FAT32 and SP2...again..

  • Thread starter Thread starter yocky
  • Start date Start date
Y

yocky

I'm sure this has been asked a million times before but I still can't
get it straight.

I bought a Seagate 250GB drive to use in an external USB housing. I
tried to format this in FAT32 internally using Parition Magic but the
couldn't use the whole volume as one partition and then couldn't get
the PC to recognize what I had formated when using it extenally anyway.
I was still using SP1 at this point and thought this was the problem.

Now I'm up to date with SP2 I've tried again and I still can't use the
whole volume. I can format 238GB in almost any file fomat I like apart
from FAT32 which limits me to about 82% of the volume (roughly 195GB)
as one partition.

Leaving aside the wisdom of having such a large partition shouldn't I
theoretically be able to do this? I will probably end up having several
partitions anyway but I'd still like to get this straight.
 
250GB is only advertising slang for size...


Advertised --- Actual Capacity
10GB --- 9.31 GB
20GB --- 18.63 GB
30GB --- 27.94 GB
40GB --- 37.25 GB
60GB --- 55.88 GB
80GB --- 74.51 GB
100GB --- 93.13 GB
120GB --- 111.76 GB
160GB --- 149.01 GB
180GB --- 167.64 GB
200GB --- 186.26 GB
250GB --- 232.83 GB


--
Tumppi
Reply to group
=================================================
Most learned on nntp://news.mircosoft.com
Helsinki, Finland (remove _NOSPAM)
(translations from FI/SE not always accurate)
=================================================
 
Thanks for the reply but I know that already. I can create a partition
of about 235GB in any format except FAT32 which is limited to about
195GB.
 
BTW: I believe that Microsoft has place a limit to the partition size that
you can format with FAT32. Is in not 32GB?
 
Yes I believe I can only create partitions up to 32GB in disk manager
in XP. However in theory XP should be able deal with much larger
partitions (up to 2TB I think) created with other software.

My external software will only create a 195GB partition. My question is
why?
 
yocky said:
I'm sure this has been asked a million times before but I still can't
get it straight.

I bought a Seagate 250GB drive to use in an external USB housing. I
tried to format this in FAT32 internally using Parition Magic but the
couldn't use the whole volume as one partition and then couldn't get
the PC to recognize what I had formated when using it extenally anyway.
I was still using SP1 at this point and thought this was the problem.

Now I'm up to date with SP2 I've tried again and I still can't use the
whole volume. I can format 238GB in almost any file fomat I like apart
from FAT32 which limits me to about 82% of the volume (roughly 195GB)
as one partition.

Leaving aside the wisdom of having such a large partition shouldn't I
theoretically be able to do this? I will probably end up having several
partitions anyway but I'd still like to get this straight.
Click to expand...

yocky said:
Yes I believe I can only create partitions up to 32GB in disk manager
in XP. However in theory XP should be able deal with much larger
partitions (up to 2TB I think) created with other software.

My external software will only create a 195GB partition. My question is
why?
Click to expand...

yocky:
As you were informed by Thomas Wendell, and as I think you now understand,
your advertised 250 GB HD has an actual capacity (in binary terms which the
OS uses) of about 232 GB. So that will be the maximum partition you can
create.

Since you desire to create a single FAT32 partition encompassing the full
disk capacity of that drive, and as you apparently understand, you cannot
use XP's Disk Management utility to do so because of the FAT32 32 GB barrier
imposed by XP. (We'll pass on the reason why you want to format that
large-capacity drive FAT32 rather than NTFS. Presumably you have good &
sufficient reasons for doing so).

I don't know what you mean when you state your "external software" limits
the partition to 195 GB. At this point what you probably should do is use a
DOS boot disk (Win98/Me Startup Disk) and use the FDISK & FORMAT commands to
partition & format that drive. Using FDISK, it probably would be best to
delete whatever partition(s) are on that drive and start fresh. Of course
I'm assuming in all this that there is no data on that drive that you need.

If you don't have a DOS boot disk, you can download the software from a
number of websites which you can locate through a Google search.
Anna
 
yocky:
As you were informed by Thomas Wendell, and as I think you now understand,
your advertised 250 GB HD has an actual capacity (in binary terms which the
OS uses) of about 232 GB. So that will be the maximum partition you can
create.

Since you desire to create a single FAT32 partition encompassing the full
disk capacity of that drive, and as you apparently understand, you cannot
use XP's Disk Management utility to do so because of the FAT32 32 GB barrier
imposed by XP. (We'll pass on the reason why you want to format that
large-capacity drive FAT32 rather than NTFS. Presumably you have good &
sufficient reasons for doing so).

I don't know what you mean when you state your "external software" limits
the partition to 195 GB. At this point what you probably should do is use a
DOS boot disk (Win98/Me Startup Disk) and use the FDISK & FORMAT commands to
partition & format that drive. Using FDISK, it probably would be best to
delete whatever partition(s) are on that drive and start fresh. Of course
I'm assuming in all this that there is no data on that drive that you need.

If you don't have a DOS boot disk, you can download the software from a
number of websites which you can locate through a Google search.
Anna
Click to expand...


http://www.bootdisk.com

Download the windows 98se bootdisk.

