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Formatting Your Hard...

Formatting Your Hard Drive

Updated on Feb 19, 2026

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Formatting Instructions for Your Kanguru Drive

The following instructions are for formatting of our hard drive/flash memory based products. In most cases, you won't need to format the drive because they come pre-formatted for your convenience. However, if you are changing to a new OS, you may need to format the drive.

** Warning: Formatting Erases All Data **
 
Formatting under 95/98/98SE/ME/2000/XP/Vista
  • Double-Click on My Computer
  • Right-Click on the drive you want to format
  • Choose Format from the menu
  • Choose the file system you want to format it with
  • Enter a Volume Label (optional)
  • Click Start

Note: FAT32 is only compatible with Windows 95 through Vista excluding NT. NTFS is only compatible with NT, 2000, ME, XP and Vista.

Note: When formatting with FAT32 on 2000, ME, XP and Vista there is a 32GB hard drive size limitation. In order to format a drive larger than 32GB, you would need to partition it or using Windows 98 operating system or a 3rd party application.

Formatting under Mac OS X

  • Double-Click on the system hard drive
  • Open Applications then Utilities folder
  • Double-Click on Disk Utility
  • Choose the drive from the left side of the screen
  • Click on the Erase tab
  • Choose the file system and click Erase

Note: When using the Mac OS Extended file system, if you use the drive with OS 9 as well, you will need to check Install OS9 Extensions.

Note: It is recommended if you use your drive exclusively on a Mac that you format the drive in a Mac format to improve performance.