Comments on: FAT32 Format

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:29:06 +0000

Nah.. a much better option is this donation ware:

http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk

power users can enjoy the command line version.

others might enjoy the new GUI version that is visTaRD ready

^^ I formatted an older 60gig drive for a project that required FAT32

it formats a terabyte in about two seconds… error check on your own time

FIVE STARS

By: M Gissoni

M Gissoni — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:23:23 +0000

I am trying to use the WD My Passport Elite 500 Mb as an external “pen drive” to plug into my Philips DVP 5990K / 55 DVD player USB port.
An older version of the same hard disk is easily read by the DVD player as if it were a pen drive on the DVD’s USB port.
I’ve already erased all data on the WD Passport Elite and formatted it with WD’s website format utility for FAT32.
Still it does not work – that is, the DVD player says “device not supported” for the WD My Passport Elite 500 Mb.
Does anyone have any suggestions ?

By: R Hill

R Hill — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 06:19:53 +0000

I have just found a solution to the same problem in connection with the new Humax Foxsat-HDR which also requires FAT32 on external USB. Western Digital external USB drives such as My Passport Essential, My Book Essential, and Elements in sizes up to 1TB are all ready formatted in FAT32 in such a way that the 32GB limit does not apply. If you ever need to reformat them you download a special utility from the WD website. See p.3 of the on-line User Manual for the Western Digital ‘My Passport Essential’. Maxtor external drives, for example, are formatted in NTFS but it does not tell you on the box or even on the specification.

By: Lloyd Smalls

Lloyd Smalls — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:59:02 +0000

The format command only works for 32gb partitions formatted to fat32.. It also does not work for internal HDD in Vista.. Which is RETARDED since windows mobile devices will not read NTFS!?!?!?!?!

By: Dante

Dante — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 17:57:22 +0000

Hmmm… that’s nice to know. I got so bored waiting for Windows to format the drive, I just stopped it and used fat32format.

By: Martin

Martin — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 08:37:30 +0000

I do not know about Vista but the command lets you only format hard drives of 32 Gigabytes or less in XP

By: Dante

Dante — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:06:55 +0000

Just tried that format drive: /fs:fat32 in Vista. I think I like the fat32format.exe better. For my purposes, the speedier formating is a life saver. Too many stupid little drives to format at one time – boredom will kill me :)

By: Dante

Dante — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:44:57 +0000

The link should be http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/fat32format.htm

And thanks for the tip on format drive: /fs:fat32. I HATE when OS companies bury cryptic commands when they’re supposed to be oh so GUI friendly.

By: Vivek

Vivek — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 13:54:41 +0000

FORMAT drive /FS:FAT32
works in XP for sure – and as I just saw – in Vista too

By: Thinker

Thinker — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 10:16:36 +0000

Bad link ^^

By: e-t-c

e-t-c — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 09:46:07 +0000

Dead LInk
404 The page was not found
Please visit the homepage of ghacks or use the site search on the right.

BTW: The Windows FORMAT.EXE can also Formatting more than 32 GB Partitions.

But there is a smart GUI Version for this …

Fat32Formatter 1.0 (Autor: TOKIWA – JAPAN)

DD: Nov 2007 – 187 KB – Englisch – Standalone (.zip) – Freeware
OS: Windows 2000 XP Vista

HP: http://tokiwa.qee.jp/EN/Fat32Formatter/index.html
DL: http://www.freewarefiles.com/downloads_counter.php?programid=38041

SS: http://tokiwa.qee.jp/EN/Fat32Formatter/Fat32Formatter.jpg

By: no need

no need — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 09:02:09 +0000

format drive: /fs:fat32
works fine in vista :)