Not possible to format harddrive to exFAT

[Supadupa]

Hi! I'm trying to format a harddrive to exFat but the only option available is NTFS (Default). Why is the other options not available?

 

[Ztruker]

You need to run format from an Elevated Command Prompt perhaps? The format command indicates exFAT is supported.

I don't know what the max size of a exFAT partition is supported though.

Hmmm, looks like it's only meant for flash drives, not hard drives: exFAT - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Supadupa]

I would like to do it so I can read and wright to a harddrive in both windows and mac. This is not possible?

 

[jumanji]

Hi,

I do get the option to exFAT format my 750GB external drive on my Windows 7 Machine. ( did not format though since I have all data there.)



Are you sure you have no such option on your Windows 7 Machine?

 

[Supadupa]

Hi,

I do get the option to exFAT format my 750GB external drive on my Windows 7 Machine. ( did not format though since I have all data there.)

View attachment 259726

Are you sure you have no such option on your Windows 7 Machine?

Yes that was what I was asking about, I do not get this option. Do you get the option on internal drives also?

 

[jumanji]

No option to exFAT formatting internal drives.

To format your external drive to exFAT try this:

- Open a command prompt by typing cmd into the Start/search box and pressing Enter
- Type format g: /FS:exFAT and then Enter to begin formatting the G drive as exFAT

(Replace g with the correct drive letter of your external drive.)

To see all other options, type format /? and press Enter.

 

[Supadupa]

No option to exFAT formatting internal drives.

To format your external drive to exFAT try this:

- Open a command prompt by typing cmd into the Start/search box and pressing Enter
- Type format g: /FS:exFAT and then Enter to begin formatting the G drive as exFAT

(Replace g with the correct drive letter of your external drive.)

To see all other options, type format /? and press Enter.

Thanyou but I actually get the option when I try it on external drives. I wanted to format a internal drive with exfat but maybe it's not possible

 

[logicearth]

You know Macs can read NTFS drive and write to them with NTFS-3G.

If you don't want to be bothered with setting up NTFS-3G on your Mac, commercial software is available: http://www.tuxera.com/products/tuxera-ntfs-for-mac/

 

[Ztruker]

Did you try what jumanji suggested via Command Prompt?

 

[daillama]

Internal drive exFAT format success.

I just tried formatting my Internal 1TB drive from an Administrator CMD window (using the format command given by Jumanji) and it worked fine.

I was prompted to unmount the volume before format began (to which I said Yes), then the format using exFAT went ahead.

So it seems it can be done, just via CMD rather than explorer.

BTW, thanks Jumanji, been trying to do this all day

Daillama

 

[skycar]

Just wanted to add that I also did not see the option to format with exFAT when creating the partition using "Disk Management". But if I created the partition without formatting, first. Then the formatting option include exFAT.

 

[ronhat1]

format exfat

I am using win 7 home 32 bit. I tried to format a 1tb hard drive to exfat using disk management and other methods. The command prompt will probably work but it appears to be the only way. Disk management only provides NTFS and no other. I placed the drive on an apple machine and it took less then one second to format to exfat. Drive now works with apple and microsoft. No problem. Why does microsoft not have exfat on disk management?

 

[hsmultimedia]

Windows exFAT disk on Mac

Supadupa wants to format a disk as exFAT to be used with both Windows and Mac. If you have a Mac, the easiest way is to format the disk in the Mac environment using Disk Utility. It takes a second.

 

[Snick]

Take a look at: Free exFAT Format Tool: AOMEI Partition Assistant

 

[erpster4]

I am using win 7 home 32 bit. I tried to format a 1tb hard drive to exfat using disk management and other methods. The command prompt will probably work but it appears to be the only way. Disk management only provides NTFS and no other. I placed the drive on an apple machine and it took less then one second to format to exfat. Drive now works with apple and microsoft. No problem. Why does microsoft not have exfat on disk management?

perhaps exFAT was originally designed for XC (extended capacity) memory cards like SDXC, memory stick xc or any XC based usb flash drives (ex. 128gb drives); those can be formatted with exFAT but not internal hard drives (I'm not sure about SSD drives)

it's probably a "design" problem (aka. behavior by design) by MS

 

[LMiller7]

exFAT was designed as a lightweight alternative to FAT32 designed and optimized for flash drives and memory cards. It solves some of the problems with FAT32, such as the 4 GB file size limit. It is sometimes called FAT64. I believe at one time there were plans for adding advanced features such a file security but that is unlikely to happen. Like NTFS it is a Microsoft proprietary format and some aspects of the implementation are covered by patents. It was not intended for use with non Microsoft operating systems.

exFAT was never intended for use with internal drives where NTFS is usually a much better choice. Microsoft does not wish to encourage it's use in internal drives and for that reason it is not an option in Disk Manager. If you really wish to do so it can be done from the command line and with third party utilities. This was a deliberate design decision.