Install using FAT32 not possible

[grendi]

Hi,
Some weeks ago, I reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled Windows XP.
I had 2 NTFS partitions on my hard drive. I deleted those 2, created a
new partition on the hard drive, using all space. I wanted to format
this drive as FAT32. But the windows installation program did not offer
me the NTFS choice to format this partition. Why?
See you,
-gz

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

Because the partitions are probably over 32gb

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314463/EN-US/
and
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310525/en-us

 

[Jerry]

WinXP will not create drives larger than 32Gb but you can use a DOS boot
disk to start the computer and then create a partition larger than 32GB on
which you could then install XP.

 

[Vanguard]

WinXP will not create drives larger than 32Gb but you can use a DOS
boot disk to start the computer and then create a partition larger
than 32GB on which you could then install XP.

While you can use FDISK from Win9x/ME to create partitions larger than
32GB in size, you cannot use the FORMAT in Win2K/XP on those >32GB
partitions so you will also have to use the FORMAT for Win9x/XP. Ranish
PartitionManager is free (never used it) or the OP can get image files
from http://www.bootdisk.com to make Win9x bootable floppies to get the
old versions of the FDISK and FORMAT programs.

It was a deliberate choice by Microsoft to not let Win2K/XP create FAT32
partitions over 32GB because they feel that larger partitions should be
using NTFS. Once a FAT32 partition size exceeds 32GB, the cluster size
jumps from 16KB to 32KB so more disk space is wasted due to the larger
slack space at the end of the file. Fact is, as the partition size goes
up, so does the inefficiency of FAT32 due to the increase in slack
space. See http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/ntfs/archCluster-c.html.
Clusters are 4KB in size for NTFS partitions under and over 32GB in size
so there is far less wasted (slack) space per file.

The OP says that he wants to format the large partition using FAT32.
Yet then he says the WinXP install doesn't give him the choice of using
NTFS. Huh? Which file system does the OP really want to use. For
large partitions, the OP should be using NTFS instead of FAT32. If the
OP wants to have a partition that can share its files with older
versions of Windows that don't support FAT32 then he should create one
NTFS partition for the operating system and a FAT32 partition where he
stores his data files. However, the OP never mentions WHY he wants to
use FAT32 (if that's what he really meant to say).

See:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q314463
http://www.anandtech.com/guides/viewfaq.html?i=63
http://www.digit-life.com/articles/ntfs/
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/ntfs.php

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hi,
Some weeks ago, I reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled Windows XP.
I had 2 NTFS partitions on my hard drive. I deleted those 2, created a
new partition on the hard drive, using all space. I wanted to format
this drive as FAT32. But the windows installation program did not offer
me the NTFS choice to format this partition. Why?
See you,
-gz

How large is the hard drive/partition 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

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safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

 

[grendi]

Thanks all for the help

this drive as FAT32. But the windows installation program did not offer
me the NTFS choice to format this partition. Why?

Yes, I meant FAT32 choice, sorry

 

[Anna]

Hi,
Some weeks ago, I reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled Windows XP.
I had 2 NTFS partitions on my hard drive. I deleted those 2, created a new
partition on the hard drive, using all space. I wanted to format this
drive as FAT32. But the windows installation program did not offer me the
NTFS choice to format this partition. Why?
See you,
-gz

(And the OP later added...)

Thanks all for the help


Yes, I meant FAT32 choice, sorry

grendi:
In view of all the responses you received that were quite negative re your
plan to format the apparently large-sized partition you created with the
FAT32 file system rather than the NTFS file system, are you still interested
in formatting that partition FAT32? If you are, I can provide you with info
as to how you can accomplish this either using a DOS boot disk or directly
from within the XP environment.

As you have heard, in virtually every case it's desirable to format large
partitions, i.e., partitions > 32 GB, NTFS rather than FAT32. Might you
indicate why you wish to use the FAT32 file system assuming you're still
interested in doing so?
Anna

 

[grendi]

Hey Anna thanks for the help.
Now my Windows XP is installed on NTFS and I don't want to re install
everything. Next time I'll reinstall will be to install Windows Vista.
So no, I'm not interested in installing Xp now, but thanks
-g