Best way to format WD passport from NTFS to FAT32

I have a WD passport and I'd like to convert it from NTFS to FAT32. The reason is that I'm planning to buy a Philips divx player with USB and it will only work with FAT32 drives.

Thanks.

 

Copy/move all your files off.
Press Windows Key+r
type
format x: /fs:fat32
(where x is the wd passport drive letter)

alternately
Copy/move all your files off.
right-click external drive in my computer -> format
select fat32

AFAIK, you can convert from FAT to NTFS but not the other way around.

edit: I just read this and maybe Windows can't format drives larger than 32GB into FAT32/

 

Easiest way would be to copy all your data out first and use Swissknife to format as FAT32. I'm assuming you're running XP or Vista so any drive larger than something like 30 or 40 GB cannot be formatted as FAT32 with the Windows formatting tool.

 

My hard drive is 250GB so doing it in windows is not an option I guess. I'll read up on Swissknife....thanks.

 

gparted can format it too if I remember correctly. (It's not a Windows app though... you'd need to burn a livecd or something.)

 

Isn't the drive already formatted in FAT32?

 

I can only assume he had formatted it to NTFS himself.

 

Actually the drive is still in the box and was told that it's NTFS. Unless I was given the wrong info...this is the one I'm talking about. If it's not NTFS do I just take it out of the box and format it directly to FAT32...or is it already FAT32?

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=525

 

I had a 120 GB WD drive and used their software to re-format it FAT 32. IIRC, the formatter is somewhere on the Western Digital site.

 

If it's not formatted already with FAT32 you can always format it within Windows. Yes copy all files in the drive prior to doing so. On Windows Explorer, click on the external hard drive and it will give you the option of formatting the drive... NTFS or FAT32. You can do Quick or Standard formatting.

 

Just use as it comes from the box, you don't need to do anything.

I own the 320GB version of this drive. It comes pre-formatted with FAT32.

The reason for this is that it is advertised as MAC compatable and MAC's don't understand NTFS.

A windows user should run the format/convert to NTFS program on installation. You can read about it in the Users Manual: http://www.wdc.com/en/library/portable/4779-705007.pdf?wdc_lang=en

In summary it says:

Drive Format
This WD device is preformatted as a single FAT32 partition for compatibility with all updated Windows and Macintosh operating systems.

(Actually if you read reviews of this Drive, purchasers complain that they have to spend hours formating the drive to NTFS (from FAT32) and wish it came formatted that way when purchased)

 

So: I have the Elite, with the preloaded software, and I'm formatting it to NTFS right now. The question is, do I have to re download or reinstall the software files onto the drive?

I did back up everything on it....

 

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=201&sid=34&lang=en

 

I bet the reviewer will be pissed off after they found out that there's an option called "quick format".

My 250GB WD passport took about 30 seconds to format from FAT32 to NTFS.

 

It should already be formatted in FAT32 - almost all external USB drives are FAT32 for compatibility reasons.

In fact, the English-language version of the user manual that I got following the link you posted says precisely that: