Small Hard Drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Boles
  • Start date Start date
J

John Boles

Somehow, in XP I've managed to get an 80g external usb drive to format
to 32g. I've tried to reformat it as a Fat32 but it still formats as 32gb.
Is there a way to get the whole drive back to Fat32? Is it a partition
problem that I have? If so, how do I correct that?
 
John said:
Somehow, in XP I've managed to get an 80g external usb drive to
format to 32g. I've tried to reformat it as a Fat32 but it still
formats as 32gb. Is there a way to get the whole drive back to
Fat32? Is it a partition problem that I have? If so, how do I correct
that?
Click to expand...


Windows XP will not let you create a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB.
Either format it as NTFS (the preferable choice) or format it externally to
Windows, using a DOS boot diskette.

Or create three FAT32 partitions on it.
 
Somehow, in XP I've managed to get an 80g external usb drive to format
to 32g. I've tried to reformat it as a Fat32 but it still formats as
32gb.
Is there a way to get the whole drive back to Fat32? Is it a partition

problem that I have? If so, how do I correct that?
Click to expand...

How old is your computer? I had the same problem a while back with an
older computer (Birth Date about 1999) that came with a 20gig hard
drive. When I replaced it with a 60gig drive years later it did the
exact same thing--32gigs.

It turned out to be the motherboard BIOS--from 1999, which was old & I
couldnt update(Flash), so the only way I was able to get the full size
was via an OVERLAY I downloaded from the HD Manufacturer. This overlay
simply is a software fix to your limited BIOS which allows you to
overcome BIOS shortcomings. When you boot up the OVERLAY loads & it
does its thing. It lets the computer know the HD's real total size.
Then you can partition it as you please, but I would suggest 25gig or
smaller partitions.

BTW,,,The operating system was immaterial. When I upgraded from Win98
to XP a couple of years later I had to get an OVERLAY version for
XP--the Win98 one wouldnt work, & the drive went down to 32gig again!
New XP OVERLAY--60gigs again!

This might, or might not, be your situation, but it sounds very
similar. Just thought I'd ask & let you know what I experienced.

Bobby ;)
 
...80g external usb drive...:eek:
Click to expand...

Grrrr,,,It helps to read!! Sorry,,If thats you problem then forget wha
I said if your already running a larger drive internally. Its wouldn
then be your BIOS at all. I would format & partition it internally i
you insist on FAT32. Otherwise NTFS is your best bet.

Sorry to mislead ya,,,Need some sleep!!! :
 
How do I FDISK the external drive to change partitions so I can format them
as Fat 32? With a Win98 'startup disk' there are no USB drivers to recognize
the drive..
 
John said:
How do I FDISK the external drive to change partitions so I can
format them as Fat 32? With a Win98 'startup disk' there are no USB
drivers to recognize the drive..
Click to expand...


You don't use a Windows 98 startup diskette and you don't use FDISK. Go to
Start | Programs | Administrative Tools | Computer Mangement. Click on Disk
Management, right-click the drive and format it from there. The partitioning
is done as part of the formatting. Depending on exactly what you want to
accomplish, you may need to delete the existing partition First.

Why do you want this to be FAT32?
 
Back
Top