FAT32 formatting of 120 GB firewire drive(s)

[Golem]

I just bought two 120 GB Western Digital Firewire drives
and connected them to a dual ide to firewire interface. I
am running Windows XP Pro and was able to only format them
as NTFS volumes because the Windows XP drive formatting
tool will only allow NTFS formatting. I have tried using
system boot disks (windows 98, millenium, XP)and fdisk but
the firewire drives are not recognized. Is there a way to
format these drives through firewire as FAT32 volumes???

[Danny Bleu]

Why do you want to format them as FAT32? Do you understand what the cluster size
would be? And the performance impact?

"Golem" > wrote in message
...
I just bought two 120 GB Western Digital Firewire drives
and connected them to a dual ide to firewire interface. I
am running Windows XP Pro and was able to only format them
as NTFS volumes because the Windows XP drive formatting
tool will only allow NTFS formatting. I have tried using
system boot disks (windows 98, millenium, XP)and fdisk but
the firewire drives are not recognized. Is there a way to
format these drives through firewire as FAT32 volumes???

[Golem]

I need to use the drives with more than one operating
system. The others require FAT32 format.


>-----Original Message-----
>Why do you want to format them as FAT32? Do you
understand what the cluster size
>would be? And the performance impact?
>
>"Golem" > wrote in message
...
>I just bought two 120 GB Western Digital Firewire drives
>and connected them to a dual ide to firewire interface. I
>am running Windows XP Pro and was able to only format them
>as NTFS volumes because the Windows XP drive formatting
>tool will only allow NTFS formatting. I have tried using
>system boot disks (windows 98, millenium, XP)and fdisk but
>the firewire drives are not recognized. Is there a way to
>format these drives through firewire as FAT32 volumes???
>
>
>.
>

[Thomas Wendell]

Does the external drive have to be 32GB or more? As that's the max size XP
can format FAT32. If you need bigger FAT32 disks, you need to create them in
the other OS's

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"Golem" > kirjoitti viestissä
...
> I need to use the drives with more than one operating
> system. The others require FAT32 format.
>
>
> >-----Original Message-----
> >Why do you want to format them as FAT32? Do you
> understand what the cluster size
> >would be? And the performance impact?
> >
> >"Golem" > wrote in message
> ...
> >I just bought two 120 GB Western Digital Firewire drives
> >and connected them to a dual ide to firewire interface. I
> >am running Windows XP Pro and was able to only format them
> >as NTFS volumes because the Windows XP drive formatting
> >tool will only allow NTFS formatting. I have tried using
> >system boot disks (windows 98, millenium, XP)and fdisk but
> >the firewire drives are not recognized. Is there a way to
> >format these drives through firewire as FAT32 volumes???
> >
> >
> >.
> >

[Danny Bleu]

One more thought, have you considered partitioning?

"Golem" > wrote in message
...
I just bought two 120 GB Western Digital Firewire drives
and connected them to a dual ide to firewire interface. I
am running Windows XP Pro and was able to only format them
as NTFS volumes because the Windows XP drive formatting
tool will only allow NTFS formatting. I have tried using
system boot disks (windows 98, millenium, XP)and fdisk but
the firewire drives are not recognized. Is there a way to
format these drives through firewire as FAT32 volumes???

[Alex Nichol]

Golem wrote:

>I just bought two 120 GB Western Digital Firewire drives=20
>and connected them to a dual ide to firewire interface. I=20
>am running Windows XP Pro and was able to only format them=20
>as NTFS volumes because the Windows XP drive formatting=20
>tool will only allow NTFS formatting. I have tried using=20
>system boot disks (windows 98, millenium, XP)and fdisk but=20
>the firewire drives are not recognized. Is there a way to=20
>format these drives through firewire as FAT32 volumes?

You would have to divide them into four equal parts of 30 GB, which XP
will create and format as FAT32. But why the objection to using NTFS?


--=20
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K.