Portable HDD: How do I change from NTFS to FAT?

• The Den

  24 Jan 06, 22:00

  I accidentally formatted my portable heard disk to NTFS when I connect it to XP. Now I can't use it on WIN98. Any kind souls have any idea how to convert it back? I dun mind losing the data.
  
  Thanks all
• chanff8

  24 Jan 06, 22:10

  Win XP
  Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Computer Management --> Disk Management
  
  From there, you can format and change your HDD format.
• The Den

  24 Jan 06, 22:12

  Originally posted by chanff8:

  Win XP
  Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Computer Management --> Disk Management
  
  From there, you can format and change your HDD format.

  Thank you for your reply. For this method I can only re-format it to NTFS mode... can't format to FAT32... any more suggestions? I need it urgently. Thanks~!
• chanff8

  24 Jan 06, 22:20

  Originally posted by The Den:

  Thank you for your reply. For this method I can only re-format it to NTFS mode... can't format to FAT32... any more suggestions? I need it urgently. Thanks~!

  oh ops sry. Hm... I think will require third-party programs liao. Windows itself has no tools to convert ntfs to fat32, Forumites, anyone has ideas
• The Den

  24 Jan 06, 22:24

  Originally posted by chanff8:

  oh ops sry. Hm... I think will require third-party programs liao. Windows itself has no tools to convert ntfs to fat32, Forumites, anyone has ideas

  I made the huge mistake of formatting it to NTFS at home (XP Pro). Now I can't use it at the pc at work -Win98-. Any DOS commands anyone? I cant seem to recall... FAT32 to NTFS is easy but no the other way round. Alamak. My boss is going to slaughter me
• chanff8

  24 Jan 06, 22:34

  Originally posted by The Den:

  I made the huge mistake of formatting it to NTFS at home (XP Pro). Now I can't use it at the pc at work -Win98-. Any DOS commands anyone? I cant seem to recall... FAT32 to NTFS is easy but no the other way round. Alamak. My boss is going to slaughter me

  http://faq.arstechnica.com/link.php?i=1820
  
  2nd last paragraph onwards
• The Den

  24 Jan 06, 22:38

  Originally posted by chanff8:

  http://faq.arstechnica.com/link.php?i=1820
  
  2nd last paragraph onwards

  In short, cannot.
• chanff8

  24 Jan 06, 22:45

  Originally posted by The Den:

  In short, cannot.

  Can, just delete partition and create new ones, as long as less than 32GB you can partition it into fat32
• Ito_^

  24 Jan 06, 22:48

  Originally posted by chanff8:

  Can, just delete partition and create new ones, as long as less than 32GB you can partition it into fat32

  x2.. not juz format. delete the partition itself.. den create a new one.
• octega

  24 Jan 06, 23:16

  Not sure if this work but u can try.
  
  After u connect to ur XP, note down the drive letter, say example h:
  
  open ur command prompt in the program,accesories.
  
  type in the command prompt
  format h: /fs:FAT32
  
  If not u can try searching the web for Win98 boot disk. Load into ur floppy and boot from it. Then use FDISK and Format to switch back to FAT32.
• The Den

  25 Jan 06, 22:55

  Originally posted by octega:

  Not sure if this work but u can try.
  
  After u connect to ur XP, note down the drive letter, say example h:
  
  open ur command prompt in the program,accesories.
  
  type in the command prompt
  format h: /fs:FAT32 [/quote]
  
  Does not work.
  
  [quote]
  If not u can try searching the web for Win98 boot disk. Load into ur floppy and boot from it. Then use FDISK and Format to switch back to FAT32.

  Cannot detect using this method. Anyway thanks for ur help, I'm planning to RMA it.