How To Format XP pro - FAT32

[Bob Johns]

When I boot off the XP cd and proceed to FDisk and then Format I only get
the option of NTFS or NTFS quick.

For my own reasons I want to format FAT32. Is there a way to do this
without booting from a DOS floppy, and by just using the Windows XP cd?

Thanks.

Bob Johns
Guam U.S.A.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

How large are the hard drives/partitions in question? By design,
WinXP cannot create and format a new partition greater than 32 Gb.
This is because NTFS is the superior file system, and not nearly as
wasteful of drive space. (If you make a FAT32 partition larger than 8
Gb, you're "throwing away" significant amounts of storage capacity.
However, the OS has no problems being installed upon or otherwise
using FAT32 a partition larger than 32 GB, as long as that partition
has been created/formatted by another OS, such as Win98.


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

 

[Total Exterminator]

When I boot off the XP cd and proceed to FDisk and then Format I only get
the option of NTFS or NTFS quick.

For my own reasons I want to format FAT32. Is there a way to do this
without booting from a DOS floppy, and by just using the Windows XP cd?

Thanks.

Bob Johns
Guam U.S.A.

Not from the xp cd ............Total

 

[Bob Johns]

Greetings --

How large are the hard drives/partitions in question? By design,
WinXP cannot create and format a new partition greater than 32 Gb.
This is because NTFS is the superior file system, and not nearly as
wasteful of drive space. (If you make a FAT32 partition larger than 8
Gb, you're "throwing away" significant amounts of storage capacity.
However, the OS has no problems being installed upon or otherwise
using FAT32 a partition larger than 32 GB, as long as that partition
has been created/formatted by another OS, such as Win98.


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



Thanks for the advice. I realize the benefits of NTFS, but in this

case it must be FAT32. The drive is a new 80gb.

I guess my choice is to boot from a Win 98 floppy and do my FDISK and
Format before installing. Bummer.

Bob J.

 

[Michael Stevens]

When I boot off the XP cd and proceed to FDisk and then Format I only
get the option of NTFS or NTFS quick.

For my own reasons I want to format FAT32. Is there a way to do this
without booting from a DOS floppy, and by just using the Windows XP
cd?

Thanks.

Bob Johns
Guam U.S.A.

Click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into the address box
if using the web based newsgroup.
Format XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/format_XP.htm
--

Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

 

[Alex Nichol]

When I boot off the XP cd and proceed to FDisk and then Format I only get
the option of NTFS or NTFS quick.

For my own reasons I want to format FAT32. Is there a way to do this
without booting from a DOS floppy, and by just using the Windows XP cd?

XP will not format to FAT 32 a partition bigger than 32 GB. And also to
change file system you would have to delete the partition and then make
a new one - which will then give you the option of file system on
Formatting. Also BTW the XP CD does not *have* FDISK which is a DOS
program, not a Windows NT/XP one