Harddrive question

[Wolf-man]

Hey I wasn't sure whether to put this in the gaming section or this section.
I recently bought a 320 GB Toshiba External Harddrive. I wanted to use it on my Xbox 360 to watch videos from my computer. However, my xbox doesn't recognize it. It has no problem with my brother's harddrive nor usb sticks. I did some research and people seem to say that it is not a FAT32. They said i could do something to change it to that. Can someone help me? Thanks.
This is the harddrive I have.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002CM3N2Q/ref=oss_product

[Mr. SmartyPants]

You'll need to reformat it to a FAT32 file system. That or you may have to delete the partition that is there and recreate it as a FAT32 partition. There are programs to do this (probably for-pay) or I think you can use DOS for it.

However, there are issues with Windows and the ability to read certain harddrives in a FAT32 System depending on it's size. So it might be situational. What operating system are you running?

(Note that FAT32 systems cannot hold a file that is over 4 gigs large. But most movies tend to be 700mb or about a gig and a half. You shouldn't have a problem with that unless you're planning to use it for some other file-heavy stuff)

But start googling around. You'll find a lot of helpful resources.

[Wolf-man]

Ok. So I need a program to reformat it? Also for the 4gig only thing: Does that apply to folders? like I have a folder on my harddrive that has 22gig worth of items on it. Will I still be able to have that folder on my harddrive?

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Folders are okay because each individual file in it should be less than 4 gigs.

I think someone like Mith or Kali could answer the question best though. Regarding reformatting.

[Kaligraphic]

You don't need to buy any additional software to format a drive.

When you plug it in to your computer, copy everything off it, then pull up your "my computer" window, that shows the drives. Right-click the external drive (make sure you're doing the correct drive, because this erases everything) and select Format. It should give you the option to format as FAT, FAT32, or NTFS. Pick FAT32, and format the drive.

If you are using, say, XP, and end up with a 137-GB drive, you'll have a little more to do (there's a toggle), but, since you haven't mentioned any issues with the size of the disk, I'm assuming you aren't having trouble with that aspect.


The 4GB thing is for files only, not folders.

[Wolf-man]

The only option that it gives me, other than NTFS, is exFAT
Should I pick this?

[Kaligraphic]

Right, sorry, forgot that Windows' built-in formatting ability is limited to 32GB. I can only plead that I don't tend to format anything bigger than a thumb drive as FAT32 these days, so I don't really think about that limit.

You can use a separate formatter like this one - as before, though, make double sure (triple sure is better) that you've got it set for the right drive letter. Also, once again, make sure that anything you wanted to keep, you have backed up, because formatting will erase everything on the drive.

The XBOX 360 does not support exFAT, so that won't do what you're looking for, sorry.

[Whitefang]

I would download GParted, which is a very intuitive drive formatting tool. You have to download it, burn the image to a disc, and then boot from that disc with the hard drive disk attached to your computer. Then just make sure that you format the right disk. To be safe, I would disconnect all other drives from your system except the one that you want to format.

Edit: Here is the download page.

[Kaligraphic]

I'd actually recommend against GParted, as it's rather overkill for a simple task like this, and it's much easier to make damaging mistakes.

[Wolf-man]

Thanks for all the help guys! I ended up using the Windows GUI version of fat32format that was recommended if the regular one was to complicated. It worked! So now I can used my harddrive with my xbox!:grin: