Using Windows XP Professional SP3, how do I reformat an external hard drive as FAT32?

Using Windows XP Professional SP3, how do I reformat an external hard drive as FAT32?

I'll soon be getting a new laptop with Windows Vista or Windows 7 and turning my current laptop into a Linux box. Since FAT32 works out of the box on both Windows and Linux machines and I've had some problems with Linux and working with NTFS drives in the past (although things might have gotten better - I'll be playing around with it, for sure), I want to back up my important files to my external hard drive, but I want it in FAT32 format for the time being. The only option there is when I go to format the drive is NTFS, though.

Asked by: Guest | Views: 347

Total answers/comments: 3

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Guest [Entry]

It's a limitation of Windows XP. It can read FAT32 drives larger than 32GB, but it cannot format over 32GB. Either boot up with a DOS or Windows 98 boot disk and format it there (with large hard drive support) or download and use fat32format.

Guest [Entry]

"You can always install NTFS-3G and just leave the drives NTFS. I have used it in both Linux and MacOSX for years with no problems reading and writing NTFS drives. It is constantly updated and most definitly stable. I don't install a Linux box without it.

It is currently also included in quite a few distros, although not enabled by default."

Guest [Entry]

I would use a linux live-cd to temporarily boot it under Linux and create the partition. As somebody said, Windows can happily read a >32Gb partition but not create them