11
Formatting for Windows Under Mac OS X
It is possible to format your Verbatim hard drive in FAT32 format while
connected to an Apple Macintosh computer running Mac OS X. This may
be a convenient method if you primarily use your Verbatim hard drive on a
Mac OS X computer, but want to later connect it to a Windows computer as
well.
Your Verbatim hard drive can be formatted and partitioned using Apple’s
Disk Utility, located in your Utilities folder. Under
Disk and Volumes
Selected
, select the appropriate drive, and click on the
Partition
tab. Under
Volume Information
, expand the
Format
fi eld and choose
Free Space
. Click
on the
Erase
tab, expand the
Volume Format
fi eld, and click
MS-DOS File
System
. Click
Erase
and wait for the Erase to complete. Your drive is now
ready to be connected to a Windows operating system.
FAT32 or NTFS?
When formatting your Verbatim hard drive while running Windows XP or
Windows 2000, you will have the choice between FAT32 and NTFS formats.
Following are some considerations for making your choice.
FAT32
FAT32 is compatible with the following Windows operating systems:
Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP.
FAT32 can also be read by Apple Macintosh computers running Mac OS.
Limitations: Under Windows 2000 and Windows XP users will not be able
to create partition sizes larger than 32GB (though they can access these
larger partitions). (This limitation does not apply to other supported
operating systems.)
In general, FAT32 is a good choice if you’ll be using your Verbatim hard
drive with computers running Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, or Windows
Me, or if you’ll be using it with both Windows and
Mac OS computers.
