How to Partition a 1TB external Hard Drive?

I am new to the forum. I'm not sure if this is the right place to post my question, but hoping someone here can direct me or might know.

I purchased a 1TB hard drive to place media files on it so that I could plug it into my DVD player which has a USB port. I made sure to format the hard drive to Fat32. What I can surmise is that the 1TB hard drive is too big for the DVD player to read. I plug it in and it says Device Not Supported. But I've successfully plugged in an external card reader and used a 16GB SD card to place files on and it reads them fine. So I'm thinking it's the size of the drive that is the issue.

Someone who is more computer savvy told me I might have to partition the hard drive into two partitions. One partition 16gb and then the other partition with whatever is left. They did say they were not sure if there was a way to set it up so the 16gb Partition is what is recognized first when plugged into the DVD player. This way I would transfer movies I want to watch to the 16 GB partition, and transfer them over.

Now when I search hard disk partitions in Windows 10 the manager comes up and I can see the hard drive, but I can not change the size to partition it. It's grayed out. Is there a freeware program that works with Windows 10 that will split the hard drive into two partitions in sizes I specify, and make sure that the 16GB partition is the first one loaded or seen? And if I set it up that way when I plug it into my computer will the computer see both partitions?

Thanks so much!
Melissa

The easiest program to use for partitioning is MiniTool Partition Wizard Free:
Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free

As long as drive letters are assigned to both partitions, when plugged into the computer you will have access to both partitions.

I have downloaded the program, but the smallest size partition it will let me create is 27gb. When I specify 16000mb it reverts back to 27000mb. Is there a way to make it smaller?

I can try with the smallest size that it will let me do but not sure if it will work.

Also tried to figure out how to specify the smallest partition as the primary?

Thanks!
Melissa

1. With this same Partition Manager program try to shrink the 27GB partition to 16GB

2. Setting a partition to primary can be done in Disk Management. Note that you can only have a maximum of 4 primaries on an MBR disk and that primaries are really only required for active partitions.

Well I managed to get it down to 16gb and partitioned. I then plugged it in and still said device not supported. So I guess it's the hard drive. It sees it but says it's not supported so I don't know if it's because it's USB 3.0 and this DVD player is a couple years old and may have USB 2.0. It's a cheaper Coby DVD player that I got through a company loyalty program. So I tried. I guess I'll just have to use my 4GB USB and transfer movies to watch onto it one at a time. I don't have a Smart TV still have an old Tube TV. So one day I'll be able to use it as the hard drive has wireless capabilities.


Melissa

Did you try it on USB2

I thought that might be the other problem was the power. I have a Seagate hard drive that has it's own battery within it to power it. So that's what was confusing me. I don't know if the battery power only kicks in when it's not plugged in or if it is plugged in but not getting enough power will the battery still kick in? When I plug it in it shows that the battery light is on and green. I have a Seagate Wireless Plus hard drive.

Where would I find a powered usb adapter. I searched for it in google and I come up with hubs. I do have a powered usb hub. But not sure how that would work.

Thanks for your help.

Melissa

Try the powered USB hub. That may work.