Formatting question #2

[The JoJo]

How do you usually handle a situation where the OS is Win2k or XP, and you need to format a >40GB drive with fat32 (for easy read/write access from different operating systems) ? What steps do you take to partition and format the drive?
Windows limits you to a max of 32 (or was it 36GB?) FA32 partitions .

 

[Bozo]

I've formated 40 and 60GB hard drives in FAT32 without problems. I'm running Win98se on one.

Bozo :mrgrn:

 

[The JoJo]

Yup, and I've got 120GB drives with FAt32, but the problem is that you have to format it with another operating system than win2k or XP. They will only let you format a drive <32GB with FAT32, otherwise you have to use NTFS.

So you need to make the partition, use a bootdisk with win98 on it and then format it, right? Does anyone have a better solution?

 

[zx]

Partition Magic (LOL?)

 

[Fushigi]

Ghost's GDISK?

 

[blakerwry]

why not use a DOS(preferably the version that comes with win98se or winME) bootdisk and Fdisk? it's fast, simple and easy.

 

[LunarMist]

You could boot to the DOS version of Partition Magic and format even a 250 GB drive as FAT32 in about a minute. It beats the hell out of the format command.

 

[blakerwry]

that reminds me, I should have said fast as in not much user intervention time... wait time can be quite long on a large drive/slow interface.

 

[yeti]

foramtting #2

I understand that Partion Magic will do the FAT-32 job up to 250GB. Windows stops at 32 GB.

After that things get harder...

 

[Mercutio]

I always use the manufacturer's tools from the appropriate web site when formatting.

 

[honold]

i like inappropriate web sites

 

[Prof.Wizard]

Does Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Computer Management --> Storage --> Disk Management give you partition reallocating tools in Windows XP Professional?

 

[blakerwry]

Does Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Computer Management --> Storage --> Disk Management give you partition reallocating tools in Windows XP Professional?

yup.. win2k, and winXP both.

 

[Prof.Wizard]

I have reasons to believe my version of Windows XP Pro doesn't have partitioning tools... :?:
http://www.mihailidis.com/images/Partitioning.jpg

 

[blakerwry]

Those are them prof. Simple and basic... kind of like a visual fdisk + format util.

 

[Prof.Wizard]

Can I change the partition sizes on-the-fly as in PartinionMagic?

 

[blakerwry]

no. It's not a non-destructive partitioning tool like FIPS or partition magic.

 

[Mercutio]

If you've converted to dynamic disks and use NTFS, you can.

Also, there is a command line partition tool available in 2000/XP. It's called Diskpart, and it can do everything Disk Management does.

 

[Prof.Wizard]

If you've converted to dynamic disks and use NTFS, you can.

I have NTFS, but... dynamic disks?

 

[Mercutio]

Yeah. Right click on your drives in disk management and if there's at least 1MB of unpartitioned space you'll be able to convert to dynamic disks, which are required for 2000/XP support of more advanced data storage (e.g. software RAID) anyway.

 

[Jan Kivar]

Yeah. Right click on your drives in disk management and if there's at least 1MB of unpartitioned space you'll be able to convert to dynamic disks, which are required for 2000/XP support of more advanced data storage (e.g. software RAID) anyway.

There is no easy way back to basic disk though, Ghost or deleting all the drives (You can change back to basic disk only then) are the only options. I don't think that PM has this feature yet, and I would be too scared to use it anyway... :wink:

Jan

 

[Mercutio]

Why would you want to? Still booting into 98? Don't have a different drive (or a different machine, as is proper) for *nix?

 

[Jan Kivar]

Re-installation can be a bitch with dynamic disks. You cannot boot from a dynamic drive, if the partition wasn't bootable (active) prior conversation.

Jan