Hi all.
I need an external hard drive formatted in either FAT32, EXT3 or EXT2 to use as a back up for my new Olive media server.
http://olive.us/products/opus4.html?PHPSESSID=83137b96479b33a3161bcbd0c8e2ee77

I picked up a Maxtor 1 touch 4, but that seems to be formatted in FTSC (or something like that). Im using Vista and it doesn't give me any of those choices under format. I searched on other ways to convert it but it looks pretty complicated and I would like something already formatted that way.

It needs to be a 650gb (more is OK, a little less is OK too).

Thanks.

Hi all.
I need an external hard drive formatted in either FAT32, EXT3 or EXT2 to use as a back up for my new Olive media server.
http://olive.us/products/opus4.html?PHPSESSID=83137b96479b33a3161bcbd0c8e2ee77

I picked up a Maxtor 1 touch 4, but that seems to be formatted in FTSC (or something like that). Im using Vista and it doesn't give me any of those choices under format. I searched on other ways to convert it but it looks pretty complicated and I would like something already formatted that way.

It needs to be a 650gb (more is OK, a little less is OK too).

Thanks.

Shamus, Vista wil only allow you to format in NTFS. You'll need a 3rd-party application to format to FAT32. Most people use this http://www.compuapps.com/Download/swissknife/swissknife.htm. Let us know if you need any help.

CD

Shamus, Vista wil only allow you to format in NTFS. You'll need a 3rd-party application to format to FAT32. Most people use this http://www.compuapps.com/Download/swissknife/swissknife.htm. Let us know if you need any help.

CD

Thanks, so I'll need to use a non vista computer to do this?

Thanks, so I'll need to use a non vista computer to do this?

No, you just need to download that software and use that.

CD

No, you just need to download that software and use that.

CD

Thanks I'll give it a shot!

When I hit create, I get a read/write error.

Are you sure its compatable with Vista?

Why can't you format FAT32 in Vista?

format <drive_letter> /FS:FAT32 /Q /X

That should work. FAT32 has a maximum file size of 4GB though so keep that in mind. You can have a partition that is 650GB but no single file on that partition can be >4GB.

Why can't you format FAT32 in Vista?

format <drive_letter> /FS:FAT32 /Q /X

That should work. FAT32 has a maximum file size of 4GB though so keep that in mind. You can have a partition that is 650GB but no single file on that partition can be >4GB.

Pretend Im a 2 year old...

Do I type that in somewhere?:confused:

Open the Vista start menu and start typing "command prompt" you should see it automatically pop up in the search thing. Run the command prompt program. Then you can type the format command.

Ok... It says "the system can not find the file specified."