FAT32 format of 80G HD in XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter Statman
  • Start date Start date
S

Statman

Have an 80G USB external and would like to use on my
laptop running Me. How can I format as FAT32 so can be
read by both Me & XP Pro?

Tks,
S
 
Statman said:
Have an 80G USB external and would like to use on my
laptop running Me. How can I format as FAT32 so can be
read by both Me & XP Pro?
Click to expand...

Hi,

XP supports FAT32 disks of all sizes, but NTFS is considered to be more
efficient with larger disks. To encourage users to migrate to NTFS,
Microsoft have put an "artificial" block on formatting of drives larger than
30GB as FAT32 from within XP. You can still read/write FAT32 disks >30GB,
but you can't perform the initial format.
So, the obvious way around your issue is to format the disk from Windows
ME - both systems will then be able to use it.

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks, but Me can't see the HD since it is NTFS so need
to do this outside of Me. Other ideas?

Tks,
 
If you could get Win98/ME boot disk with USB support from:
http://bootdisk.com or make boot disk with USB drivers then you would have
all you need to do this.

Another idea I have is to remove HD from USB case and plug into IDE bus
inside computer. Boot off WinME boot disk. fdisk and format. Then put back
in USB case

-Kent
 
Greetings --

By design, WinXP cannot create and format a new FAT32 partition
greater than 32 Gb. However, the OS has no problems using a FAT32
partition larger than 32 Gb, as long as that partition has been
created/formatted by another OS, such as Win98.

So use your WinMe machine to do the formatting.

Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH
 
Use FDisk in ME, delete the Non-Dos partion (this is what ME wiil see NTFS as). Then create your
Fat32 partition.
 
Back
Top