Format in disc utility question.

I am trying to format a new hdd in the mpc4k disc utility. I am aware it can take a long time but when i get to the 'pressing do it will erase the entire disc' window, in other words the format window, when I press 'do it' nothing appears to happen, the page stays the same and no progress display is viewable. Does anyone know if this is normal, does the screen stay as described whilst formatting?

The hdd is a western digital 160gb caviar blue. It is set as master w'slave present and also connected is a lg super multi cd/dvd drive. Perhaps I should just connect the hdd as master and format it that way...

Any assistance appreciated.

Update: The mpc was taking a very long time to format (at least I think it was formatting) and I was forced to give up after about 8 or 9 hrs! I put the hdd in an external enclosure and formatted on the pc (windows 7/64) where I ran into FAT32 size restrictions. To get around this I allocated 4 32gb partitions and one 15GB partition, which is the maximum amount of partitions for one drive, thereby using approximately 140GB of my 160GB HDD.

So... I am now heir to 4 32GB volumes and 1 15GB volume on the mpc which now recognises it without problem.

What do people think of this method? It does open the majority of the 160GB for usage and as it splits up the drive it can be used for different types of storage eg: Vol 1,2,3 sample of various types, Vol 4 programs and multi's and the smaller 15GB drive for sequences (something like that).

I am not sure if this is a curse or a blessing, certainly having several 'drives' available can be useful for storage purposes but I would like to be able to exceed 32GB regardless. Does anyone know how to get FAT32 to exceed 32GB in windows 7 or xp?

Update 2: And so ends the dilemma of FAT32 (goodbye and good riddance!) : http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Har ... nife.shtml