Hi,

 

How can I format a hard drive in windows xp to a FAT32 type which has previously been formatted to NTFS?

 

Thanks

 

Vijay

Hi,

 

How can I format a hard drive in windows xp to a FAT32 type which has previously been formatted to NTFS?

 

Thanks

 

Vijay

 

Right click on the "My Computer" icon and select Manage from the drop down list.

 

Click on Disk Management, in the left hand list, then right click on the drive required, and click on Format on the drop down.

 

Then select FAT32 in the drop down box and away you go.

 

HTH

Morning,

 

Just tried that and it doesn't give me the option of anything but NTFS :(

 

Vijay

Try this mate :)

 

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.3c67e325e0a6b1f6294198b091346068/?channelpath=/en_us/Support/Software%20Downloads/ATA%20Hard%20Drives&downloadID=58

when a drive is ntfs, you can't convert it back to fat32 without a full format m8

Unfortunetly, that Maxtor program will not format to FAT32 from XP :(

 

Hi Billynomates, what's the easyiest way of doing a full format?

 

Thanks

 

Vijay

I presume this is a second hard drive and not your C: drive containing your operating system....

Anyway you need to go in to Manage Computer, Disk Management, delete the existing partition (backup your data first!) then create a new partition and format it with FAT32.

 

It's the partition that's previously created for NTFS that's causing the problem ;)

yes good question first is it a slave your trying to format or your C

btw, why are you trying to convert from ntfs m8??

Hi Chris,

 

Yes, it's a second drive. I've tried that but it doesn't give me the option to format it to anything but NTFS :(

 

Vijay

Can you not do this:

 

From the XP disc

 

1. Formatting an XP System Disk by booting from the XP CD is accomplished by loading the Recovery Console by typing R at the first window.

2. After selecting the Windows installation you want to access and typing in the Admin password [leave blank if no password was created] you will see a command prompt.

3. Type Map & press ENTER

4. Note the letter designation of the drive you want to format. [write it down]

5. type format x:/fs:fat32 then press ENTER, where x is the drive letter you want to format. Substitute NTFS or FAT if desired.

6. Type Y to confirm your selection and then type exit & press ENTER to restart computer.

7. To view other format commands, type format/? & press ENTER at the RC command prompt.

Hi,

 

How can I format a hard drive in windows xp to a FAT32 type which has previously been formatted to NTFS?

 

Thanks

 

Vijay

You can do it by performing a low level format or by deleting the partition using Fdisk command and reformating the drive but you have to perform these options out of windows via an old 98/me statup disk or similar boot software..There may be other ways but i find this the easiest..and then re-install required software/operating system..

"Locate" a copy of Partition Magic / System Commander / Paragon Hard Disk Manager. They will all do what exactly what you tell them ;)

I've got all of these but they are bit too big to e-mail.

 

Or as has been said use a Windows 95/98 boot disk with FDISK and FORMAT command line utilitites to do it. Be careful you know which drives are which though :o

the problem while trying to do it using a win98 boot disk is that it doesn't recognize the drive :(

Ages since i've done this in '98 but I think there's an option in FDISK to switch between the drives in your system and then view the partitions etc.

I think there's an option to delete a "Non-DOS" partition" ie partitions other than FAT16/32.

Ages since i've done this in '98 but I think there's an option in FDISK to switch between the drives in your system and then view the partitions etc.

I think there's an option to delete a "Non-DOS" partition" ie partitions other than FAT16/32.

true Mate there is that option...you could always use an WinMe startup disk..

I may have one floating around somewhere i could email the Data to anyone should they need it...

im assuming? the os your using is xp and is ntfs?

which is probably why your having the hassle m8

i reckon the quickest and easiest way would be to install the slave as the master h/d and format it that way m8,??