ntfs to fat32 - 600Gb external - help please :)

jake000 · 8 Jun 2008 at 00:09

I have a 600Gb USB2 External Hard Drive. I would like to change it from NTFS to FAT32. With it being bigger than 32Gb, I can't select it in Windows XP to FAT32. Is there another way I can do this?

Thank you

lord filbuster · 8 Jun 2008 at 01:18

Why? It's a bit of a downgrade isnt it?

marc2003 · 8 Jun 2008 at 02:39

try it from the command line?

format x: /fs:fat32

not sure it will work but worth a pop.

snowdog · 8 Jun 2008 at 03:20

Partitionmagic can convert I think ?

I used PM to convert a 160 gb fat32 partition to an ntfs.

Is the hdd detected at all in DOS ( not the ntfs partition but the hdd itself ?) ?
If so and if you don't mind losing the data then you could use fdisk.

thegoonden · 8 Jun 2008 at 08:39

One thing to bear in mind that you can no longer hold files larger than 4GB-ish on it. Means that even if you do convert it in place with something like PM, some stuff will not make it out the other side. So keep any big files in a safe place if you try to convert.

jake000 · 12 Jun 2008 at 11:57

Thanks for the help everyone

I tried doing it from the command line but it didn't give it a file system. Partition magic sorted it out though and its now in FAT32.

Thanks again