backwards formatting

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rich
  • Start date Start date
R

Rich

I want to take one of my hard drives and reformat it from ntfs to fat32. i
use computer management to delete the partition and the logical drive. then
I recreated the logical drive and the partition, but when I go to format it,
the only formatting option available is ntfs. I tried making the drive a
primary and an extended partition. either way I get the same results. This
drive is an external via usb.

any ideas how to format this drive as fat32 within winxp?

Thanks, Rich
 
First, Windows XP can only format FAT32 volumes up to 32GB. If
it's larger than that you only have NTFS as an option. Here's an
article with more info:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314463

If that's not the problem, you might want to try this.
Open a command prompt window (Start -> Run -> cmd.exe). Enter
format X: /FS:FAT32 /q (substitute the correct drive letter for
X).

Nepatsfan
 
In
Rich said:
I want to take one of my hard drives and reformat it from ntfs
to
fat32. i use computer management to delete the partition and
the
logical drive. then I recreated the logical drive and the
partition,
but when I go to format it, the only formatting option
available is
ntfs.


Presumably the drive is larger than 32GB. Windows XP won't let
you create a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB. However it will
use such a partition if you create it externally to XP.
 
Rich said:
I want to take one of my hard drives and reformat it from ntfs to
fat32. i use computer management to delete the partition and the
logical drive. then I recreated the logical drive and the partition,
but when I go to format it, the only formatting option available is
ntfs. I tried making the drive a primary and an extended partition.
either way I get the same results. This drive is an external via usb.

any ideas how to format this drive as fat32 within winxp?

Thanks, Rich

BootItNG can do that for you: www.terabyteunlimited.com

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