hd files fat32 and ntfs

[rogerdee]

guys i want to format my hardrive wipe eveything off of it,when i look in windoows xp to fromat  it wants  to format it in NTFS!

i got a back up drive i want to use to transfer some of my programs after  i reienstal xp on the clean drive but these are done in fat32.

will i still be able to use  and read the second drive  if its fat 32  and my main drive is NTFS?

I gues this is really  a question for Mr skuzzy or  another computer wiz

or failing that how do i format the hard drive to fat 32?

thanks in advance for any help

[Krusty]

If you are wiping and re-installing, you should put the windows CD in the drive, boot the machine, and tell Windows to format it during the install process. I think it will then let you choose FAT32. That is what I did when I went from FAT32 to NTFS.

[Skuzzy]

If the drive partition is too large, you cannot use FAT32 and XP will only allow you to use NTFS.

But, you can copy files from FAT32 to NTFS and vice-versa.

[Krusty]

Using fdisk and DOS commands I could not partition my 120GB HD when I got it some months back. It wouldn't let me get any more than about 50GB, only half the disk. It just wouldn't let me.

So I let windows format it, and WinXP's install disc knew how to get full partition for the entire drive.

Apparently MS keeps some of the secrets to themselves. That's the main reason I suggested letting Windows format it during the install.

[StarOfAfrica2]

I think if you already have the Fat32 disk installed, and you want to install XP on the second HD, it will give you an option.  If you just do a clean install with no Fat32 OS present, you wont get an option.  I admit its been over a year since I got rid of my 98 dual boot setup, but I think I remember that correctly.

[rogerdee]

thanks guys  as long as i can copy files  from fat 32 to the other then that wll be ok,if not ill have lost  a  couple of years work

[rogerdee]

Thanks for your help guys got a nice clean harddrive and a fresh install of xp now i m going to rdownload  AH  and hope this will cure my problems of  CTD  and  white and blue screens off death.

wish me luck