Installing a second hard drive with WinXP Home SP2

[Guest]

I have an Ultra ATA 133 system running WinXP home SP2.
I'd like to install a second hard drive to my system, using FAT 32.
I know how to physically install the drive, and how to enable the BIOS to
find it.
How do I get XP to create one partition on this drive and format it?
I'm planning to get a rather large drive, probably 250GB. I've read over
some of the WinXP Knowledge Base articles on this, and they seem to indicate
that there's a 32GB limit for FAT 32 partitions. Is this really true?

 

[GreenieLeBrun]

I have an Ultra ATA 133 system running WinXP home SP2.
I'd like to install a second hard drive to my system, using FAT 32.
I know how to physically install the drive, and how to enable the BIOS to
find it.
How do I get XP to create one partition on this drive and format it?
I'm planning to get a rather large drive, probably 250GB. I've read over
some of the WinXP Knowledge Base articles on this, and they seem to indicate
that there's a 32GB limit for FAT 32 partitions. Is this really true?

Although XP can handle FAT32 partitions larger than 32Gb the builtin
disk management facility will only create FAT32 partions up to 32Gb.

If you want a larger partition get a Win98SE boot disk that has the
FDISK and FORMAT utilities on it (this can be obtained from
http://www.bootdisk.com). Boot your machine with this disk, then fdisk
the drive to create the required partitions/logical drives, and then
format the logical drive/drives.

You may like to look at:-
http://tools.supportforyourpc.com/get_article.asp?aid=1035

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

The only good reasons for formatting FAT32 is if you install an DOS based
version of Windows onto it, or you have a DOS based version already
installed and you want it to be able to access the drive directly.. across a
network, it doesn't matter..

You would do better to install the drive, and format it to NTFS using XP's
native tools..

Right click on 'My Computer', select 'Manage' from the drop down menu.. in
the 'Computer Management' window that appears, navigate to 'Storage - Disk
Management'.. a right click on the new drive will open up the tools that you
need for the job..

 

[Guest]

The MS Knowledge Base papers I've read on FDISK seem to say it's for Win98 or
ME only. Also, that reference you left does not specifically say you can use
FDISK with XP.

I think I'll just use Partition Magic.

Thanx

 

[Lenard Lund]

FDisk works for XP fine. It allows you to create the partitions as
desired quickly and efficiently.

 

[Guest]

Well, my current drive which contains my system partiton is in FAT32. I set
it up that way after a friend (who knows more about this stuff than I do) had
trouble with an NTFS setup and warned me. I can't recall exactly what that
trouble was, but I'll forward it once he reminds me.

 

[Guest]

Thanx, Lenard. So, you yourself have used FDISK on an XP system to format a
HD with large partition size (in excess of, say, 137GB)?

 

[GreenieLeBrun]

The MS Knowledge Base papers I've read on FDISK seem to say it's for Win98 or
ME only. Also, that reference you left does not specifically say you can use
FDISK with XP.

I think I'll just use Partition Magic.

Thanx

You will note, if you re-read my post, that I said to use a Win98SE
boot disk not run FDISK under XP, by using the bootdisk you will be
running FDISK in MS-DOS 7 which is the operating system that Win98 runs
in.

 

[Michael Stevens]

In

Thanx, Lenard. So, you yourself have used FDISK on an XP system to
format a HD with large partition size (in excess of, say, 137GB)?

:

You do it from a Windows 98/Me boot disk with fdisk. You never get to XP,
you boot into dos from the boot disk. XP will read and use the partition
just fine. But unless you are dual booting with 98/Me, there is no reason to
use fat32. Use NTFS.

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

 

[Lenard Lund]

Yes, I have and Michael is correct you actually are booting to a dos
disk not to XP.

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

Your friend may well have had trouble with NTFS.. some people have trouble
opening packs of butter, but that is not to say that everybody will..

Go for NTFS.. it is XP's native file system..