory. There's this: http://www.ps3crunch.com/playstation...nally-ps3.html

30. Jul 2011, 04:30 PM	#6 (permalink)
eyeb Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Planet X Posts: 487	try this program http://www.pendriveapps.com/format-f...ger-than-32gb/ i've used it before to format things to fat32, but not for such a large size (only have 8gb drives....) but it worked well and I've had a good experience with that site before so I'm fairly sure that they wouldn't review/support bad products