Based on feedback I have received I have noticed that when partitioning, users sometimes use a complicated approach. I usually ask why she/he did it the way she/he did. Often the answer is that this is how it was described somewhere in a forum.
My recommendation is not to trust other forums or YouTube videos too much. A lot of information on mass storage or on how to use HDDRUTIL/HDDRIVER is nonsense, overly complicated and often plain wrong or at least outdated. For reliable information on HDDRIVER, check the HDDRIVER forum, the HDDRIVER website and the HDDRIVER FAQ, the HDDRIVER manual, or send me an email.
Regarding the manual, like with any other manual, reading it completely once is a good idea. There is no need to memorize everything. But when you stumble upon a problem later, you will remember that you have read something about it, and then you can look up the details.
When partitioning with HDDRUTIL, you should NOT manually enter partition IDs. You can do so if you have expert knowledge and want to create non-standard partitions. For partitions to be used with TOS, MagiC, Windows, macoS or Linux, HDDRUTIL does everything needed automatically. This also applies to FAT32 partitions. Just like with standard FAT16 partitions, the FAT32 partitions created by HDDRUTIL are immediately ready to use. Creating a filesystem on such a partition is not required. For partition sizes > 1 GiB HDDRUTIL automatically creates a FAT32 instead of a FAT16 filesystem when partitioning. See the HDDRIVER FAQ for the maximum partition sizes for each version of TOS.
HDDRUTIL's partitioning logic is quite sophisticated because there are many edge cases, often hardly documented. There is a special internal test suite that helps me to ensure that everything is working as it should.
Typical use cases where additional action is required are:
1. FAT32 partitions < 1 GiB. For partitions of 1 GiB or bigger, HDDRUTIL automatically creates FAT32 partitions, because TOS compatible FAT16 partitions cannot be bigger than 1 GiB anyway. TOS versions < TOS 4.0 do not even support 1 GiB partitions. See the HDDRIVER FAQ for details. Therefore, if you want HDDRUTIL to create a partition < 1 GiB as a FAT32 partition, you have to manually enter "F32" as the partition ID (or the respective Windows partition type "$0C" if you have expert knowledge) when partitioning.
2. Partitions not compatible with TOS or Windows. These typically are Linux or Minix partitions to be used with MiNT. To create such a partition, enter "LNX", "MIX", or a respective PC-Linux/Minix partition type, e.g. "$83" for EXT2 partitions. HDDRUTIL will create the respective partitions, but will not create a filesystem on them. Usually you will run mkfs, e.g. with MiNT, to do so.
With a GPT partition scheme instead of a legacy MBR scheme, there is also no need for special action. HDDRUTIL will handle everything automatically. Note that GPT TOS partitions are Linux compatible, i.e. Linux can directly mount them without a special kernel configuration.
All in all, just select the kind of partition scheme/compatibiliy you want (TOS, Windows, TOS/Windows, MBR, GPT) in HDDRUTIL's compatibility options, enter the partition sizes, and then click OK. That's it!