Partition and format to FAT32 on an USB external hard drive
Chip
I have a new 250G USB external hard drive which come in one partition
and pre-format in FAT32.
I want to re-partition it to two partitions 125G each and then
re-format it to FAT32 format.
Any body know how to do it, please let me know.
Here is the detail of what I have:
Dell notebook running Windows XP SP2 with no floppy drive.
Rgds,
Chip Ling
Brett I. Holcomb
Chip wrote:
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Anna
"Chip" <chip...@yahoo.ca> wrote in message
news:1164406638.5...@14g2000cws.googlegroups.com...
Chip Ling:
I assume that for reasons best known to yourself you do not wish to create
NTFS partitions on your USBEHD. But if you *did* have no objection to
creating NTFS partitions on that drive I assume you would know how to do
this using XP's Disk Management utility, right?
I also assume you do not have available a partition manager type program
such as Symantec's Partition Magic. If you did, it would be a simple matter
to accomplish your objective.
And I guess that you're aware that the XP DM utility does not have the
capability of creating & formatting FAT32 partitions > 32 GB, yes?
Anyway, there are possible ways to do what you want to do within the XP
environment. But before I detail them please confirm that you're really set
on creating FAT32 partitions (rather than NTFS ones) on that USBEHD along
the lines you indicated. And if it's not too much trouble could you indicate
why you want to do so?
Anna
P.S.
And we're further assuming that at the present time there is no data on that
USBEHD that we need be concerned with, right?
Bruce Chambers
You'll have to connect that external drive to a Win9x computer, if you
what to create 125Gb FAT32 partitions. 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.)
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Jonny
news:eYMgauCE...@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Chip wrote:
>> Dear all,
>>
>> I have a new 250G USB external hard drive which come in one partition
>> and pre-format in FAT32.
>>
>> I want to re-partition it to two partitions 125G each and then
>> re-format it to FAT32 format.
>>
>> Any body know how to do it, please let me know.
>>
>> Here is the detail of what I have:
>>
>> Dell notebook running Windows XP SP2 with no floppy drive.
>>
>> Rgds,
>> Chip Ling
>>
>
>
> You'll have to connect that external drive to a Win9x computer, if you
> what to create 125Gb FAT32 partitions. 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.)
>
>
> --
>
> Bruce Chambers
Connecting a hard drive on one computer that depends on its bios
interpretation of CHS, creating partitions, then moving to another computer
can be problematic.
Gigabit = Gb
Gigabyte = GB
PM from boot media can do the job.
The wasted space scenario depends on the size file(s) saved.
--
Jonny
Uwe Sieber
>
> I have a new 250G USB external hard drive which come in one partition
> and pre-format in FAT32.
>
> I want to re-partition it to two partitions 125G each and then
> re-format it to FAT32 format.
Partitioning can be done in XP's disk management. To format
with FAT32 isn't supported by XP for drives > 32GB because
all users are ideots who cannot decide if they need FAT32
or not.
Here are some solutions:
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html#format
Uwe
Buckner
<spamyo...@blackworm.net> wrote:
>The wasted space scenario depends on the size file(s) saved.
>--
Wrong!
The wasted space depends on the cluster size of the drive.
In NTFS a 125 Gig partiton would be formnatted in NTFS by XP to 2
Kilobyte clusters.
Fat 32 on the other hand would put a cluster size of 32 Kilobytes on
the same size parititon.
Now lets say just for an example...You save a 33 Kilobyte file to your
drive.
In NTFS that file would take 34 kilobytes of space. A waste of 1
kilobyte due to the cluster sizes.
IN FAT 32 that same file would take 64 Kilobytes of drive space. A
Waste of 31 Kilobytes due to the cluster size.
As you can see that wasted drive space will multiply far more rapidly
on at FAT 32 partition than it will on an NTFS one.
Folk
Uhhh... right. If all you're saving is multimedia files, then it's a
non-issue. How many 32K movies and mp3 files do you have?
So like Jonny said, it depends on *what* you're storing on the drive.
Buckner
If you are saving multimedia files etc then you would most likely want
NTFS anyway. Due to the file size restriction that FAT 32 has.
Again though. Go ahead and use FAT32 and waste disk space all you
want.
Folk
Maximum file size for a FAT32 partition is 4 GB. Not too restrictive.
David Vair
Plus with FAT32 you won't run into any file ownership issues when swapping to different machines,
like may happen with NTFS.
--
Dave Vair
CNE, CNA, MCP, A+, N+
Folk
wrote:
Not to mention moving to a completely different OS....
FWIW, my entire XP SP2 setup is FAT32. Main OS partition of 10 GB,
mp3, gaming partition of 40 GB, multimedia (cough *pr0n* cough)
partition of 180 GB and backup drive of 190 GB. My main reason for
using FAT32 when I set up this box was to be able to access my data
with low-level DOS tools in the event of problems. Now that utilities
to access NTFS partitions under DOS (or other OS's) have matured, I
may format my OS partition as NTFS the next time I do a reload, but
see no reason to use anything other than FAT32 for the remaining
partitions. If I ever decide to ditch Microsoft for Linux, the
transition will be much easier.
Mafils
media enclosure only supports Fat32. My HD is 250gb and when I put
more than 127gb of info on the drive (I partitioned it to fat32 in
winxp using linkformatter, but that only allowed one partition) the
files are corrupt. Thus, If i created two partitions of around 120gb
each, they would work.
WanderingBard
I have a slightly different need, I need to create a second partition
which is Fat32 and leave my primary NTFS partition alone. I need to do
this because I have to perform Forensic Backups of computers, and the
Linux-based Forensic software requires a FAT32 partition to operate.
--
WanderingBard
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DL
You may need a third party utility
"WanderingBard" <WanderingB...@DoNotSpam.com> wrote in message
news:WanderingB...@DoNotSpam.com...
mngrl1
bla bla bla bla cluster size just help the poor man out!
dude create 2 ntfs partions 125gb each using disc management then open
up dos prompt and type
Format (drive letter) say its E: then /v:fat32
so it'll look like this
Format E: /v:fat32
then do your second partion
HOW HARD IS IT GUYS?
--
mngrl1
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Shenan Stanley
> bla bla bla bla cluster size just help the poor man out!
>
> dude create 2 ntfs partions 125gb each using disc management then
> open up dos prompt and type
>
> Format (drive letter) say its E: then /v:fat32
>
> so it'll look like this
>
> Format E: /v:fat32
>
> then do your second partion
>
> HOW HARD IS IT GUYS?
Perhaps if mor could see the entire ancient (6+month old) conversation -
your response *might* make some sense?
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware/browse_frm/thread/cc6e9978deaddbfd/f457a5c02ded0311#f457a5c02ded0311
In any case, I think it was wise to educate someone on what they were
planning on doing and the drawbacks of it. Windows XP will not format
greater than 32GB with FAT32 natively...
Unfortunately - like so many - "Chip" never did return. Nor did the second
poster (Mafils). They may or may not have been helped. Probably will never
know with a post this old.
Limitations of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314463
Some solutions were given to format GREATER than 32GB with FAT32 formatting.
Here's one:
If you are attempting to format with the native utilities in Windows XP -
and the drive/partition is larger than 32GB - the FAT32 option will not be
available. You are welcome to utilize a third-party utility.
Example:
Format larger than 32GB FAT32 within Windows XP with this utility:
http://www1.mager.org/mkdosfs/
--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
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