how do i format a compact flash card in fat32

[svtour1]

i wrongfully formatted my compactflash card, and now i cant get it to work. i read that i am supposed to format it in fat32, but i am using windows xp, and it only does ntfs and fat. please help me, thank you

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: svtour1
i wrongfully formatted my compactflash card, and now i cant get it to work. i read that i am supposed to format it in fat32, but i am using windows xp, and it only does ntfs and fat. please help me, thank you

it only does ntfs and fat?

woah, thats a strange assumption to make.

Windows XP does FAT32 & NTFS, but not FAT16.

I think you have yourself confused.

You should be able to format your CFC in Fat32 the same way you would normally format any drive..

 

[boomerang]

I have two options for formatting my SmartMedia cards on my XP machine. FAT32 and FAT.

And I'd better not do either of them or the card will be rendered unuseable in my camera. I know, because I have two 128MB cards here that are really light paperweights.

I don't know about CF cards, but XP and SM don't play well together.

 

[svtour1]

Originally posted by: DannyBoy

Originally posted by: svtour1
i wrongfully formatted my compactflash card, and now i cant get it to work. i read that i am supposed to format it in fat32, but i am using windows xp, and it only does ntfs and fat. please help me, thank you

it only does ntfs and fat?

woah, thats a strange assumption to make.

Windows XP does FAT32 & NTFS, but not FAT16.

I think you have yourself confused.

You should be able to format your CFC in Fat32 the same way you would normally format any drive..

thats what i thought too, but when i right click, then format, it only gives me ntfs and fat.

 

[boomerang]

Just curious if your problem occured like mine did.

I put my SM card into the reader and the Picture and Camera Wizard starts automatically. Pretty nice feature actually as it gives me the option to name the group of pictures and I can create a store folder, which by default is in My Documents/My Pictures.

So far so good. But, if I check the box for Delete pictures from this device afterwards, the card is then unreadable by my Olympus camera. All I get is card error.

I hosed the first SM card a long while back and didn't realize I had even done it until later. I just did another one over the holidays this way and realized that was how i did in the first one.

I did a lot of research and found a web site with instructions on how to repair the cards. I needed some hex editor software to do it and actually purchased the software as it was the only way to get the funtionality I needed. No go. The cards seem to be unrepairable.

I have two Sandisk cards, a Dazzle USB 2.0 reader. an Olympus camera and XP. I feel certain that XP did in the cards, but I can only imagine the finger pointing that would go on between all these parties if I tried to pursue this further.

Like I said, just curious if your circumstances are similar. Surely I can't be the only one with this problem.

 

[sinisterDei]

Last I checked when formatting a drive, Win2k/XP automagically determined which FAT level was appropriate unless it was on the borderline of which one is right, in which case it gave you the option.

Like, drive is below 2g, it formats it FAT. Drive is above 2g, formats it FAT32. Drive = 2g, says "Hey, which format do you want?"

I know you WANT FAT32, but if your card is 512m and under, I believe FAT16 is going to be a bit more efficient than FAT32 anyways, if not just flat-up equal to each other. But you may have other reasons for requiring FAT over FAT32 (camera compatability, etc...) In which case you might try this:

Start -> Run -> "cmd"
"format X: /FS:FAT32 /Q" where X is the drive-letter of the drive.

That should force a FAT32 format.