[mintcake]

When I reformat a drive in Disk Utility, if I choose the 'MS-DOS File System' am I formatting to FAT32? I assume so but I can't find anything to confirm it. I want to buy one of these but it will only read FAT32 disks.

[analogika]

you assume correctly.

"MS-DOS" == FAT32

[mintcake]

Great, thanks.

[TETENAL]

MS-DOS used FAT16.

[Tsilou B.]

Originally posted by TETENAL:
MS-DOS used FAT16.

Yes, but DiskUtility calls all FAT formats "MS-DOS File System" for some reason. When you format a new large hard drive, it will certainly format it as FAT32 if you choose "MS-DOS filesystem".

[Tsilou B.]

Originally posted by Tsilou B.:
Yes, but DiskUtility calls all FAT formats "MS-DOS File System" for some reason. When you format a new large hard drive, it will certainly format it as FAT32 if you choose "MS-DOS filesystem".

IIRC, you could also use the DOS part of Windows 95/98, that could read/write/format FAT32, and if you typed "ver", it would output "MS-DOS 7.0"

[bradoesch]

Originally posted by Tsilou B.:
IIRC, you could also use the DOS part of Windows 95/98, that could read/write/format FAT32, and if you typed "ver", it would output "MS-DOS 7.0"

That's because Windows 3.1/9x/ME all ran "on top" of DOS. It makes more sense if you've ever used Windows 3.1.

[bradoesch]

Originally posted by TETENAL:
MS-DOS used FAT16.

Later versions of DOS used FAT16 for hard disks and FAT12 (or plain FAT) for floppies.