Guest Paul Randall Posted September 22, 2008 Posted September 22, 2008 Hi, I'm running WXP SP2 on a two-year old Compaq laptop. A month ago, I formatted three 2-GB thumb drives, one in Fat16, one in Fat32, and one in NTFS format, but I think I may have done this on another computer, perhaps with a Vista OS. I can write to and read from all three of these thumb drives on this laptop. If I right click on any of these three thumb drives in My Computer and choose Format, I get only two choices: Fat 16 and Fat 32 for 2GB thumb drives and only the Fat 32 choice for 4 GB thumb drives. Seems like I should at least be able to do a NTFS reformat of the thumb drive that is currently NTFS. I've seen other threads that talk about no need for NTFS format on thumb drives unless files greater than 2 GB are involved, but there is also the problem that Fat 32 does not store Unicode file names properly, and this is the feature I need. Right now, I only have this laptop available. So how can I format a thumb drive as NTFS on a WXP SP2 system? -Paul Randall
Guest Nepatsfan Posted September 22, 2008 Posted September 22, 2008 Re: How to format thumb drive as NTFS? "Paul Randall" <paulr90@aol.com> wrote in message news:ut6GtjQHJHA.4884@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... > Hi, > I'm running WXP SP2 on a two-year old Compaq laptop. A month ago, I formatted > three 2-GB thumb drives, one in Fat16, one in Fat32, and one in NTFS format, > but I think I may have done this on another computer, perhaps with a Vista OS. > I can write to and read from all three of these thumb drives on this laptop. > If I right click on any of these three thumb drives in My Computer and choose > Format, I get only two choices: Fat 16 and Fat 32 for 2GB thumb drives and > only the Fat 32 choice for 4 GB thumb drives. Seems like I should at least be > able to do a NTFS reformat of the thumb drive that is currently NTFS. > > I've seen other threads that talk about no need for NTFS format on thumb > drives unless files greater than 2 GB are involved, but there is also the > problem that Fat 32 does not store Unicode file names properly, and this is > the feature I need. > > Right now, I only have this laptop available. So how can I format a thumb > drive as NTFS on a WXP SP2 system? > > -Paul Randall > See if the information in this article helps. How do I format a USB Flash Drive to NTFS file system? http://www.ntfs.com/quest22.htm Good luck Nepatsfan
Guest olfart Posted September 23, 2008 Posted September 23, 2008 Re: How to format thumb drive as NTFS? "Paul Randall" <paulr90@aol.com> wrote in message news:ut6GtjQHJHA.4884@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... > Hi, > I'm running WXP SP2 on a two-year old Compaq laptop. A month ago, I > formatted three 2-GB thumb drives, one in Fat16, one in Fat32, and one in > NTFS format, but I think I may have done this on another computer, perhaps > with a Vista OS. I can write to and read from all three of these thumb > drives on this laptop. If I right click on any of these three thumb > drives in My Computer and choose Format, I get only two choices: Fat 16 > and Fat 32 for 2GB thumb drives and only the Fat 32 choice for 4 GB thumb > drives. Seems like I should at least be able to do a NTFS reformat of the > thumb drive that is currently NTFS. > > I've seen other threads that talk about no need for NTFS format on thumb > drives unless files greater than 2 GB are involved, but there is also the > problem that Fat 32 does not store Unicode file names properly, and this > is the feature I need. > > Right now, I only have this laptop available. So how can I format a thumb > drive as NTFS on a WXP SP2 system? > > -Paul Randall > D/L the HP USB flash drive format tool from http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=197 You can also make the flash drive bootable
Guest JF Posted September 23, 2008 Posted September 23, 2008 Re: How to format thumb drive as NTFS? *Bonjour Paul Randall * ! <news:ut6GtjQHJHA.4884@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl> > I get only two choices: Fat 16 and Fat 32 > for 2GB thumb drives and only the Fat 32 choice for 4 GB thumb drives. Seems > like I should at least be able to do a NTFS reformat of the thumb drive that > is currently NTFS. Start>Run>cmd /k convert /? -- Regards, Jean-François
Guest Paul Randall Posted September 23, 2008 Posted September 23, 2008 Re: How to format thumb drive as NTFS? "JF" <JF@-> wrote in message news:OAyymiVHJHA.3932@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... > *Bonjour Paul Randall * ! > <news:ut6GtjQHJHA.4884@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl> > >> I get only two choices: Fat 16 and Fat 32 for 2GB thumb drives and only >> the Fat 32 choice for 4 GB thumb drives. Seems like I should at least be >> able to do a NTFS reformat of the thumb drive that is currently NTFS. > > Start>Run>cmd /k convert /? Thank you Nepatsfan, olfart, and Jean-François. I tried all three methods, on three new unused 4GB thumb drives. All three methods worked. Thanks to olfart, I now have a slightly newer version of the HP USB flash drive format tool too. -Paul Randall
Recommended Posts