Re: Returning drive to fat32 from NTFS

• From: "Steve N." <Steve_N@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Fri, 01 Apr 2005 09:48:30 -0800

Anna wrote:

GTT wrote:

I bought a second hard drive for my machine and a friend installed it.
He formated it on his machine first. I notice it is NTFS while my
other drive and partiotions on it are Fat32. I would leave it as NTFS
but I still have dual boot with win 98.

Nothing is on this drive yet. What do I do under XP to format it as
Fat32. Detailed steps please or is it as simple as typing format E: How do I designate Fat32 or will it ask me. I have Partitionmagic but
it doesn't have any instructions on going from NTFS to fat32 just the
other way.

"Gordon" <gordonbp1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:uYsbiRrNFHA.3512@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Right-click on My Computer and choose Manage. In the right-hand pane, click on Storage, then Disk Management(local). Right-click on the drive and choose "Format".
HTH
Interim Systems and Management Accounting
Gordon Burgess-Parker
Director
www.gbpcomputing.co.uk

HTH...

Anna wrote:

Gordon's instructions are accurate (as is the similar response you rec'd from Yao Su); in that you can use XP's built-in Disk Management utility to format your drive in FAT32, but there is a limitation. Keep in mind that by using XP's DM utility you will *not* have the option of formatting your drive in FAT32 if the drive is > 32 GB. And I assume that since you just purchased the drive, it's probably at least 40 GB. Assuming your drive is > 32 GB, you could, of course, multi-partition it in the DM utility so that at least one partition you create is < 32 GB. Then you could use DM to format one or more of those partitions in FAT32. If that's acceptable to you, then use DM. The DM Help file contains detailed information on how to partition and format your hard drive.

You mention you have Partition Magic. Assuming this is version 8, you can use PM to convert the present NTFS partition to FAT32. The instructions are >> contained in PM's Help files.
Anna

Steve wrote...

Good advice Anna, but if it was me I'd just boot a Win98 floppy or CD and use fdisk to delete the NTFS partition and create a DOS partition on the disk. Then XP will be able to format it.

Steve

Steve:
I most certainly agree with you. It's the way I would (and usually do) do it that way. I just thought in this instance this OP might have a problem with this approach. So I continued with the thread that recommended using XP's Disk Management utility. But using a Win9x/Me Startup Disk or DOS boot floppy, as you suggest, is the better way.

Incidentally, I've come across a way to format either a internal HD or USB/Firewire external hard drive in FAT32 in *any* capacity and from *within* the XP environment. If you, or anyone, is interested in this approach, please so indicate and I'll provide the details.
Anna

Yes, please post the details.

Steve
.

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