How to format FAT32 in Windows XP?

[Guest Bill in Co.]

Re: How to format FAT32 in Windows XP?

 

M.I.5¾ wrote:

> "Anna" <myname@myisp.net> wrote in message

> news:%23xx%23VPleIHA.5984@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

>>

>>> PD43 wrote:

>>>> Nope. When you boot to DOS, it can't see an NTFS partition.

>>

>>

>> "Bill in Co." <not_really_here@earthlink.net> wrote in message

>> news:OYxCtykeIHA.536@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

>>> Except with third party tools.

>>

>>

>> Well, PD43 (& Bill), not exactly...

>>

>> A DOS boot disk, e.g., a Win9x/Me "Startup Disk", will "see" NTFS

>> partitions very well. At least for the most part. The *only* NTFS

>> partitions it will not recognize are those logical drives created in an

>> extended partition.

>>

>

> They most certainly don't. Why would a Win9x Startup disk be able to see

> a

> NTFS partitions when the operating system they support doesn't?

>

> Unless you have loaded some third party driver on yours.

[Guest Bill in Co.]

Re: How to format FAT32 in Windows XP?

 

M.I.5¾ wrote:

> "Anthony W" <technojock@yahoo.com> wrote in message

> news:gwJxj.13402$o23.8015@trndny09...

>> Bill in Co. wrote:

>>

>>>> A DOS boot disk, e.g., a Win9x/Me "Startup Disk", will "see" NTFS

>>>> partitions

>>>> very well. At least for the most part. The *only* NTFS partitions it

>>>> will

>>>> not recognize are those logical drives created in an extended

>>>> partition.

>>>> Anna

>>>

>>> Not on my system it doesn't.

>>> Not unless I have NTFSDOS (or whatever) loaded. We must have different

>>> systems. :-)

>>>

>>> Besides which, AFAIK, it is impossible for DOS-based enviroment to see

>>> NTFS partitions *unless* some NTFS driver has been loaded for it on that

>>> disk. And it's not on a standard Win9x/DOS startup disk.

>>

>> Dos Fdisk will see NTFS partitions but it cannot read them and I think

>> that's what Anna was taking about.

>>

>

> To clarify: what I think you are saying is that the Win9x version of FDISK

> will recognise and allow you to delete NTFS partitions. What it can't do

> is

> create new NTFS partitions.

 

FDISK is pretty damn limited (especially for the current era) - almost a

non-entity in my book. So what it can't do - would fill a book, and I

rarely, if ever, use it anymore. That's why I said what I said (i.e, on a

DOS bootable disk, you essentially have no real access (in the broader

sense) to NTFS partitions. And just being able to create or delete some

(and even those are restricted in size) is not what I would call real

access.

[Guest John John]

Re: How to format FAT32 in Windows XP?

 

M.I.5¾ wrote:

> "Anthony W" <technojock@yahoo.com> wrote in message

> news:gwJxj.13402$o23.8015@trndny09...

>

>>Bill in Co. wrote:

>>

>>

>>>>A DOS boot disk, e.g., a Win9x/Me "Startup Disk", will "see" NTFS

>>>>partitions

>>>>very well. At least for the most part. The *only* NTFS partitions it

>>>>will

>>>>not recognize are those logical drives created in an extended partition.

>>>>Anna

>>>

>>>Not on my system it doesn't.

>>>Not unless I have NTFSDOS (or whatever) loaded. We must have different

>>>systems. :-)

>>>

>>>Besides which, AFAIK, it is impossible for DOS-based enviroment to see

>>>NTFS partitions *unless* some NTFS driver has been loaded for it on that

>>>disk. And it's not on a standard Win9x/DOS startup disk.

>>

>>Dos Fdisk will see NTFS partitions but it cannot read them and I think

>>that's what Anna was taking about.

>>

>

>

> To clarify: what I think you are saying is that the Win9x version of FDISK

> will recognise and allow you to delete NTFS partitions. What it can't do is

> create new NTFS partitions.

 

You don't "create" NTFS partitions, or FAT16 or FAT32 partitions. Fdisk

cannot create an NTFS or FAT32 partition. All that fdisk can do is

create the partitions, it cannot give them a file system. The file

system of the partition (NTFS, FAT32, etc) is established when the

partition is formatted, with DOS format.com establishes the file system

for the partition and, of course, format.com cannot format to the NTFS

file system.

 

John

[Guest HeyBub]

Re: How to format FAT32 in Windows XP?

 

PD43 wrote:

> "Bill in Co." <not_really_here@earthlink.net> wrote:

>

>>> Don't see any questions. In my world a question ends with "?".

>>

>> I thought I had asked you what YOU used in its place (i.e., to be

>> able to access NTFS partitions without windows). And you didn't

>> have an answer.

>

> Nope... you didn't ask. Go to Google Groups and find this thread for

> confirmation.

>

> I access my disks from within Windows entirely.

>

> If I wanna play with partitioning, I use Partition Magic 8.

 

People who use Google Groups smell funny.

[Guest Anna]

Re: How to format FAT32 in Windows XP?

 

> "Anna" <myname@myisp.net> wrote in message

> news:%23xx%23VPleIHA.5984@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...

>> A DOS boot disk, e.g., a Win9x/Me "Startup Disk", will "see" NTFS

>> partitions very well. At least for the most part. The *only* NTFS

>> partitions it will not recognize are those logical drives created in an

>> extended partition.

 

 

"M.I.5¾" <no.one@no.where.NO_SPAM.co.uk> wrote in message

news:47c7b62f$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net...

> They most certainly don't. Why would a Win9x Startup disk be able to see

> a NTFS partitions when the operating system they support doesn't?

>

> Unless you have loaded some third party driver on yours.

 

 

M.I.5 (& others)...

Judging from the "controversy" my comment has generated I suppose I used the

word "see" too casually. Let me explain...

 

If you boot to a DOS floppy disk such as a Win9x/Me Startup Disk, and access

the FDISK command, DOS will recognize (perhaps that's a better word than

"see") any NTFS partitions created on the HDD (with the exception noted

above).

 

True, the actual contents of any of those NTFS partitions would not be

shown, merely the amount of disk-space allotted to the NTFS partition(s). A

user would be able, of course, to delete any or all of those NTFS partitions

using the FDISK command.

 

And true, should the user desire to create/format partitions on the HDD from

the DOS commands, those partitions would have to be FAT32 partitions.

 

I trust this makes things clearer.

Anna

[Guest Terry R.]

Re: How to format FAT32 in Windows XP?

 

The date and time was 2/28/2008 6:30 PM, and on a whim, Colin Barnhorst

pounded out on the keyboard:

> I don't need to. What issue do you think I'm having? I only made a

> comment.

>

 

As did I. Not that you are having an issue. You said in order for your

Macbook to share a drive that it HAD to be fat32. So I was just

wondering if you'd tried any 3rd party tool for NTFS. It could be

helpful info if you had.

 

On one mixed network I admin, we have Mac users putting files all the

time on NTFS network drives. That's why I was surprised to hear this is

a problem. Once you brought up that info, I researched it to see that

Tiger is the only version that has limited write capabilities, which

surprised me in light of the network above.

 

--

Terry R.

 

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