I have an external 160gig USB drive that formatted as NTFS. How can I
convert it back to FAT32. I am willing to loose data on it to reformat. My
problem is that, under Vista, the only format option I have is NTFS. I want
to use it as an external drive for my Sony PS3.



Tks,
CM

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...c6e821033.mspx
--
Andre
Blog: http://adacosta.spaces.live.com
My Vista Quickstart Guide:
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog...3DB!9709.entry
"CSM" <csm55@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:660FD474-A5E9-4018-89EB-9A832F0F4FC6@xxxxxx

>I have an external 160gig USB drive that formatted as NTFS. How can I
>convert it back to FAT32. I am willing to loose data on it to reformat.
>My problem is that, under Vista, the only format option I have is NTFS. I
>want to use it as an external drive for my Sony PS3.
>
> Tks,
> CM

CSM wrote:

> I have an external 160gig USB drive that formatted as NTFS. How can I
> convert it back to FAT32. I am willing to loose data on it to
> reformat. My problem is that, under Vista, the only format option I
> have is NTFS. I want to use it as an external drive for my Sony PS3.
>

The drive's manufacturer may have software to partion and format the drive.
Neither XP nor Vista can format a FAT32 drive in excess of 32Mb (I'm not
sure about Win98, Win95, or Win6.1).

You'd probably be better off getting another, smaller, drive. They can be
found at the bottom of CrackerJack boxes.

"CSM" <csm55@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:660FD474-A5E9-4018-89EB-9A832F0F4FC6@xxxxxx

> I have an external 160gig USB drive that formatted as NTFS. How can I
> convert it back to FAT32. I am willing to loose data on it to reformat.

My

> problem is that, under Vista, the only format option I have is NTFS. I

want

> to use it as an external drive for my Sony PS3.
>
> Tks,
> CM
>

Vista (and XP) do not support the creating of Fat32 partitions over 32 gigs
so you will need to set the drive up from another machine if you cannot do
so from your PS3


If you have no other machines to use...
you can remove the main drive of your machine
and temporarily install the drive that's in the enclosure there.

then use a win9x boot floppy
and run fdisk and delete all
then recreate one primary partition

reboot and format

HeyBub wrote:

> CSM wrote:

>> I have an external 160gig USB drive that formatted as NTFS. How can I
>> convert it back to FAT32. I am willing to loose data on it to
>> reformat. My problem is that, under Vista, the only format option I
>> have is NTFS. I want to use it as an external drive for my Sony PS3.
>>

>
> The drive's manufacturer may have software to partion and format the drive.
> Neither XP nor Vista can format a FAT32 drive in excess of 32Mb (I'm not
> sure about Win98, Win95, or Win6.1).
>
> You'd probably be better off getting another, smaller, drive. They can be
> found at the bottom of CrackerJack boxes.
>
>

You mean 32GB?

The following is a general solution, but I have
no idea what a PlayStation can deal with. --

Download BootIt from here:
www.terabyteunlimited.com

You can do what you want for free during the
trial period, but it's also well worth the $35 price.

Create an extended partition on the disk. In
that you can have any number of logical partitions.
Create logical partitions to fill the 160 GB while
staying under the FAT32 limit.

On any disk you can have up to 4 primary partitions
(which can each hold a Windows install if desired).
Any primary partition can be created as an extended
partition, which can then hold any number of logical partitions.
For all practical purposes a primary and a logical are the
same thing. They can both hold data. The only notable
difference in usage is that Windows needs to install to a
primary partition, while Linux can install on either.

> I have an external 160gig USB drive that formatted as NTFS. How can I
> convert it back to FAT32. I am willing to loose data on it to reformat.

My

> problem is that, under Vista, the only format option I have is NTFS. I

want

> to use it as an external drive for my Sony PS3.
>
> Tks,
> CM
>

"CSM" <csm55@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:660FD474-A5E9-4018-89EB-9A832F0F4FC6@xxxxxx

>I have an external 160gig USB drive that formatted as NTFS. How can I
>convert it back to FAT32. I am willing to loose data on it to reformat.
>My problem is that, under Vista, the only format option I have is NTFS. I
>want to use it as an external drive for my Sony PS3.

All versions of Windows starting with WXPSE have been capable of using and
reading huge hard drives with FAT32 formatting. WXPSE can format these huge
hard drives, but Microsoft decided to criple the FAT32 formatting capability
of WXP and Vista, limiting it to 32GB. Go figure. I have a number of 300
GB FAT32-formatted drives which I use with WXP (USB - haven't hooked them up
to my Vista machine yet). I like being able to access them with a DOS
bootable thumb drive or CD/DVD.

I have had Norton Ghost for many years, which includes a DOS program
GDisk.exe for partitioning and formatting small and huge drives.

-Paul Randall

"NoStop" <nospam@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:CQzXi.176252$Da.170614@xxxxxx

> HeyBub wrote:
>

>> CSM wrote:

>>> I have an external 160gig USB drive that formatted as NTFS. How can I
>>> convert it back to FAT32. I am willing to loose data on it to
>>> reformat. My problem is that, under Vista, the only format option I
>>> have is NTFS. I want to use it as an external drive for my Sony PS3.
>>>

>>
>> The drive's manufacturer may have software to partion and format the
>> drive. Neither XP nor Vista can format a FAT32 drive in excess of 32Mb
>> (I'm not sure about Win98, Win95, or Win6.1).
>>

> Use Linux. It has no problem formatting large drives with FAT32.

Linux has exactly the same problems formatting fat32.
If what you say above reflects your knowledge of linux you need to take
lessons before it bites you.

"HeyBub" <heybub@xxxxxx> wrote:

>CSM wrote:

>> I have an external 160gig USB drive that formatted as NTFS. How can I
>> convert it back to FAT32. I am willing to loose data on it to
>> reformat. My problem is that, under Vista, the only format option I
>> have is NTFS. I want to use it as an external drive for my Sony PS3.
>>

>
>The drive's manufacturer may have software to partion and format the drive.
>Neither XP nor Vista can format a FAT32 drive in excess of 32Mb (I'm not
>sure about Win98, Win95, or Win6.1).

That's 32GB. Win98 and ME will create FAT32 partitions as large as you
want. They kind of had to, since there was no alternative for huge
disks. WinXP and Vista have NTFS available, which is a *much* better
choice for huge disks. FAT32 really doesn't scale up all that well.

To do this conversion non-destructively, you'll need a third party
program (Partition Magic, BootItNG, something like that). FDISK from
Win98 or WinME should be able to delete the current partition
(destroying all data stored on it), and create a new FAT32 one in its
place.

--
Tim Slattery
MS MVP(Shell/User)
Slattery_T@xxxxxx
http://members.cox.net/slatteryt