Format: NTFS to FAT32

I have a single hard drive divided into logical drives C, D, E, F.
Decided to format D and F drives (in Windows). Did F drive okay and then
went to do D drive, only to find the only choice in the drop-down menu is
NTFS. Any way to get this to format FAT32 without FDISKing or some other
radical approach?

Running Windows 2003 Server.
Originally set up all partions in FAT32.



darkrats

Howdy!

"darkrats" <> wrote in message
news:Lezsb.377661$6C4.129330@pd7tw1no...
> I have a single hard drive divided into logical drives C, D, E, F.
> Decided to format D and F drives (in Windows). Did F drive okay and then
> went to do D drive, only to find the only choice in the drop-down menu is
> NTFS. Any way to get this to format FAT32 without FDISKing or some other
> radical approach?

Why are you formating them? Would not a delete-all do the job?

Second, how large? I've not seen in 2K3 Server, but in 2K and XP,
if it was 32G or larger, NTFS was the only choice.

Well, you COULD boot from a Win98 boot diskette and format that way
....

RwP

In news:Lezsb.377661$6C4.129330@pd7tw1no,
darkrats <> decided to type the following message
> I have a single hard drive divided into logical drives C, D, E, F.
> Decided to format D and F drives (in Windows). Did F drive okay and
> then went to do D drive, only to find the only choice in the
> drop-down menu is NTFS. Any way to get this to format FAT32 without
> FDISKing or some other radical approach?
>
> Running Windows 2003 Server.
> Originally set up all partions in FAT32.
>
>
>
> darkrats

I think you have to format all of your drives to FAT32. I am not sure on
this though. Good luck.

Powerquest Partition Magic

On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 23:20:11 GMT, "darkrats" <>
wrote:

>I have a single hard drive divided into logical drives C, D, E, F.
>Decided to format D and F drives (in Windows). Did F drive okay and then
>went to do D drive, only to find the only choice in the drop-down menu is
>NTFS. Any way to get this to format FAT32 without FDISKing or some other
>radical approach?
>
>Running Windows 2003 Server.
>Originally set up all partions in FAT32.
>
>
>
>darkrats
>

Thanks for the reply.

Been doing some reading and discovered that Windows 2K/XP/2K3 will not allow
you to format a larger than 32GB drive as FAT, only as NTFS. But also
discovered that you can format the drive as FAT if you use a Win98 bootdisk
and do the format in DOS.

In short, if you have a 32GB+ drive, you will only see NTFS in the drop down
menu. Keep them under 32GB and you will have the option of doing a format in
either file system.

darkrats



"Dr. Harvie Wahl-Banghor" <harvie_wahl-> wrote in message
news:...
> Some time, on or about: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 23:20:11 GMT, "darkrats"
> <> was criminally insane in my professional
> opinion when they claimed the following balderdash:
>
> >I have a single hard drive divided into logical drives C, D, E, F.
> >Decided to format D and F drives (in Windows). Did F drive okay and then
> >went to do D drive, only to find the only choice in the drop-down menu is
> >NTFS. Any way to get this to format FAT32 without FDISKing or some other
> >radical approach?
> >
> >Running Windows 2003 Server.
> >Originally set up all partions in FAT32.
>
> The rule is, you can go from FAT to NTFS but not from NTFS to FAT.
> The only way to go back to FAT is to delete the partition and then
> FDISK the partition to FAT.
>
> Dr Harvie Wahl-Banghor

Harrison wrote:
> Powerquest Partition Magic

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! You going to fix it for him when it ****s up, you duff
****?

>
> On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 23:20:11 GMT, "darkrats" <>
> wrote:
>
>> I have a single hard drive divided into logical drives C, D, E, F.
>> Decided to format D and F drives (in Windows). Did F drive okay and
>> then went to do D drive, only to find the only choice in the
>> drop-down menu is NTFS. Any way to get this to format FAT32 without
>> FDISKing or some other radical approach?
>>
>> Running Windows 2003 Server.
>> Originally set up all partions in FAT32.
>>
>>
>>
>> darkrats

--
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