Format large external drive as FAT instead of NTFS

[JetBlack69]

My mom's friend's external drive decided not to work, so I had to format it to get it running again. It's 200GB, so windows XP only wants to format it as NTFS. However, they might want it to be FAT so older computers can see it.

Is there a way to format it to use FAT instead of NTFS in Windows XP? To my knowledge, once a drive is over a specific size, I think 32GB, Windows XP will only allow NTFS. I know NTFS is better than FAT, but this might be for compatibility reasons.

Thanks.

 

[NYTRIDR]

i actually think its smaller than that, more like 15 GB. but its been a long time since i used FAT for any computer. i would forget worrying about compatibility issues with older computers. most of them that old wont even run USB let alone worry about limited storage.

if you still are stuck on formatting it in FAT, partition it into two diff drives. 1 as FAT, the other as NTFS.

 

[JetBlack69]

I'm not to worried about it since I'm not sure what file system was on the before. I was just wondering if there was an easy way to do it.

Thanks.

 

[Missing Ghost]

You can't. Win XP = all the capabilities of FAT32, except formats>32GB. You'll need to format it with a DOS kernel based windows/dos. Try a win98 floppy. You can download them on the net. You can also try freedos, etc. If you don't have an fdd, it is possible to boot from a cd.

 

[Fadey]

My old system has a 160gig hdd on windows xp and its fat 32 😵

 

[Rubycon]

There's a jacked workaround that works.

Partition the drive 32GB then create a ghost image. Restore back and use the full size of the drive. Haha make SURE you partition FAT32 obviously!

 

[mgleason007]

You can't do it with FAT but should be able to format with FAT32. You should be able to do it with partition magic.

 

[JetBlack69]

Originally posted by: mgleason007
You can't do it with FAT but should be able to format with FAT32. You should be able to do it with partition magic.

I'm sorry, yes I've been talking about FAT32. Thanks 🙂

Oh yeah, one of my other computers has Partition Magic, I'll try that. Thanks.

 

[Missing Ghost]

Yes, third party softwares should work. Most good HDD brands have software for that. Everything in winxp should work except format>32GB, so use third party formatting software or older os/boot disk, boot cd, etc.
not very hard