How to format a Compact Flash card to the older FAT16 file system (often required for older hardware) using a Mac.
1. Connect the CF card to the Mac using a USB card reader.
2. Open the terminal, and type
2. Open the terminal, and type
diskutil list
to list the connected devices: How to check a box in pdf on mac.3. Identify the external drive, and use its 'device identifier' in the following command:
diskutil partitiondisk /dev/disk3 1 MBR 'MS-DOS FAT16' 'NONAME' 0B
This I have presumed to be FAT16, the FAT format that was commonly used before FAT32 became the new standard, as FAT16 is the format for early SD cards under 2Gb and Nanocom specifies SD cards under 2GB be used (the 16 bit structure on FAT16 entailed a 2GB limit). That is how I understand it anyways. How to Format SD Card on Mac. Follow the given steps to be format or clean your SD card on Mac. Getting Started. Before we get to formatting the SD Card, here are a few things you should keep in mind beforehand: When you format data on SD Card, it erases all the data. Thus, it is advisable to backup any files/data you want beforehand. FAT16 is supported on your Mac (on any machine that can read Fat 32 in fact) More Less. Jan 13, 2013 12:36 PM Reply Helpful (1) Thread reply - more options.
- The biggest advantage of FAT16 is that it is compatible across a wide variety of operating systems, including Windows 95/98/Me, OS/2, Linux and some versions of UNIX. Dating from the Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 (OSR2), Windows has supported both FAT16 and FAT32.
- How to format FAT32 drive on Mac Step 1. Now here is how to format your FAT32 external drive on Mac. Go finder window on you Mac then click on Applications the image right. From there, you need to open disk utility. Therefore, scroll down until you see a folder Utilities Double click on it.
The arguments are as follows:
- /dev/disk3 - disk device to be partitioned, found with 'diskutil list'
- 1 - number of partitions, optional, but if given must match
- MBR - partition Scheme (eg, DOS=MBR, Mac=GPT)
- MS-DOS FAT16 - partition type (see note)
- NONAME - partition name
- 0B - partition size (0B=maximum)
Note: list the supported partition types with the command:
diskutil listFilesystems
MS-DOS
(8-bit FAT), MS-DOS FAT12
, MS-DOS FAT16
, MS-DOS FAT32
and ExFAT
are supported.CAUTION! This procedure refers to disk3, but your device identifier can be different. Check it first!
For example:
A specific size:
To create a specific size drive, eg 64 Meg:
- Two partitions, NONAME1 (64meg) and NONAME2 (all remaining space):
diskutil partitionDisk /dev/disk3 MBR 'MS-DOS FAT16' 'NONAME1' 64M 'MS-DOS FAT16' 'NONAME2' 0B
- One 64meg partition, the remainder as free space (free space still requires a name in quotes):
diskutil partitionDisk /dev/disk3 MBR 'MS-DOS FAT16' NONAME 64M free ' 0B
Though 'MS-DOS FAT16' is shown, change this string to 'MS-DOS FAT32' to create a FAT32 partition.
- list the supported partition types with the command:
- list the supported partition types with the command:
diskutil listFilesystems
Use
diskutil list
to display the partition scheme: Gopher gold account balance.Note, disk3 refers to the entire disk, whereas disk3s1 refers to partition 1 on disk 3. The letter 's' means 'slice' (partition).
When finished, unmount and remove the disk (or 'eject' it in the finder):
When finished, unmount and remove the disk (or 'eject' it in the finder):
You can do the same thing in Windows, by using the diskpart command. Google maps live mac.
Alternate method:
Unmount the disk, and use the following command to reformat the first partition:
sudo newfs_msdos -F 16 /dev/disk3s1
The F option specifies the FAT type, which can be 12, 16, or 32. Type
man newfs_msdos
for other option details.How can I format a USB drive to FAT16?
I have a thumb drive partitioned to use Master Boot Record. The partitions are each 1GB in size. When I use Disk Utility to Erase one of those Partitions it offers 'MS-DOS (FAT)' as a format choice, but when I Apply that the result is FAT32 format. There is only the one choice offered for MS-DOS style formatting -- all the other choices are MAC OS style formatting.
There doesn't appear to be any way to get Disk Utility to apply FAT16 format to that partition.
(I need FAT16 in order to use this USB drive for doing a firmware install on another device that doesn't understand FAT32 when doing firmware installs. Of course I can do FAT16 under Windows but I'm surprised there isn't a solution that doesn't require Windows.)
--Bob
I have a thumb drive partitioned to use Master Boot Record. The partitions are each 1GB in size. When I use Disk Utility to Erase one of those Partitions it offers 'MS-DOS (FAT)' as a format choice, but when I Apply that the result is FAT32 format. There is only the one choice offered for MS-DOS style formatting -- all the other choices are MAC OS style formatting.
There doesn't appear to be any way to get Disk Utility to apply FAT16 format to that partition.
(I need FAT16 in order to use this USB drive for doing a firmware install on another device that doesn't understand FAT32 when doing firmware installs. Of course I can do FAT16 under Windows but I'm surprised there isn't a solution that doesn't require Windows.)
--Bob
Format Fat16 Mac
Powerbook G4 17' (1.5 GHz), Mac OS X (10.5.5), iPhone EDGE V2.1 -- Mac iTunes 8.0.1 Online mobile pokies.
Fat32 Format Download
Posted on Oct 4, 2008 10:17 AM