Windows 7 RC1 will only let one format a partition using NTFS whether one is at a command prompt or within Windows. At the command prompt, I tried the following command format F: /FS=FAT32 /V:M_DRIVE and it came back with a message saying that the partition type was invalid. In Windows one just never has a chance to specify the partition type. The format command as specified earlier works fine in Vista. Is this a bug or just the way that Windows 7 is going to work. If it is the latter case, then Windows 7 cannot format a drive that can been seen on a network that has Apple Macintosh OS X 10.xx systems.

Hello mm_cimarex, and thank you for poting here.As I understood from your post, you have a problem formatting a partition, using the FORMAT command. As an answer,I suggest to use DISKPART to format the partitions in non-NTFS file systems.Use:Command Prompt CMD.EXE or the Windows PowerShell with administrative privileges, accept UAC dialog. PS C:\Windows\system32> diskpart Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7100 Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation. On computer: ARSENY92-PC DISKPART> ? Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7100 ACTIVE - Mark the selected partition as active. ADD - Add a mirror to a simple volume. ASSIGN - Assign a drive letter or mount point to the selected volume. ATTRIBUTES - Manipulate volume or disk attributes. ATTACH - Attaches a virtual disk file. AUTOMOUNT - Enable and disable automatic mounting of basic volumes. BREAK - Break a mirror set. CLEAN - Clear the configuration information, or all information, off the disk. COMPACT - Attempts to reduce the physical size of the file. CONVERT - Convert between different disk formats. CREATE - Create a volume, partition or virtual disk. DELETE - Delete an object. DETAIL - Provide details about an object. DETACH - Detaches a virtual disk file. EXIT - Exit DiskPart. EXTEND - Extend a volume. EXPAND - Expands the maximum size available on a virtual disk. FILESYSTEMS - Display current and supported file systems on the volume. FORMAT - Format the volume or partition. GPT - Assign attributes to the selected GPT partition. HELP - Display a list of commands. IMPORT - Import a disk group. INACTIVE - Mark the selected partition as inactive. LIST - Display a list of objects. MERGE - Merges a child disk with its parents. ONLINE - Online an object that is currently marked as offline. OFFLINE - Offline an object that is currently marked as online. RECOVER - Refreshes the state of all disks in the selected pack. Attempts recovery on disks in the invalid pack, and resynchronizes mirrored volumes and RAID5 volumes that have stale plex or parity data. REM - Does nothing. This is used to comment scripts. REMOVE - Remove a drive letter or mount point assignment. REPAIR - Repair a RAID-5 volume with a failed member. RESCAN - Rescan the computer looking for disks and volumes. RETAIN - Place a retained partition under a simple volume. SAN - Display or set the SAN policy for the currently booted OS. SELECT - Shift the focus to an object. SETID - Change the partition type. SHRINK - Reduce the size of the selected volume. UNIQUEID - Displays or sets the GUID partition table (GPT) identifier or master boot record (MBR) signature of a disk. DISKPART> exit Leaving DiskPart... PS C:\Windows\system32> Cheers,Arseny

I had no problems with formatting a partition to FAT32 using the Command Prompt with the following syntax: format Y: /FS:FAT32 /V:DRV5_VOL1 /X /A:32KMaybe your syntax is a little off or something mm_cimarex...?GA P35 DQ6 Mb, Intel Wolfdale 8600 3.33Ghz C2D CPU., 4x2Gb Mushkin DDR2 1066 PC2 8500 Ascents Memory Mods., PNY-nVidia GE Force 8800 GTS (640MB), 4-Western Digital Caviar SATA(2) HDD's (internal), 1 EIDE-USB External; Hauppauge PVR 1600 TV tuner, Dual Monitor: (1) Standard up top, (1) WideScreen below; Altec Lansing Speakers. Here Kitty, Kitty...that's my Kitty Kat, he's a Kat, because he is kat...kat.

mm - There actually IS support (read only) for OSX 10.3 and later for accessing NTFS partitions. There's also a 3rd party tool - NTFS for Mac by Paragon Softwarethat will allow you to read and write to an NTFS partition from OSX.

I forgot to mention that I was trying to format a 1TB hard drive. The format stament keeps coming back and saying eithe the specified cluster size is either too large for FAT or too small forFAT32. Those messages come back if I vary the A parameter from 32K, then 64K, then 128K, then 256K. Crazy! What does it want for A on a 1TB drive?

I understand that diskpart cannot be used on a USB drive. This is a 1TB disk drive.

mm_cimarex - AH.. The other shoe drops...! Now things are making sense. FAT 16 only supports partition sizes up to 2 GB in size.FAT 32 on the other hand supports a maximum partition size of 8 TB - but in practical reality, you can only create one up to 2 TB in size. That's if you use a 512 byte sector...

I understand that diskpart cannot be used on a USB drive. This is a 1TB disk drive. It CAN be used on USB drives. Ihave a 4GB flash drive, and used diskpart to format the drive (to move Windows 7 install to the drive, then boot, since my DVD drive is not working...).Maybe diskpart has a limit in size... don't know...