Want to reformat 2nd partition on 1st HDD from NTFS to FAT32.

[Cymbal Man Freq.]

I've got a Dell Dementsion 4300 that I take care of. Due to Delayed Write Errors
in Win XP, I'm deciding to copy my backups to an external HDD while in Win Me.
This is a dual boot machine now: Win Me on HDD #1, Partition #1 and Win XP on
HDD #2, Partition #1. The 2nd partition of HDD #1 is in NTFS, and I want to
change it from NTFS to FAT32; there are only backup images on this partition,
and some Norton Recycle Bin, and maybe a hidden Windows file. Is it OK to
reformat this partition from within Win XP without any problems?

 

[Cymbal Man Freq.]

| I've got a Dell Dementsion 4300 that I take care of. Due to Delayed Write
Errors
| in Win XP, I'm deciding to copy my backups to an external HDD while in Win Me.
| This is a dual boot machine now: Win Me on HDD #1, Partition #1 and Win XP on
| HDD #2, Partition #1. The 2nd partition of HDD #1 is in NTFS, and I want to
| change it from NTFS to FAT32; there are only backup images on this partition,
| and some Norton Recycle Bin, and maybe a hidden Windows file. Is it OK to
| reformat this partition from within Win XP without any problems?
|

I forgot to qualify the other partitions of the machine: the first 3 partitions
of the 2nd HDD are NTFS, and the fourth partition of the 2nd HDD is already
FAT32, but it only contains image files, much like the 2nd partition on the 1st
HDD. So I don't expect drive lettering to be a complicating issue here, except
as pertains to Norton's Recycle Bin gaining an extra drive in Win Me.

 

[Guest]

Why not just convert it without formatting?

 

[Cymbal Man Freq.]

| Why not just convert it without formatting?

Because converting only works going from FAT32 to NTFS. I'm going the opposite
way.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I've got a Dell Dementsion 4300 that I take care of. Due to Delayed
Write Errors in Win XP, I'm deciding to copy my backups to an
external HDD while in Win Me. This is a dual boot machine now: Win
Me on HDD #1, Partition #1 and Win XP on HDD #2, Partition #1. The
2nd partition of HDD #1 is in NTFS, and I want to change it from
NTFS to FAT32; there are only backup images on this partition, and
some Norton Recycle Bin, and maybe a hidden Windows file. Is it OK
to reformat this partition from within Win XP without any problems?

Yes.. Although I do not know what you hope to gain.

You will have a problem if that partition is greater than 32GB and you are
planning on using Disk Manager. The problem is - you cannot format greater
than 32GB FAT32 with native Windows XP tools.

 

[Cymbal Man Freq.]

| Cymbal Man Freq. wrote:
| > I've got a Dell Dementsion 4300 that I take care of. Due to Delayed
| > Write Errors in Win XP, I'm deciding to copy my backups to an
| > external HDD while in Win Me. This is a dual boot machine now: Win
| > Me on HDD #1, Partition #1 and Win XP on HDD #2, Partition #1. The
| > 2nd partition of HDD #1 is in NTFS, and I want to change it from
| > NTFS to FAT32; there are only backup images on this partition, and
| > some Norton Recycle Bin, and maybe a hidden Windows file. Is it OK
| > to reformat this partition from within Win XP without any problems?
|
| Yes.. Although I do not know what you hope to gain.
|
| You will have a problem if that partition is greater than 32GB and you are
| planning on using Disk Manager. The problem is - you cannot format greater
| than 32GB FAT32 with native Windows XP tools.
|
| --
| Shenan Stanley
| MS-MVP

The partition is about 30.0 GB, probably a little less (like 28.7 GB or some
such)

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I've got a Dell Dementsion 4300 that I take care of. Due to
Delayed Write Errors in Win XP, I'm deciding to copy my backups
to an external HDD while in Win Me. This is a dual boot machine
now: Win Me on HDD #1, Partition #1 and Win XP on HDD #2,
Partition #1. The 2nd partition of HDD #1 is in NTFS, and I want
to change it from NTFS to FAT32; there are only backup images on
this partition, and some Norton Recycle Bin, and maybe a hidden
Windows file. Is it OK to reformat this partition from within Win
XP without any problems?

Yes.. Although I do not know what you hope to gain.

You will have a problem if that partition is greater than 32GB and
you are planning on using Disk Manager. The problem is - you
cannot format greater than 32GB FAT32 with native Windows XP tools.

The partition is about 30.0 GB, probably a little less (like 28.7
GB or some such)

Then copy whatever you need to keep off of it and as long as it is not a
system partition - format away.

 

[Rock]

I've got a Dell Dementsion 4300 that I take care of. Due to Delayed Write Errors
in Win XP, I'm deciding to copy my backups to an external HDD while in Win Me.
This is a dual boot machine now: Win Me on HDD #1, Partition #1 and Win XP on
HDD #2, Partition #1. The 2nd partition of HDD #1 is in NTFS, and I want to
change it from NTFS to FAT32; there are only backup images on this partition,
and some Norton Recycle Bin, and maybe a hidden Windows file. Is it OK to
reformat this partition from within Win XP without any problems?

If you have partition Magic it has the capability of going from NTFS to
FAT32 though I've never used that feature. In any event sure you can do
what you want from within windows without any issues wrt the rest of the
system being mindful that XP can only format up to 32GB for FAT32.

 

[Yves Leclerc]

Then copy whatever you need to keep off of it and as long as it is not a
system partition - format away.

Beside the 32GB FAT32 partition limit, you need to be also aware that MS has
placed a 4GB limit on files stored in FAT32 partitions.

 

[Cymbal Man Freq.]

Beside the 32GB FAT32 partition limit, you need to be also aware that
MS has placed a 4GB limit on files stored in FAT32 partitions.

Didn't NSW 2005's Recycle Bin lower that to 2.0 GB? I'm not sure....