Wednesday, 6 January 2010

NTFS, FAT FAT32 and large harddrives.

PROBLEM: connect a USB drive to a device that prefers FAT32 or FAT (and not NTFS).
Sub-PROBLEM: Windows cannot go bigger than 32GB using FAT32.
The possible solutions are copiously stated here: http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/formatting-external-hard-drive-to-fat-32/, but I foundthe command line provided by http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm absolutley instantaneous.
Had I a Paypal account I would even have donated :)

Here's how easy it was.

Download and unzip
C:\>cd fat32f

C:\fat32f>dir
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 5F1F-5DF5

Directory of C:\fat32f

06/01/2010  09:15 p.m.    <DIR>          .
06/01/2010  09:15 p.m.    <DIR>          ..
02/03/2009  11:47 p.m.            49,233 fat32format.exe
1 File(s)         49,233 bytes
2 Dir(s)  21,392,437,248 bytes free

C:\fat32f>fat32format g:
Warning ALL data on drive 'g' will be lost irretrievably, are you sure
(y/n) :y
Size : 40GB 78170242 sectors
512 Bytes Per Sector, Cluster size 32768 bytes
Volume ID is 1ce9:3957
32 Reserved Sectors, 9540 Sectors per FAT, 2 fats
1221111 Total clusters
1221110 Free Clusters
Formatting drive g:...
Clearing out 19176 sectors for Reserved sectors, fats and root cluster...
Wrote 9818112 bytes in 0.49 seconds, 18.94 Megabytes/sec
Initialising reserved sectors and FATs...
Done
C:\fat32f>

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