external hard drivefat32formatntfswindows
I am trying to format an external hard disk to FAT32 (I need it to work with some hardware that expects it to be in FAT32). When I am trying to format it via Windows the only option get is to format it to NTFS.
When I am trying to format one of my own partitions (on the hard disk that is running the OS) I can do it only in NTFS while another partition my OS can format in both NTFS and FAT32.
What can cause such a behavior and how can I format the external hard disk to FAT32?
I would recommend trying TestDisk, a free and open source tool that was designed to help recover broken filesystems and trashed boot sectors. Mount the drive in TrueCrypt first, and do all of your work on the decrypted drive.
It sounds like your best bet may be to try to recover the partition's MFT, or Master File Table (the rough equivalent of a Linux filesystem's superblock). A backup is stored; however, I don't know if a quick format erases the backup as well.
If the directory structure is toast, you may still be able to use an undelete tool such as Recuva, which is freeware, to recover your files. You won't get the directory structure, but if you have something really important you need back, you can sift through whatever Recuva finds.
I bet I know how this happened... You plugged in the drive and Windows claimed that it wasn't formatted (because it is encrypted and looks like gibberish to Windows), and you accidentally let it. Regardless of whether or not this is what happened, this still really annoys me.
You need to prevent Windows from associating that partition with a drive letter, which will prevent it from trying to format it. With your disk plugged in (but not mounted in TrueCrypt), fire up the built-in Windows partition editor (hit Start, type partition, and choose "Create and format hard disk partitions"). Select your encrypted partition in the diagram, and right-click it and choose "Change Drive Letter and Paths." Remove all the letters associated with the partition, confirm, and you should be set!
While LPChip's answer is 'correct' and should work in most cases unless the partition is over 32gb. I typically use a bit of third party software from ridgecrop that does the same thing but handles larger partitions. I've used their command line fat32formatter extensively over the past few years.
They have a GUI tool that more or less does what it says on the tin now. Formatting speeds are crazy fast and I've not had any issues with it.
Best Answer
Try doing it via the command prompt. Go to Start -> Execute: cmd -> Enter
Execute the following:
You don’t need to use cmd prompt at all sometimes. But the following way might actually take twice as long or not at all as the above example but you could use it if you are uncomfortable using cmd prompt.
Format the disk as NTFS using first. Once this is complete you can then right-click the partition and choose Format. In File System you can then select FAT32 from the drop down.
The reason you can't do it directly is because Windows has this limited through the GUI.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#FAT32