need to format FAT32 greater than 32Gb in WinXP, how?

[Bozz]

Anyone got any techniques other than a DOS disk and using MSDOS 7 to do the trick?

 

[Nothinman]

Nope, you need a 3rd party tool. Personally, I would use a Linux LiveCD over DOS but that's me.

 

[Bozz]

Can you suggest a 3rd party tool to do the job?

I need a FAT32 partition since Symantec Ghost works in DOS mode and I need to do a lot of back and forth imaging and testing. I also need to regularly create/delete FAT32 partitions so a quick format would be great. I might end up creating a FAT32 partition with DOS7 and leave nothing on it then create a ghost image file from it.

 

[Nothinman]

Get a copy of Ghost32 and make a BartPE disc and stop needing a FAT drive to put your ghosts.

 

[Bozz]

Thank you for your input.

Back to my first question, can anybody else help with a program or method that can quick format greater than 32Gb in WinXP as FAT32?

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: Bozz
Can you suggest a 3rd party tool to do the job?

I need a FAT32 partition since Symantec Ghost works in DOS mode and I need to do a lot of back and forth imaging and testing. I also need to regularly create/delete FAT32 partitions so a quick format would be great. I might end up creating a FAT32 partition with DOS7 and leave nothing on it then create a ghost image file from it.

Err, I don't follow. Ghost will image/restore ntfs partitions, so why is that an issue? (Not telling you to not do what you want, just trying to understand why). Fat sucks, fat > 8gig really sucks, are you really sure you need this?

 

[Smilin]

A Dos 6.x diskette, win98 boot diskette, will do just fine.

I believe you can also do it within XP itself, just not during setup. (although I've not done this silliness myself...I just know the during setup is where folks have problems.)


FAT32 sucks BTW. Be sure you are using it to cure cancer otherwise it's probably not worth whatever you are trying to do with it.

 

[Nothinman]

Err, I don't follow. Ghost will image/restore ntfs partitions, so why is that an issue? (Not telling you to not do what you want, just trying to understand why). Fat sucks, fat > 8gig really sucks, are you really sure you need this?

Yea, that second part is confusing, I thought he wanted a FAT partition to store the ghosts on since DOS won't write to NTFS partitions.

I believe you can also do it within XP itself, just not during setup. (although I've not done this silliness myself...I just know the during setup is where folks have problems.)

Nope, AFAIK both XP's format and disk management won't let you create a FAT filesystem >32G.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Err, I don't follow. Ghost will image/restore ntfs partitions, so why is that an issue? (Not telling you to not do what you want, just trying to understand why). Fat sucks, fat > 8gig really sucks, are you really sure you need this?

Yea, that second part is confusing, I thought he wanted a FAT partition to store the ghosts on since DOS won't write to NTFS partitions.

I believe you can also do it within XP itself, just not during setup. (although I've not done this silliness myself...I just know the during setup is where folks have problems.)

Nope, AFAIK both XP's format and disk management won't let you create a FAT filesystem >32G.

Outside of setup (which WON'T let you use >32Gigs) I wasn't sure myself. Did a bit of digging and it is indeed a setup-only thing. You should be able to format FAT32 beyond 32GB from disk manager....

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];310525

314463 Limitations of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;314463


...but again, Why?

 

[Nothinman]

Did a bit of digging and it is indeed a setup-only thing.

But did you actually try it? I don't have an XP system handy to try it myself on but I remember it only giving NTFS as an option for volumes >32G.

 

[Smilin]

You are correct. It will read/write but not format even outside of setup.

 

[sourceninja]

gentoo live CD or other really small live cd mkfs.vfat for the win.

 

[QueZart]

Ghost 2003 By Far the best and Most versatile backup tool ever created.
(I bought Ghost 10 But use the 2003 it comes with the most just because of this.)
Cant read from NTFS to do a restore it does back them up flawlessly however.

So Generally a FAT32 part is needed to store the GHO files on. also handy to have when messing with multi OS since most Linux version cant read/write to NTFS and Windows Cant Read/write to Linux parts a FAT32 is handy fro transferring files back and forth


And NO XP will NOT format FAT32 beyond 32GB, ran into this myself, Used a Win98 StartUp Disc to do it tho just fine

 

[BIGGDOG]

I had a flolppy disk a while back and I thought it was from the people of Free FDISK but I do not see it anymore.
I had to type at the prompt something like "w98" I will see if I can find it.
I have been able to format past 100 gigs with it.

 

[MeStinkBAD]

Go to http://www.sysinternals.com/FileAndDiskUtilities.html and download NTFSDOS. This is used to access NTFS partitions from DOS. So formatting with NTFS shouldn't be a problem.

 

[sourceninja]

Originally posted by: QueZart
Ghost 2003 By Far the best and Most versatile backup tool ever created.
(I bought Ghost 10 But use the 2003 it comes with the most just because of this.)
Cant read from NTFS to do a restore it does back them up flawlessly however.

So Generally a FAT32 part is needed to store the GHO files on. also handy to have when messing with multi OS since most Linux version cant read/write to NTFS and Windows Cant Read/write to Linux parts a FAT32 is handy fro transferring files back and forth


And NO XP will NOT format FAT32 beyond 32GB, ran into this myself, Used a Win98 StartUp Disc to do it tho just fine

Windows can read/write to ext2 and read ext3. Linux can read NTFS, and if you captive ntfs driver,s read and write ntfs.