how to reformat 250GB? Vista dun allow.

i've an external HDD with 250Gb. How do I reformat it? I'm using Vista. And, it doesn't seem to allow me to reformat for WD External HDD to FAT32 250GB.

pls advice

 

I think probably because Vista is based on NTFS and won't use a FAT32 drive. If I may ask why FAT32 when NTFS is so much better and efficient and I take it it's a SATA USB 2.0 drive?

I'm even looking forward to the new MS file system for Vista which is rumored to show up in SP1.

 

Vista WILL work with a Fat32 drive. I have three partitions, one is FAT32. I needed that because I have a bootable CD with PC-DOS and Ghost 2003 on it. PC-DOS can only see a Fat32 partition. Ghost 2003 can read and write NTFS or Fat32 partitions, but can only store the images and read the images using PC-DOS. Therefore the images are stored on this Fat32 partition.

I don't think there are any credible rumors about the new MS file system being in SP1. It has been shelved for a while.

Gary

P.S. I think the reason Vista is not formating the 250g drive as Fat32, is because that just might exceed the allowable size of a partition under Fat32.

 

That's correct. FAT32 has HD format limit.. I believe 120 or 160gb.

 

Thanks, I knew there was a limit, just couldn't remember what it was.

Gary

 

FAT32 cuz i'm using it as a network drive and my NAS can only read and write FAT32. it can't do so with NTFS.

do u'll know of any free software which allow me to reformat my external HDD with 250gb??

 

Quite simply, you can't.

FAT32 limitations

Gary

 

Just carve it into 2 or 3 partitions, and format each one.

 

can you tell me how to do so? e.g. which software to use etc.

Gary,

formatting FAT32 with 250gb is possible. i did it once b4. i formatted the whole 250gb b4 partitioning it individually into partitions. so, it's possible. the only prob is i can't do it now. as the software i used previously is not compatible with vista. when i installed it onto vista, it cnt even be uninstalled!

 

You don't format a drive and THEN divide it into partitons. You divide it into partitons and THEN format the partitions. There are applications out there that WILL format a single partiton larger than 32 gig in a FAT32 format, but you may run into diffculties with utilities that try to handle the larger partition sizes. If you are really set on creating one giant partition check Wikipedia under "File allocation table".

Gary

 

Hello! I have a solution to your problem, this program allows you to format a hardisk greater than 32GB in fat32. here's the link. I found this website in wikipedia. If you wish to partition the hardisk, here's the link to partition your hardisk without damaging your current files.