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I have an 256gb external hard drive formatted NTFS and I wish to reformat to FAT32.
I am trying to do this using Partition Magic 8.0, which I have never used for quite a long time.
Using this software i select the external drive which is a primary partition but when I select Convert the only options I get are Linux, Fat16 and Fat32 are greyed out.
Any help on this appreciated.
wallie
You can't convert from NTFS to FAT32, but if there is nothing on the drive, you can format it to FAT32. And you don't need Partition Magic to do this. You can use Disk Management in XP.
Why are you trying to format such a large drive to FAT32 anyway? PM can convert NTFS to FAT32, but it's 5 years old. I hope you are aware of the 4GB file size limit. If your external has 4+GB files, that may prevent conversion to FAT32.
XP will only allow creation of a 32GB FAT32 partition. Anything larger would require a third party partitioner. However, most will require a reformat rather than do a conversion. If formatting is ok, you can try Easeus or Paragon. Partition app links are in the Best of Data Storage link in my signature.
The reason I want Fat32 is to download video files from a Humax HD recorder hard drive.
The Humax only recognises Fat32 and Fat16.
wallie
I figured as much. I was expecting you to say you had a PS3 or something.Quote:
Humax HD recorder hard drive
Do you need to convert or can you format the drive?
As far as I know I cannot format the drive, so if I want to transfer data from it then I have to convert.
I read on there forum that xp3 is the way to go, but I am not sure what that is or how to go about it.
That xp3 should of been ext3
Why would you use a Linux file system on the drive? That would only make matters worse.Quote:
That xp3 should of been ext3
So that means there is data on there? Did you check the file sizes like I said?Quote:
As far as I know I cannot format the drive
I never trust conversion operations anyway. I'd make a backup of the data no matter what you decide to do.