how to format a 400gb drive as FAT32?

skanky · 30 Jan 2008 at 11:53

i have an external usb2 400gb drive which i need formatting as FAT32 as i am intending on using this drive as a ghost backup drive, tried NTFS but ghost doesnt seem to like it.

tried right click format in vista, doesnt give me a option for FAT32, then tried running cmd as a admin, then "format k: /fs:fat32" (k: is the letter for the drive) but it reports back something along the lines of volume too large.

any ideas? ideally i'd like to keep it as a single drive instead of partitioning it into two..

tj86 · 30 Jan 2008 at 11:58

Windows XP and Windows 2000 limit partition creation to no larger than 32GB on FAT32.

This limitation is by design: Microsoft wants you to use NTFS for large drives.

If you use Windows Me or Windows 98 to format a drive, XP and Win2K can use a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB; however, these OSs can't create the partition.

Also, keep in mind that when you use ATA/IDE hard disks larger than 127GB, you might need to update your computer's or hard disk controller's BIOS to properly support those larger drives.

Use this to format: http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm

skanky · 30 Jan 2008 at 12:20

had a 98 boot disk, booted, went into fdisk and the disk sizes were different and i wasnt really sure which was which so tried that program and it worked perfectly, you're a star!

tj86 · 30 Jan 2008 at 12:27

No problemo mate

skanky · 30 Jan 2008 at 12:33

and ghost is working to that drive correctly too, yey!

marc2003 · 30 Jan 2008 at 12:42

you do realise the maximum file size on a fat32 partition is 4gb. so for backups that's going to be useless??

skanky · 30 Jan 2008 at 12:51

i do, but ghost will split/span images larger than that.

marc2003 · 30 Jan 2008 at 12:53

fairy nuff. but why isn't ghost working on ntfs? must be some ancient version?

i'd really try and avoid fat32 if i could. but it's your choice.

Burnsy2023 · 30 Jan 2008 at 13:11

marc2003 said:
fairy nuff. but why isn't ghost working on ntfs? must be some ancient version? i'd really try and avoid fat32 if i could. but it's your choice.

^^
I echo this. NTFS is so much better for so many reasons. Ghost 10 included NTFS support IIRC.

Oh and if you do go NTFS, make sure you format it with large cluster sizes

Burnsy

tj86 · 30 Jan 2008 at 13:50

Yup... I should have mentioned that too lol... NTFS is what everyones using!

skanky · 30 Jan 2008 at 15:56

im using symantec ghost 11, it just seems to be that it doesnt like my USB hdd + NTFS as i can use NTFS on an internal drive no problem.