Formatting new WD 80gig in winxp. Only NTFS?

[snow patrol]

Hi there, I've currently got my 60gig maxtor as primary, and set my new WD as secondary so that I could quickly and easily format it. (I plan to swap this around and have the speedy WD as primary afterwards).

However, upon selecting 'format' on my new drive, the only file system available to format in seems to be NTFS. Now, this could be ok for me...although I've always used FAT32 in the past. Also, what should I put as allocation size?

If there's a better way to format my new drive, please fill me in

thanks, awaiting quick responces!!

 

[bacillus]

you only get the NTFS option if you try to format a partition greater than 32Gb with xp!

 

[snow patrol]

ok, I'm going to use NTFS then

 

[snow patrol]

ok another question - what should I now use to partition it?? I don't have partition magic, and would prefer not to fork out $xx for the pleasure of partitioning 1 hard disk..

 

[Shagga]

Hi Snow,

Try going to Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Computer Management --> Storage --> Disk Management. You will find all the applicable options here for formatting and Partitioning...



[edit]

Added ...and Partitioning...

 

[snow patrol]

thanks shagga!

It's formatting (in NTFS!) as we speak, so I'll partition it straight afterwards. Cheers

 

[Shagga]

Your as wise to cancel the formatting now, because you will have to re-format each partition again once it's finished...

 

[snow patrol]

Originally posted by: Shagga
Your as wise to cancel the formatting now, because you will have to re-format each partition again once it's finished...

doh.