Format HDD on macbook

GGSS

Newbie
3TB hdd formatted on exfat has capacity of 3tb but does NOT show when connected to another device (usb dvd player)
3TB hdd formatted on fat32 has capacity of 801GB but DOES show on device. But this is a waste of 2+TB. Why does this happen or is there anyway around this?
I have a 1TB hdd format fat32 and it has full capacity and also plays on device. I don't understand as both are formated same way and have same files on both.
Any help/advice appreciated.
 
as per your other post,
and what I said there
you need to know what format your player can recognise,
you know it cant see exFat , so dont format to that, its an old outdated format anyway,
you need to differentiate between your HDD showing on your device, its format, fat32 ext3 etc
and whether the files will play on the device, their format, mkv mp4 etc
you need to format your hdd to a system your device can read, ie: fat32
and then save your files to a format your device can play ie: mkv
 
as per your other post,
and what I said there
you need to know what format your player can recognise,
you know it cant see exFat , so dont format to that, its an old outdated format anyway,
you need to differentiate between your HDD showing on your device, its format, fat32 ext3 etc
and whether the files will play on the device, their format, mkv mp4 etc
you need to format your hdd to a system your device can read, ie: fat32
and then save your files to a format your device can play ie: mkv
my player recognises FAT32 but my main problem is that once i format hdd to FAT32 the capacity reduces from 3TB to 801GB which is a waste of 2+ TB.
I appreciate you replying and trying to help, i am pretty useless with this stuff
 
my player recognises FAT32 but my main problem is that once i format hdd to FAT32 the capacity reduces from 3TB to 801GB which is a waste of 2+ TB.
I appreciate you replying and trying to help, i am pretty useless with this stuff

is that using your PC to read capacity.?
have you tried Gparted yet.?
there may be an issue with your format tool that can only format 1TB,
tbh, I dont know, as you are using tools unfamiliar to me, so I'm simply guessing wildly atm
can your BR read recognise any other format,? ie: ext3
 
is that using your PC to read capacity.?
have you tried Gparted yet.?
there may be an issue with your format tool that can only format 1TB,
tbh, I dont know, as you are using tools unfamiliar to me, so I'm simply guessing wildly atm
can your BR read recognise any other format,? ie: ext3
yes using my macbook pro laptop through Finder. I use disc utility to reformat it. I am just downloading gparted now, so will try once its downloaded. I have only ever used my 1TB hard drive (fat32) and now trying to use 3TB hdd
 
disc utility doesnt work as well as Gparted, not on Ubuntu at least,
I had problems with it on older versions of Ubuntu, thats why I only ever use gparted now, for past 5 or 6 years, perhaps disc utility has got better,,,?
perhaps I can be a bit more help now as I am more familiar with Gparted.
 
This sounds like it is being formatted as a MBR disk. MBR can only do partitions of up to 2TB, so anything higher than that gets split into two partitions and with 3TB it is normally 2TB and 800GB partitions. You need it to be formatted as GPT in order for it to show as one disk larger than 2TB if first partition read is 800gb that's what it assumes it is. However whether the device you wish to connect to can recognise GPT is another question. Like steptoe I exclusively use linux and gparted is my fav partitioning tool. Disc utility has improved a bit but isn't as flexible and as good as gparted
 
disc utility doesnt work as well as Gparted, not on Ubuntu at least,
I had problems with it on older versions of Ubuntu, thats why I only ever use gparted now, for past 5 or 6 years, perhaps disc utility has got better,,,?
perhaps I can be a bit more help now as I am more familiar with Gparted.
i am trying to download gparted using my macbook from website gparted.org but once downloaded it won't open. Where is the best place to download gparted using macbook?
 
The version you downloaded should be an iso file you burn it to cd or usb using iso burning software and run it from there. It is only way to use it on mac and windows I believe
 
The version you downloaded should be an iso file you burn it to cd or usb using iso burning software and run it from there. It is only way to use it on mac and windows I believe

ah,
didnt realise that, I have it both installed and on a LIVE drive as well
 
If you need iso burning software give etcher a try works on all platforms is free and it is so simple to use it is virtually infallable, just google etcher first result should be etcher.io.
 
If you need iso burning software give etcher a try works on all platforms is free and it is so simple to use it is virtually infallable, just google etcher first result should be etcher.io.
i downloaded 'etcher' and put a usb pen drive in, im not sure if i have done it right or what to do next,sorry. After writing software a box came up saying 'The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer' initialize ignore eject. Then another message came up saying that writing to disc was successful/complete.
 
i downloaded 'etcher' and put a usb pen drive in, im not sure if i have done it right or what to do next,sorry. After writing software a box came up saying 'The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer' initialize ignore eject. Then another message came up saying that writing to disc was successful/complete.

if, as I suspect,
its a LIVE USB you have created, then you reboot your PC and select boot from USB,
it boots you into Gparted,
then you can do whatever you want with your drives,
make sure you DO NOT wipe your PC OS system
when booted insert the 3TB drive you need to format, and use Gparted to sort it for you
 
if, as I suspect,
its a LIVE USB you have created, then you reboot your PC and select boot from USB,
it boots you into Gparted,
then you can do whatever you want with your drives,
make sure you DO NOT wipe your PC OS system
when booted insert the 3TB drive you need to format, and use Gparted to sort it for you
'select boot form usb' how or where is this option? do i open the usb that i put etcher on? thanks, sorry for being a pain
 
Once iso is written mac will not recognise the format so reboot and during boot process press/hold option button choose to boot from usb follow onscreen instructions then follow steptoes advice above and make sure you are formatting correct disk instructions here for boot process https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201255
 
i downloaded 'etcher' and put a usb pen drive in, im not sure if i have done it right or what to do next,sorry. After writing software a box came up saying 'The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer' initialize ignore eject. Then another message came up saying that writing to disc was successful/complete.
what exactly have you done.?
etcher is simply a means of putting Gparted onto the USB
have you burned Gparted to the USB,? it seems so.
if so, then reboot your PC and select boot from USB in bios,
not sure how crapple do that, but with hackintosh its simply a matter of going into bios at POST and changing boot order
your BIOS will have a specific key to do this,
F2 F10 or F12 are usual suspects depending on particular HW , and we all know crapple make it hard to do anything they dont actually want you to use your computer for , ie: work the way YOU want, not them
 
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