I'm sure your laptop supports FAT32
A USB thumbdrive? It will format in FAT16 [FAT]. Follow these instructions, but choose FAT [the formats available to the particular drive will be listed in the menu]:
http://www.ntfs.com/quest22.htm
Or simply, in My Computer, rclick the drive. select Format... in the window that pops, and so on..

thanks this was really helpful, the problem now is that i can only get up to step five because my usb is showing up as an unknown device and does not show up in my computer. Otherwise it wouldve have worked =@ at the usb lol.

Thanks anyways

Amy x

A quicker way, saves downloading that site....
Open an Explorer window, rclick that USB drive, go Properties, Hardware tab, select that particular device [some named USB disk drive] in the window, press Properties button, choose Policies tab in the new window and press Optimise for Performance. That will give you a greater choice of available formats when you go to format the drive.
But NTFS is not necessary for smaller thumbdrives... it may be useful for the 5GB jumbos.

"I need a USB to run off FAT instead of FAT32 because my laptop doesnt seem to support FAT32. Anyone got any ideas on how to do it?"
"...my usb is showing up as an unknown device and does not show up in my computer...."
May I assume that it showed up correctly in Device Manager [or in the relevant window in the method above?] As an example, in the Removable Disk Properties windows mine appears as "Toshiba transmemory USB device". Was yours identified correctly there? If it did not get correctly identified in Removable Disk properties window then it may be a lil crook. Test it in another machine.

It's ok now.. i dont know y it works now but if we put it in a sb extender lead that we bought then it works fine in my laptop lol XD thanks for all youre help youve been a star =D

Sorted

Amy xx

You jus gotta luv hitech...
Guess it is a pin connection problem...
Cheers.