Most external drives come formatted as FAT32 (unfortunately.)
I don't think it's unfortunate at all. FAT32 is a common denominator
that can be by almost everyone. NTFS can not, and that's why it makes
sense for the manufacturer to make it FAT32.
If someone buys an external drive that's formatted as FAT32, and he
wants it be NTFS, it's very easy to reformat it.
And most important, Windows XP can use any and all combinations of
NTFS, FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32, regardless of which file system it
itself is installed on. Pswin's problem with the drive not being
recognized has nothing to do with its being FAT32.