FAT32 formatting question

[starwarsdad]

I need to format a 36GB HD FAT32. I tried doing it through the Drive Manangement console in 2K and it said the drive was too large and format not supported. I had quick format checked. Is the drive just too large to quick format or what?


Thanks!

By the way, if it matters, it is a SCSI drive.

 

[Semimaker]

Way too big to format as FAT32, you need to either split the drive or format using NTFS.

Cheers

 

[MetroRider]

startwardad:

there is a way to format that drive in FAT32. In general, Win2k and XP do not allow to format a hard-drive that is bigger than 32GB in FAT32. However, there is a way around that limitation. You can always use a good win98 boot-disk, and use the format command there, and let it format the hard-drive for you.

In you situation, you have a SCSI drive, which apparently does not seem to be your boot-drive. What you could do is boot off of a floppy disk, and run the FDISK command, and break off that drive through there. Once you have set a separate partition for that 36GB scsi drive, reboot and boot off the floppy again, and now proceed to format the drive with the format X: with 'X' being the letter of the new drive just created after you had finished previously fdisk'ing it.

Once the format of that SCSI drive is done, just reboot back into Windows 2000 and it should be recognized just fine by the system.

I hope this helps, and feel free to ask/post any more questions that you might have here.

good luck

-David

 

[starwarsdad]

I am trying to format it through the Drive Management Console now. I did not select the quick format option this time. So far, so good. As for why FAT32, I never argue with a customer. That's what they ordered.


Thanks for the answers. I'll let you know how it turns out through the console this way.

 

[NogginBoink]

Win2K imposes an aritifical limitation: though Fat32 will work on drives >32GB, W2K won't let you format a partition larger than that.

This is done to encourage customers to go to NTFS which is, in my opinion, a Good Thing. NTFS is just so much more robust than FAT that there are very few persuasive reasons to use FAT.

 

[starwarsdad]

you guys are preaching to the choir. I haven't used fat32 in 3 years. I was asked to do it by a customer. Thanks for the heads up on the artificial cap!

 

[MetroRider]

personally though, i still love using FAT32. I rarely ever format a drive to NTFS, and that is only for someone in an office/business environment. i have a bunch of friends who have XP formatted with an NTFS drive, and every time they have a problem, they always tell me how their C:\ drive has "disappeared" when using the boot-disk

for people like them, to me it seems that FAT32 is the better solution due to that type of problem. Yes, I know that NTFS-DOS can be used to see the drive. I infact have and use NTFS-DOS Pro myself for those situations, but it is not something which each of them has. As for the trade-offs of FAT32 vs. NTFS, i do know them, but i just find FAT32 to be working fine for me at the moment.

Good luck on that fat32 format, as i didnt know or think that it being in "quick-format" mode would make a difference.

 

[Nothinman]

personally though, i still love using FAT32.

FAT needs to die, it's a terrible hack of a filesystem.

i have a bunch of friends who have XP formatted with an NTFS drive, and every time they have a problem, they always tell me how their C:\ drive has "disappeared" when using the boot-disk

Your friends should learn to use the right tool for the job, and using a DOS boot disk to fix a problem in XP isn't it.

 

[MetroRider]

Your friends should learn to use the right tool for the job, and using a DOS boot disk to fix a problem in XP isn't it.

That may very well be true, so I guess I would have to refer them to user Nothingman on the AT forums, who is an experienced and computer savy person, not to mention a Diamond Member too

Anyways... with all joking aside, i hope starwarsdad is able to accomplish the FAT32 task...

 

[Kayen]

lol, you are right metro

notice he doesnt say what ARE the right tools

I guess he wants you to grovel for those answers.

anyway, if you use FAT32, a dos(Win98) boot disk IS the right tool.

I only use NTFS on my VidCap partition to avoid the 4gig limit

The average person doesnt care about encrypted file systems or journaling, and with Win2ks stability, you dont worry that much about
lost clusters

NTFS locks me out of MY computer when Win2k fails. I cant go in and run dos programs/utilities. Im limited to the recovery console. ERD Commander is nice, but pricey. Shouldnt the OS have ERDCommander functionality built in for gods sake ? FAT32 gives you more OPTIONS. mmm thats good right ?!!

NTFS is superior the way HDTV is superior, the PRICE IS HIGH for questionable ?features?. In practice you wont notice the benefits other then the 4gig files size/32gig Drive Management limit.

A Win98 boot disk will format a 32+gig HD just fine. AND FASTER than drive manager too !!

or better yet, dual boot with linux and use it to create your partitions.
the command line still rules

 

[Derango]

FAT 32 is a TERRIBLE filesystem. corrupton is much more common in FAT than it is with NTFS. NTFS will self-repair itself if somthing goes wrong, greatly increasing your chances of keeping your data, plus its faster on larger partitions. FAT should have died years ago.

Anyone who uses FAT32 on a OS that supports NTFS (unless they are dual booting with an OS that doesn't support NTFS well (linux) or at all (Win9x/ME) ) deserves what's comming to them.

Maybe if you spent just a little time and actually learned how to recover NTFS with a computer problem occurs, you wouldn't be locked out. But hey, you seem to be too lazy to start living in the present. Instead you cling to a crappy filesystem that's just a slight update of what we were using in DOS. And it wasn't even good then! This is a good thing...how?

 

[Nothinman]

notice he doesnt say what ARE the right tools

I guess he wants you to grovel for those answers.

God, do I have to spell everything out? There's tons of information on MS' site and that can be found via google, none of it is hard to find. 9/10s of the time the recovery console is enough to get you back into Windows to fix whatever's broke, the other 1/10th of the time it's a BSOD from a driver or what not and you can't fix that from a DOS prompt either.

The average person doesnt care about encrypted file systems or journaling, and with Win2ks stability, you dont worry that much about
lost clusters

When you have an 8 yr old that just pulls the power you'll be glad you had a journaled filesystem. I would say it's just as important, if not more so, for a home user because home users don't generally have good backups like big companies do and a journaled filesystem can save you from hours of reinstalling or restoring from the factory CD.

 

[c0rv1d43]

NTFS locks me out of MY computer when Win2k fails. I cant go in and run dos programs/utilities. Im limited to the recovery console. ERD Commander is nice, but pricey. Shouldnt the OS have ERDCommander functionality built in for gods sake ? FAT32 gives you more OPTIONS. mmm thats good right ?!!

NTFS is superior the way HDTV is superior, the PRICE IS HIGH for questionable ?features?. In practice you wont notice the benefits other then the 4gig files size/32gig Drive Management limit.

Heh-heh. Still using wooden wheels? Because I would understand. No, really, I would. Because you can't repair a flat tire with wood. So, like, what good is all that rubber stuff, anyway?

The only increased options provided by FAT32 are the increased number of ways Murphy can play with your data.

- Collin