FDISK an External Drive?

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Boles
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J

John Boles

I've a blank 80gb UDMA/133 external/usb drive that shows up after
formatting in WinXP as a 32gb drive and Fat32. When I try to format the
drive using WinXP, the format option limits me to 32gb. Is there a way to
FDISK (partition) using WinXP and format the drive so that I can get the
whole 80gb of information? I do want it to be a Fat32 partitioned drive
because I need to move it to a Win98se system to use for a backup. I would
agree to multiple partitions with the limits of Win98se is 32gb but I'm not
sure of Win98se's drive size limits. Maybe Win98se and Fat32 limits are 32gb
but I would still have to somehow repartition the drive. There are a lot of
Win98se/DOS programs that are running fine so I don't want to take a chance
of installing an WinXP upgrades on the Win98se system and lose the programs
and data. To say the least, I'm "not" a 'power user'.

Since I don't know anything about the Win98se compatibility with WinXP I
don't know if the drive is formatted as an NTFS drive, could I still use it
as a backup for Win98se?

Any help would be appreciated.
 
I tried that too but it still shows up as a 32gb drive. I've not tried FDISK
on the Win98se system because I'm not sure if the external drive will be
seen or only the internal drives and I don't want to mess them up..

--

John G Boles

Pavel A. said:
Format your disk on the win98 machine, then it will be
compatible for sure
--PA
Click to expand...
 
You are limited to 32GB using FDISK or Windows XP for creating a FAT32
partition.
I've heard that Partition Magic will create larger FAT partition sizes but I
have no idea if Windows 98 will or will not handle a partition greater than
32 GB.

JS
 
John Boles said:
I've a blank 80gb UDMA/133 external/usb drive that shows up after
formatting in WinXP as a 32gb drive and Fat32. When I try to format the
drive using WinXP, the format option limits me to 32gb. Is there a way to
FDISK (partition) using WinXP and format the drive so that I can get the
whole 80gb of information? I do want it to be a Fat32 partitioned drive
because I need to move it to a Win98se system to use for a backup. I would
agree to multiple partitions with the limits of Win98se is 32gb but I'm
not sure of Win98se's drive size limits. Maybe Win98se and Fat32 limits
are 32gb but I would still have to somehow repartition the drive. There
are a lot of Win98se/DOS programs that are running fine so I don't want to
take a chance of installing an WinXP upgrades on the Win98se system and
lose the programs and data. To say the least, I'm "not" a 'power user'.

Since I don't know anything about the Win98se compatibility with WinXP
I don't know if the drive is formatted as an NTFS drive, could I still use
it as a backup for Win98se?

Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Yank the drive out of the enclosure and install it in either the XP or 98
machine as a slave. Boot from a dos floppy with fdisk and format. Delete
the partition with fdisk and recreate a new one, the full size of the drive.
Format it and your done. If the drive is formatted NTFS then 98 will not
see it.
 
JustMe said:
Yank the drive out of the enclosure and install it in either the XP or 98
machine as a slave. Boot from a dos floppy with fdisk and format. Delete
the partition with fdisk and recreate a new one, the full size of the
drive. Format it and your done. If the drive is formatted NTFS then 98
will not see it.
Click to expand...

Fdisk create the partition, along with a blank file allocation table. Its
impossible to format the hard disk and modify that blank filesystem table
for NTFS purposes. The resulting partition using fdisk will be either FAT16
or FAT32 compatible.
 
John Boles said:
I've a blank 80gb UDMA/133 external/usb drive that shows up after
formatting in WinXP as a 32gb drive and Fat32. When I try to format the
drive using WinXP, the format option limits me to 32gb. Is there a way to
FDISK (partition) using WinXP and format the drive so that I can get the
whole 80gb of information? I do want it to be a Fat32 partitioned drive
because I need to move it to a Win98se system to use for a backup. I would
agree to multiple partitions with the limits of Win98se is 32gb but I'm
not sure of Win98se's drive size limits. Maybe Win98se and Fat32 limits
are 32gb but I would still have to somehow repartition the drive. There
are a lot of Win98se/DOS programs that are running fine so I don't want to
take a chance of installing an WinXP upgrades on the Win98se system and
lose the programs and data. To say the least, I'm "not" a 'power user'.

Since I don't know anything about the Win98se compatibility with WinXP
I don't know if the drive is formatted as an NTFS drive, could I still use
it as a backup for Win98se?

Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

The version of fdisk that comes with 98/98SE can create partitions up to
64GB unformatted. An upgraded version for those two OSes is available at
MS, does up to 132GB unformatted.

98/98SE have trouble using defrag and scandisk with partitions beyond 64GB
in size.

If using fdisk, remove all partitions first, then create a new one (ones).
Fdisk works in an msdos environment. Msdos cannot access usb connnected
drives for purposes of partitioning or formatting.

Some of the USB external drive manufacturers offer a software tool for just
what you're asking to do. That is, if left in the USB external case.

Its not clear if you're moving the drive and external case, or just the
drive to a 98SE system.
 
A Win98 SE startup floppy will be able to work with partitions up to the
limit imposed by your M/B and bios. Use fdisk and allow large partitions
when asked.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Jonny said:
Fdisk create the partition, along with a blank file allocation table. Its
impossible to format the hard disk and modify that blank filesystem table
for NTFS purposes. The resulting partition using fdisk will be either
FAT16 or FAT32 compatible.
Click to expand...

That's what the OP wants.
 
You are limited to 32GB using FDISK or Windows XP for creating a FAT32
partition.
I've heard that Partition Magic will create larger FAT partition sizes but I
have no idea if Windows 98 will or will not handle a partition greater than
32 GB.
Click to expand...

A quick check on my 98SE box shows more than 32gb free.
 
I tried that too but it still shows up as a 32gb drive. I've not tried FDISK
on the Win98se system because I'm not sure if the external drive will be
seen or only the internal drives and I don't want to mess them up..
Click to expand...

I don't think it would be seen.

You probably will havve to use third-party software.
 
I tried that too but it still shows up as a 32gb drive. I've not tried FDISK
on the Win98se system because I'm not sure if the external drive will be
seen or only the internal drives and I don't want to mess them up..
Click to expand...

Create an 80GB partition using Windows XP. Then format the partition
using Windows 98.
 
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