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FORMAT A FLOPPY DISK IN FAT32 instead of FAT12

Hi everyone. I am using macOS 10.15.3. I need to format a 1.44mg Floppy Disk in the format of FAT32. I use a USB external floppy drive. Utilities will see and format the disk. Problem is that it formats the disk into FAT12. I need FAT32. What do I need to do to get the Mac to format the floppy in the format I need? MacOS used to format into FAT32, not I need permission from God it seems. :(


Please advise me.


Thank you in advance

Posted on Feb 7, 2020 1:19 AM

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3 replies

Feb 7, 2020 8:40 AM in response to Apple 2GS

I have inserted a 1.44 MB floppy and it is mounted on my Desktop as FAT12. Although its name is Personal, diskutil requires the name in caps, and the following syntax fails to complete in formatting it as FAT32:


diskutil eraseDisk "FAT32" PERSONAL MBRFormat /dev/disk4


You will see a percentage progress appear in brackets, and then that disappears, and it terminates as follows:



This was done on Mojave 10.14.6 (18G3020), and Catalina 10.15.3 (19D76) using different r/w enabled floppies with the same failed result. I suggest you mount the floppy, and copy the contents to a FAT32 formatted USB thumb drive.


FORMAT A FLOPPY DISK IN FAT32 instead of FAT12

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