How to go from NTFS to FAT32?

[Acts837]

I have a drive that was a slave drive with NTFS. I now want to make a single master drive with FAT32. Can it be done and how?

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: Acts837
I have a drive that was a slave drive with NTFS. I now want to make a single master drive with FAT32. Can it be done and how?

You need to format it to FAT32, you cant convert an NTFS partition to FAT32

 

[lenjack]

You can go from fat32 to ntfs, but not the opposite without losing all data;

 

[Acts837]

I don't care about data. It isn't allowing me to format with anything other than NTFS.

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: Acts837
I don't care about data. It isn't allowing me to format with anything other than NTFS.

WHere are you formatting it from? Windows? What operating system are you running? SOme more detail would be good

 

[Steven the Leech]

Cant you run FDISK, delete partitions/make new partition and then format? If available use Partition magic to delete partitions and format.

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: Steven the Leech
Cant you run FDISK, delete partitions/make new partition and then format? If available use ghost 2003 to delete partitions and format.

Why ghost?

Why not partition magic? Or some other varied program you have to pay for?

Infact why not do it using something free, like windows & fdisk

 

[Steven the Leech]

My bad I was thinking partition magic, edited my post.

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: Steven the Leech
My bad I was thinking partition magic, edited my post.

lol not to worry.

Either way you have to pay for pmagic, there really is no point when it can be done from windows, fdisk, and dos prompt.

Pmagic was designed originally to enable you to manage partitions without data loss.

As he is not concerned with data loss there is no need for it

 

[Steven the Leech]

I agree FDISK if you dont own a copy of partition magic. I use PM 7.0 Boot CD to do all partition sizing and formatting due the speed and ease of use, I can create multiple partitions, format them, and set one active in less than 2 minutes. The disk manufacturer may also have a good program for doing this too.

 

[Acts837]

Guess I didn't give more details up front. I tried FDISK. Keep getting error reading fixed disk. Tried Seagate Disk Utilities, updated MBR and wrote zeros across entire disk, no dice. The disk comes up error free with the utilies but I can't run FDISK, load an OS, or anything to the drive except for making it an NTFS slave in my XP rig. Any suggestions? Very frustrating since I have spent about 6.5 hours moving this drive between systems, running diagnostics, and such.

 

[Ionizer86]

Maxtor Maxblast is free and works with nonMaxtor disks as well.

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: Acts837
Guess I didn't give more details up front. I tried FDISK. Keep getting error reading fixed disk. Tried Seagate Disk Utilities, updated MBR and wrote zeros across entire disk, no dice. The disk comes up error free with the utilies but I can't run FDISK, load an OS, or anything to the drive except for making it an NTFS slave in my XP rig. Any suggestions? Very frustrating since I have spent about 6.5 hours moving this drive between systems, running diagnostics, and such.

You got MSN?

 

[Gunbuster]

Keep getting error reading fixed disk

ya think it might be broken?

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: Gunbuster

Keep getting error reading fixed disk

ya think it might be broken?

The disk comes up error free with the utilies

'Ya think the utils might of said something if it was?'

 

[MasterFlash]

Come on, pay the $30 for Partition Magic. It's well worth it over the course of a few months. Not sure why this site has a $21 link and a $26 link, found on Pricewatch.com. First Link and 2nd Link.

 

[Sid59]

pfft .. dl the the software from your hdd maker. Boot into it and then delete and format the parition fat32.

 

[MDE]

Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management. Destroy all the partitions you want.

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: Steven the Leech
I agree FDISK if you dont own a copy of partition magic. I use PM 7.0 Boot CD to do all partition sizing and formatting due the speed and ease of use, I can create multiple partitions, format them, and set one active in less than 2 minutes. The disk manufacturer may also have a good program for doing this too.

In Fdisk did you try to delete NON DOS partitions?

 

[BFG10K]

I don't care about data. It isn't allowing me to format with anything other than NTFS.

How big is the partition/drive? If it's 32 MB or higher then Windows will always default to an NTFS format.

 

[MrNarccisus]

try this.... remove all other hard drive... run the window Nt/2000/Xp setup disk.... while in set up... just delete the partion... after that... you could either: 1) do a quick format while in set up.. and after its done... reboot.. with out going further into the windows set up... or 2) simply after deleting the partion in setup... rebort and then try to fdisk it....

 

[Abhi]

With Data: Use Partition Magic 8, convert to NTFS.
Without Data: Use FDisk. Delete the parition which shows as "Unknown". Create another partition in that space of FAT32. Format.

 

[Acts837]

You got MSN?

What?

dl the the software from your hdd maker. Boot into it and then delete and format the parition fat32.

Doesn't have any loader program on it. Thr drive is inaccessible except as a slave.

Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management. Destroy all the partitions you want.

Tried this. Destroying the partition is easy. Trying to set the partition active...now that's the trick.

How big is the partition/drive? If it's 32 MB or higher then Windows will always default to an NTFS format.

Good one Master Yoda - I forgot about that.

run the window Nt/2000/Xp setup disk.... while in set up... just delete the partion

Both my W2K and XP disks give me an out of Geometry error. I read up and it is realated to the disk not having an active partition. I started out with RLL and MFM drives over ten years ago. Trust me, it isn't is easy as it may seem.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Solution thus far. I used my old copy of partition magic 6.0 and formatted the drive with FAT32. It took half the night so I have had a chance to remove out of one machine and put in as master in the other. When I get home tonight I am going to see what FDISK does now. Before FDISK would not allow me to delete partitions or anything because either it said "error reading fixed disk" or it would say "drive 1 inaccessible." This drive works as a slave and all utilities I throw at it say it's good.

 

[DannyBoy]

Do you have MSN Messenger?

 

[Jeff7]

It sounds like you have a bootable floppy with format.com and fdisk.exe on it.
If so, good. If not, get one. Bootdisk.com has good floppy disk images; I use the Win98SE one with no RAMdisk.
Also put ZAP.COM on the disk. Make sure that the hard drive you want to format is now the only drive hooked up in the system; otherwise, misuse of ZAP will destroy partition data on other hard drives. Its numbering system gets tough with things like RAID/SATA adapters in the system, if you have any.
Boot off the floppy now. Type in zap 0 to wipe out all critical system information on the drive. Now run fdisk and see what that does. Answer "Yes" to the thing about large disk support; this'll enable FAT32. If it lets you create a partition, it'll ask you to make the partition active. With the partition made, you can now reboot, using the boot disk again, and then format the drive.