How to reformat external harddrive from NTFS to FAT32?

amacachi · 13-08-2009 06:05PM #1

Just bought a 1.5 TB external harddrive and of course it's NTFS. Want to use it with the PS3 and the 360 so it needs to be FAT32. I'm running Vista if it makes a difference, any help appreciated.

yoyo · 13-08-2009 06:12PM

Right click on Computer shortcut in start menu>Manage>Disk Management, Locate hard drive, right click it, Choose Format, and Choose FAT32 for file system, a Quick format will just format the drive, without checking for errors, it will be much quicker, so probably worth choosing that option!

Nick

wobzilla · 13-08-2009 06:13PM

use the format command in the command prompt. type in
Format

/FS:FAT32
or E: or whatever the drive letter is

amacachi · 13-08-2009 06:33PM

wobzilla wrote: »

use the format command in the command prompt. type in
Format /FS:FAT32
or E: or whatever the drive letter is

Tried that earlier and it said I don't have the user privileges even though this is the only account on the computer, first time I've had such a problem.

yoyo wrote: »

Right click on Computer shortcut in start menu>Manage>Disk Management, Locate hard drive, right click it, Choose Format, and Choose FAT32 for file system, a Quick format will just format the drive, without checking for errors, it will be much quicker, so probably worth choosing that option!

Nick

Only options it's giving me is NTFS or exFAT, is exFAT the same as FAT32?

zod · 13-08-2009 06:54PM

have to use http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm for anything bigger than 32gb .. will lose all data

amacachi · 13-08-2009 07:37PM

zod wrote: »

have to use http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm for anything bigger than 32gb .. will lose all data

Nothing on there matches what's coming up when I try to do it.

There's a guide on Disk Management here You need to find the disk with unallocated space. Right click on it and select "New Partition" and follow these steps, clicking "Next" to get move on at each stage.
Partition Wizard starts, just click next to move on

Found the disk and right-clicked, "New Partition" wasn't one of the options.

amacachi · 14-08-2009 12:22AM

Just downloaded Swissknife but for whatever reason it's only giving me a choice of formatting in NTFS or FAT16, not FAT32. FFS.

AlmightyCushion · 14-08-2009 12:25AM

Use this.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/Fat32Formatter.shtml

amacachi · 14-08-2009 12:46AM

Thanks for that, it seems to have worked, though a ****load of errors came up when it was finished. Afraid to trust it tbh. :P

AlmightyCushion · 14-08-2009 12:48AM

It's always worked for me. Never got any errors.

amacachi · 14-08-2009 12:59AM

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

It's always worked for me. Never got any errors.

Well the laptop, PS3 and Xbox are all reading it fine and the laptop is showing that all the space has been formatted so it should be grand, thanks again, can finally get downloading again.

AlmightyCushion · 14-08-2009 01:11AM

No bother man. Glad to see it worked.

How to reformat external harddrive from NTFS to FAT32?

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