How do I format large external usb hard drives as FAT32?

[Guest]

I have several large 100G+ hard drives that I swap between my laptop and
various other systems. I am using XP Home and have tried formating as FAT32
with My Computer, Explorer, Microsoft Management Console/Disk Manager, and
from the command line interface with "format drive: /fs:fat32 /q" but they
all only allow NTFS partitions.

Drives are Freecom FHD-2PRO 40/80G and Western Digital 160G Mediacentre

 

[Jeff Gaines]

I have several large 100G+ hard drives that I swap between my laptop
and various other systems. I am using XP Home and have tried
formating as FAT32 with My Computer, Explorer, Microsoft Management
Console/Disk Manager, and from the command line interface with
"format drive: /fs:fat32 /q" but they all only allow NTFS partitions.

Drives are Freecom FHD-2PRO 40/80G and Western Digital 160G
Mediacentre

You will need to format them from a Windows 9x PC, the NT family will
not allow FAT32 partitions > 32 GB.

 

[Ken Blake]

In

You will need to format them from a Windows 9x PC, the NT
family will
not allow FAT32 partitions > 32 GB.

Lest that confuse Old Codger, let me clarify that operating
system of the NT family *will* allow FAT32 partitions greater
than 32GB. XP's restriction is against *creating* such
partitions; it will happily use them if, as you suggest, they are
created from Windows 98 (it doesn't have to be a Windows 98 *PC*;
a Windows 98 boot diskette will do)

 

[TonySper]

Ken,
The problem with a Windows 98 Boot disk is "Will it allow you to
format the external Hard Drive on the USB port?"
TonySper

In

You will need to format them from a Windows 9x PC, the NT
family will
not allow FAT32 partitions > 32 GB.

Lest that confuse Old Codger, let me clarify that operating
system of the NT family *will* allow FAT32 partitions greater
than 32GB. XP's restriction is against *creating* such
partitions; it will happily use them if, as you suggest, they are
created from Windows 98 (it doesn't have to be a Windows 98 *PC*;
a Windows 98 boot diskette will do)

 

[Ken Blake]

In

Ken,
The problem with a Windows 98 Boot disk is "Will it allow you
to
format the external Hard Drive on the USB port?"

No, it has no access to USB.

 

[Guest]

Thanks guys,

Could I try using a Ghost recovery CD?

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Why do you want to format the drive as FAT32?

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Hope this helps.

Gerry
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[Jeff Gaines]

Thanks guys,

Could I try using a Ghost recovery CD?

Can we go back a step?

Why do you need the external disks formatted to FAT32 if you haven't
got a Win 9x PC? You can format them to NTFS from your XP machine.

Apologies if I'm missing something, but if you need FAT32 because you
are transferring data to/from a Win9x PC then use that PC to format the
disks. If you don't need that facility then why not go for NTFS?

If there is an underlying reason for FAT32 you are going to need a PC
running Win 9x. As has been pointed out in this thread you can't mount
an external USB HD from a PC running DOS. If the Ghost recovery CD has
this facility then fine - if it has 'format' on it as well and assuming
it isn't running an ancient version of DR DOS or similar.

 

[Guest]

Thanks All,

I need to transport large files from home to work and they have to be in
FAT32 format. The admins at work have locked out/removed the format option
on.

The drives have large files which are unseen/unremovable by XP Home.

A friend at work suggests that they may be Norton protected recycle bin data
files.

I'm going to try taking my drives to a friends system with '98' and reformat
them that way. This looks to be the easiest way out

Regards The Old Codger.

:

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Pen drive?

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
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[Gerry Cornell]

How large are these files?


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Hope this helps.

Gerry
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[Ken Blake]

In

Thanks All,

I need to transport large files from home to work and they have
to be
in FAT32 format.

Why? If the operating system is work is XP (or any NTFS-aware
operating system), it can handle NTFS files, even if it itself in
installed on a FAT32 drive.

 

[Guest]

How large are these files?

The files are often several Gigabytes in size as they are raw mpeg 'In car'
footage converted from my VHS video tapes of my motor racing.

Regards
The Old Codger.

(Signing of for work. Any follow up will have to wait till 12 Feb on my
return0

 

[Guest]

:

Why? If the operating system is work is XP (or any NTFS-aware
operating system), it can handle NTFS files, even if it itself in
installed on a FAT32 drive.

--

Sorry, but work won't touch XP, 2000, or NT on our machines. We run on '98'
DUH! They need to get into this century.

Regards
The Old Codger
(Signing of for work. Any follow up will have to wait till 12 Feb on my
return)

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Are any single files over 4 gb?


--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
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[Guest]

Are any single files over 4 gb?

===================================
No but some get close.

 

[Guest]

Hidden files that were causing the need to reformat were indeed Norton
protected recycle bin data files.

I've since found that I can delete these files by going to the command line
and using some good old DOS commands, thus saving the need to reformat.

I still haven't tried getting the drive reformatted on another 98 machine.

Thanks for all your replies, they helped me to think around the problem.

I still wish that there was a way to force XP to format larger drives as
FAT32 for this backward compatability.

Regards to all
Old Codger