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Solve : Best format for external USB HDD?? |
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Answer» BEST format for external USB HDD? I just plugged in my 40 GB PATA on a USB IDE whatchamacallit. I am using XP SP3 on a Dell 1705 laptop I didn't think it mattered. But just now I went to format one of my spare old HDDs I keep on hand for backups. Not that it needed it, but it is just a easy way to remove the data on it. I noticed that only two options were shown; NTFS and eFAT. So I went into the administrative tools and found the other place where you can delete and create partitions. Did tha. Now it only shows NTFS as the format. What? I have been using XP for years and never saw that before. Have I been asleep too long? When did MS change that? I am not sure if this seven matters. But it bugs me. What is going on? Why can't I format an old PATA drive as FAT32 when it is on a USB IDE whatchamacallit. Any ideas? And yes, I did Google it and did not like the only answer I found How to format external hard drive to FAT32Hey Geek have a look at this site (you are going to love the site name) and see if this helps. Don't forget to check the embedded links. http://geekdrop.com/content/how-to-format-hard-drive-to-fat32-in-windows-7-or-vista-or-in-general truenorthtruenorth, thanks. The link you cave shows you can still do in and th CMD prompt. Like this: Quote format /FS:FAT32 X:But not in Disk Manager. Why did MS make this change?NUTS! MS strikes again! (This time I did it on a 80 GB drive.) D:\DOS>format /V:BACKUP /FS:FAT32 H: The type of the file system is NTFS. The new file system is FAT32. Enter current volume label for drive H: BACKUP WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE H: WILL BE LOST! Proceed with Format (Y/N)? Y Verifying 76316M The volume is too big for FAT32. D:\DOS> Back to square one. For more years than I care to admit to, I set up all my drives, even my 1TB SATA II drive that I run XP on, using my DOS Utilities boot CD. Use FDISK to partition the drive and then use the dos Format command to format the partitions. That not only formats the partition, but it tests and certifies every sector and blocks out any bad sectors. Then you can do anything with the drive that you want. Works for me and never fails. Fer cryin out loud...just select NTFS and be done with it...I want fat32... I want fat32... I want fat32... I want fat32... I want fat32... I want fat32... Quote from: TheShadow on March 29, 2012, 05:21:38 PM That not only formats the partition, but it tests and certifies every sector and blocks out any bad sectors. only with the /U and /B switches. Even so, DOS cannot format FAT32, meaning that dealing with drives larger than 2GB is not feasible. (unless you use a illegal pirate of DOS 7; or possibly freeDOS, which seems to have all the necessary tools for FAT32 (though it seems to sport a lot of warnings for whatever reason). Starting with XP, partitions larger than 32.7GB (32768MB, I believe) cannot be formatted to FAT32. This is for several reasons. 1. The primary cause of disk problems in DOS and Windows 9x can be traced directly to file system consistency issues. NTFS is more immune to those issues because it is a transactional file system and also keeps a USN log of changes, so a change that was incomplete (as a result of a sudden loss of power) can be rolled back. Cutting power with a FAT32 left your data in the hands of lady luck. "Will the drive still have a valid FAT? How much of the data is now found in clustered marked as free within the backup FAT? Find out in the next exciting episode!". This doesn't even touch on it's lack of support for any sort of file-system level security. This applies to Internal and external drives. You can always boot up a Linux Live CD or a older version of windows (2000, for example) and format the drive that way. Just don't use Windows 98SE since it's fdisk is bugged out. XP and later will still recognize and use a file system formatted to FAT32 larger than the set limit for the formatting function. FAT32 is really only a good choice on smaller drives or flash drives; so the tool was intentionally limited so that it would not format drives larger than a certain value. The idea was that most users would TRY to use the built in formatting tool, and use one of the available options; people who truly knew what they were doing and wanted FAT32 on a larger drive for some reason (although I doubt there is much overlap between those two sets) would use some other tool to get what they wanted. Many people cite compatibility with other Operating SYSTEMS as a primary reason to use FAT32. This used to hold weight, but now all modern systems can both read and write to NTFS volumes, meaning that the primary reason to do it would be to interoperate with older operating systems, in which case you an simply format the drive with the older system anyway, making it a non-problem. Thank you, BC_Programmer . I give up! I found a 100GB drive in my junk connection. As a NTFS volume. it is very useful. Really. Made large image files on it. Works well for that purpose. No issue. Slow. As a FAT32, I am at a lose for words I can publish here. Utterly Unbelievable. Even Linux won't touch it. Hangs on FAT32 format. Every time.Explain why you need FAT32... Quote from: Geek-9pm on March 30, 2012, 12:00:42 PM As a FAT32, I am at a lose for words I can publish here. Utterly Unbelievable. Even Linux won't touch it. Hangs on FAT32 format. Every time.Interesting. Are we sure this isn't a disk level problem? Although I can't say I deal with FAT32 partitions very frequently, I've yet to encounter anything like that. (you could also try to format with Windows 2000, if you have it available). FAT32 has several critical locations that it has to store certain structures, so a problem with one of those areas (such as Track 0) could result in issues and unexpected complications that you wouldn't see with NTFS (since NTFS would just relocate the structures as needed). Whatever reasons I had for wanting FAT32 have become small in my eyes. I am now seeing the big picture. It will take a bit of time to fix it, I can only do so much on the XP laptop. The rain has let up a bit here in California., I will go out to the Barn and fire up the Windows n7 desktop and and try that. But first I have to fix a bad Ethernet connection myt router. Always something. I twill return.Good to hear the rain has let up...it's not good for FAT32.The drive is bad. Failed short test in Sea gate Tools fir DOS. Going to see if Windows 7 or XP will format it in NTFS anyway. Now I recall, there was some reason I got that drive free. Shall we mark this topic closed? Or do anyone want to see if NTFS will REVUE this drive from the grave? If SeaTools reports it bad it doesn't matter what file format is used... |
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