However, I think even that disk has a limit to how big a partition
can be. However, it can be bigger than 32GB

I think even NTFS and xp have problems recognizing drives over 128gb.

Make two or three partition.



Greg Ro
 
So when I've heard that I can in theory create a very large FAT32
partition (up to 2TB) using Partition Magic from within XP SP2, I've
been given duff information?

I know it can't be done using Microsoft's own software but I was under
the assumption it could be done.
 
I'm sure this has been asked a million times before but I still can't
get it straight.

I bought a Seagate 250GB drive to use in an external USB housing. I
tried to format this in FAT32 internally using Parition Magic but the
couldn't use the whole volume as one partition and then couldn't get
the PC to recognize what I had formated when using it extenally anyway.
I was still using SP1 at this point and thought this was the problem.

Now I'm up to date with SP2 I've tried again and I still can't use the
whole volume. I can format 238GB in almost any file fomat I like apart
from FAT32 which limits me to about 82% of the volume (roughly 195GB)
as one partition.

Leaving aside the wisdom of having such a large partition shouldn't I
theoretically be able to do this? I will probably end up having several
partitions anyway but I'd still like to get this straight.
Click to expand...

Go here and download seagate's software.Drive should have come with
this.
http://www.seagate.com/support/software/

C.
 
Who told you you could create a 2TB fat32 partition. Was it a friend or
someone like a representative of a company such as partition magic or a hard
drive company or did you read it on a web site. If web site can you post the
link.

Glen
 
This is a theoretical question really. I don't really need one huge
FAT32 partition, but I'm intrigued as to why I can't create one if I
want to. I'm coming to the conclusion that just as MS has imposed an
arbitrary limit of 32GB on the creation of FAT32 partitions in Disk
Management, so Partition Magic has imposed an arbitrary limit of 195GB
for the same thing (when not using the boot disks).

As to the point of whether or not I need FAT32 at all, the external USB
drive casing I've bought insists that the drive must be formated in
FAT32 to be recognized when used externally, does this sound right?
Several users of the casing have reported that onlt FAT32 will work
whereas others claim that NTFS works fine.

I'm also tempted to use FAT32 because I intend to run a dual boot
system with XP and Linux and FAT32 seems to be the file system most
acceptable to both operating systems. Is my thinking correct?
 
Have you tried another partitioning tool? As for the FAT32 only rule I would
try NTFS as you have no data on the disc yet you can't loose anything. I
cant see why an external disc would only see FAT32 it sounds like old
information where FAT32 is needed instead of FAT16 because of the 2GB limit.

Glen
 
Thje reason I asked was he could have been given wrong info by a friend.
Even the two web pages given by the op have an error.

From:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...windows/xp/all/reskit/en-us/prkc_fil_cycz.asp

FAT32 breaks the 4-GB volume limitation of FAT16 by extending the maximum
number of clusters.


From: http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm

FAT16 Limitations
Max Volume Size 2GB

Microsoft shows max fat16 size as 4GB wheras ntfs shows it as 2GB. I know
the issue here is not about fat16 but it shows that mistakes happen on any
web page and you only have to look around these news groups to hear a lot of
myths about computers.

Glen
 
yocky said:
This is a theoretical question really. I don't really need one huge
FAT32 partition, but I'm intrigued as to why I can't create one if I
want to. I'm coming to the conclusion that just as MS has imposed an
arbitrary limit of 32GB on the creation of FAT32 partitions in Disk
Management, so Partition Magic has imposed an arbitrary limit of 195GB
for the same thing (when not using the boot disks).

As to the point of whether or not I need FAT32 at all, the external USB
drive casing I've bought insists that the drive must be formated in
FAT32 to be recognized when used externally, does this sound right?
Several users of the casing have reported that onlt FAT32 will work
whereas others claim that NTFS works fine.

I'm also tempted to use FAT32 because I intend to run a dual boot
system with XP and Linux and FAT32 seems to be the file system most
acceptable to both operating systems. Is my thinking correct?
Click to expand...


yocky:
Nothing really substantive has changed re the FAT32 file system since this
thread began.

As I, and I believe others, have informed you, you *can* format a partition
of any size in FAT32 if that's what you want. In your original post you
indicated you had a 250 GB HD. If you want a single partition of 250 GB
(actually approx. 232 GB) you can have it in FAT32 if that's your desire.
Since you indicate you'll be working with operating systems using the FAT32
files system, then it makes sense that your 250 GB HD (one or more
partitions) be formatted FAT32.

I, and others, have also informed you as to how you can format your
large-capacity disk in FAT32 so you can use whatever method appeals to you.
Anna
 
Anna:
I asked a question about using Partition Magic to partition a drive
within XP at the beginning of the thread which hasn't been answered.
Yes, it was a very tedious hypothetical question but that's the kind of
guy I am. So far you've used the opportunity to tell me lots of stuff I
already know.

I did ask some more practical questions later on which you might have
overlooked in your hurry to "inform me".
 
The only way you will ever really know the answer to your question is to ask
the people from Partition Magic. But, it does sound like they put an
arbitrary limit on FAT32 size.
 
Back
Top