2nd hard drive format question

[Guest Ed Mc]

I have installed a 2nd (slave) hard drive, but, its formatted

FAT32. If I right click on the drive in Disk Management I don't have

an "initialize" option. Just "properties", or, delete partition. How

do I turn it into NTFS? I'm assuming I need to do this for the drive

to show up in My Computer. It does show up in BIOS etc. Thank you all.

--

Semper Fi

[Guest John John (MVP)]

Re: 2nd hard drive format question

 

Assign the drive a letter and then re-format the drive to NTFS, or if

the drive contains data that you want to save you can use the Convert

utility to convert it from FAT32 to NTFS. Look in your help files for

more information.

 

John

 

Ed Mc wrote:

> I have installed a 2nd (slave) hard drive, but, its formatted

> FAT32. If I right click on the drive in Disk Management I don't have an

> "initialize" option. Just "properties", or, delete partition. How do I

> turn it into NTFS? I'm assuming I need to do this for the drive to show

> up in My Computer. It does show up in BIOS etc. Thank you all.

[Guest Patrick Keenan]

Re: 2nd hard drive format question

 

 

"Ed Mc" <namvtn@comcast.invalid> wrote in message

news:4OKdnXdotfcDwznVnZ2dnUVZ_uKdnZ2d@comcast.com...

> I have installed a 2nd (slave) hard drive, but, its formatted FAT32.

> If I right click on the drive in Disk Management I don't have an

> "initialize" option. Just "properties", or, delete partition. How do I

> turn it into NTFS? I'm assuming I need to do this for the drive to show up

> in My Computer. It does show up in BIOS etc. Thank you all.

> --

> Semper Fi

 

You won't have the initialise option on a partitioned disk; it's no longer

needed, so it's not available.

 

You can either use the Format command, or from a command prompt, the Convert

command to change this to NTFS.

 

However, conversion to NTFS is *not* required to have the drive appear in My

Computer. If it doesn't appear, it likely doesn't have a drive letter

assigned.

 

If there is data on the drive, right-click on the partition display, not in

the left-hand column, and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths. Then you

can go to a command prompt and use Convert if desired, but at this point it

should appear.

 

Alternately, you can go to a command prompt and use Diskpart, listing the

disks, selecting the correct disk, list the partitions, then select the

correct partition, and finally use the ASSIGN command, which will give that

partition the next available drive letter. End with Exit. The drive

should appear in My Computer and you can use the Convert command if you need

to.

 

If there's no data on the drive, delete the partition, then re-create it,

and format it. You will be asked what drive letter to assign as part of

this. Once that's done, the drive should appear in My Computer.

 

If you

[Guest HeyBub]

Re: 2nd hard drive format question

 

Ed Mc wrote:

> I have installed a 2nd (slave) hard drive, but, its formatted

> FAT32. If I right click on the drive in Disk Management I don't have

> an "initialize" option. Just "properties", or, delete partition. How

> do I turn it into NTFS? I'm assuming I need to do this for the drive

> to show up in My Computer. It does show up in BIOS etc. Thank you all.

 

You do NOT need to reformat the drive. XP handles FAT32 quite well.

[Guest sgopus]

Re: 2nd hard drive format question

 

Yeah, but why would want to use FAT 32, when NTFS is much better at handling

bigger files and error recovery

 

"HeyBub" wrote:

> Ed Mc wrote:

> > I have installed a 2nd (slave) hard drive, but, its formatted

> > FAT32. If I right click on the drive in Disk Management I don't have

> > an "initialize" option. Just "properties", or, delete partition. How

> > do I turn it into NTFS? I'm assuming I need to do this for the drive

> > to show up in My Computer. It does show up in BIOS etc. Thank you all.

>

> You do NOT need to reformat the drive. XP handles FAT32 quite well.

>

>

>

[Guest Ed Mc]

Re: 2nd hard drive format question

 

Ed Mc wrote:

> I have installed a 2nd (slave) hard drive, but, its formatted

> FAT32. If I right click on the drive in Disk Management I don't have an

> "initialize" option. Just "properties", or, delete partition. How do I

> turn it into NTFS? I'm assuming I need to do this for the drive to show

> up in My Computer. It does show up in BIOS etc. Thank you all.

Thanks to all who replied. (John John, Patrick, and HeyBub). The

only option available to me in Disk Mgmt. was "delete partition",

which I did...... then I created another one and a sweet 'Wizard'

appeared and handled the rest. The drive was redone using a Maxtor

factory disk, but, it had asked me for a startup disk prior to

formatting. I only had a WinME one so I used it. The diskpart advice

was a great learning experience. Thanks again everyone.

 

--

Semper Fi