Format command for large drives

[gfincati]

I have a Maxtor (5000LE) removable 80g drive and it comes with one single partition formatted for fat 32. I have had some problems and would like to re-format with fat 32, but it seems Windows 2000 is not capable of doing this. I would rather not format to NTFS as I use a dual boot with Windows ME. Any suggestions?


GF

 

[Seaspray0]

Windows 2000 will format using NTFS, FAT32, or FAT16. Right click my computer, manage, go to disk management. right click partition, format, and you can choose FAT32 from there.

 

[wolluf]

Win2k won't create/format Fat32 partitions over 32GB (though it can use them) - so you need another tool, like fdisk/format from preferably winME (get a winME boot disk from here

http://www.bootdisk.com)

- the 98 version needs a patch for partitions over 64GB (

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q263044

- note one of links from here also mentions that the format command misreports partition size, but actually works ok).
So boot from winME boot disk & assuming it can see your drive, either just use its format command or use its fdisk (again, if it can see your drive - make sure you use option 5 to change to the right drive) to delete & recreate partition.

PS. Of course, if you've a copy of Partition Magic around, just use that!

 

[gfincati]

Thanks for the tips and just for the record here is a reply I received from Maxtor support. "I understand that you would like to format your 5000LE drive as FAT32 instead of NTFS. You do not need any special utilities to do this. You can either create FAT32 partitions that are smaller than 32 GB by using the Windows 2000 Disk Management utility. Or, you may also format the entire 80 GB with FAT32 from within Windows Millennium by right-clicking on its drive letter and selecting format."

GF