954,330 Members — Technology Publication meets Social Media
Username:
Password:
Lost login information?
Have something to say? Contribute New Article Reply to this Article

HDD format ntfs or fat?

Hi, just curious. By going into DOS and typing oh say:

Format C:

and then answering yes, does that make the format ntfs or fat32?

Thanks in advance, oh and whats the useable memory loss after formatting in FAT.

Slade
Practically a Master Poster
633 posts since Mar 2004
Reputation Points: 115
Solved Threads: 7
 

Hi, just curious. By going into DOS and typing oh say:

Format C:

and then answering yes, does that make the format ntfs or fat32? Thanks in advance, oh and whats the useable memory loss after formatting in FAT.


Depends on the OS you're using. If it is XP or 2000 I think it's NTFS

98 FAT32

95 FAT16

But don't quote me on that...I'm not Microsavvy.

TKS
Posting Pro in Training
470 posts since Jan 2004
Reputation Points: 108
Solved Threads: 18
 

Just looked it up...

Win95 OEM release2 and above are FAT32 (includes 98)
Win XP is NTFS
NT 4.0 and 95 1st release - VFAT

TKS
Posting Pro in Training
470 posts since Jan 2004
Reputation Points: 108
Solved Threads: 18
 

Any ideas on how to create one partion of all the memory on the HDD? At the moment, it's all unpartitioned space and needs to be formatted using ntfs, all in DOS. Any ideas?

Slade
Practically a Master Poster
633 posts since Mar 2004
Reputation Points: 115
Solved Threads: 7
 
Any ideas on how to create one partion of all the memory on the HDD? At the moment, it's all unpartitioned space and needs to be formatted using ntfs, all in DOS. Any ideas?


Use a 2k or XP cd and use the utility there to format it. But don't actually install it if that's not what you want.

feigned
Posting Whiz
311 posts since Oct 2003
Reputation Points: 107
Solved Threads: 4
 

I used FDISK, since the end OS is going to be 98 SE anyways.

Slade
Practically a Master Poster
633 posts since Mar 2004
Reputation Points: 115
Solved Threads: 7
 

98 won't run NTFS. Your only choice would be to run FAT32 on any partition larger than 2GB under 98.

alc6379
Cookie... That's it
Team Colleague
2,820 posts since Dec 2003
Reputation Points: 186
Solved Threads: 147
 

Partition Magic works wonders. Slave the HD into your main machine and give that a go.

TKS
Posting Pro in Training
470 posts since Jan 2004
Reputation Points: 108
Solved Threads: 18
 

heh, that's the thing, it was a laptop HDD.

Slade
Practically a Master Poster
633 posts since Mar 2004
Reputation Points: 115
Solved Threads: 7
 
heh, that's the thing, it was a laptop HDD.




DOH! :cheesy: :o

TKS
Posting Pro in Training
470 posts since Jan 2004
Reputation Points: 108
Solved Threads: 18
 

There are laptop hdd -> Standard IDE conectors that you can purchase, you know. :)

What type of laptop is it? Recent systems should be pretty easy to remove the hard drive for temporary installation in a system.

alc6379
Cookie... That's it
Team Colleague
2,820 posts since Dec 2003
Reputation Points: 186
Solved Threads: 147
 

Hi, just curious. By going into DOS and typing oh say:

Format C:

and then answering yes, does that make the format ntfs or fat32? Thanks in advance, oh and whats the useable memory loss after formatting in FAT.

If u are in the windows
there is no way u can format C

if u are outside windows
there is no way u can format c if u running NTFS ( winxp or win 2000 )
u cant even found c though....

dzuka9
Newbie Poster
1 post since May 2005
Reputation Points: 10
Solved Threads: 0
 

Typing FORMAT C: in DOS does not make the partition anything but formatted.

The partition type is determined when you create the partition, not when you format it!

Catweazle
Grandad
Team Colleague
4,335 posts since Mar 2004
Reputation Points: 229
Solved Threads: 149
 

I picked up an adapter for laptop drives that will let me connect it to a standard IDE cable and it works great and was about $6.

IT has made setting up a laptop hard drive really easy...

I just stick it into one of my removeable drive bays..

Thong_Ispector
Practically a Master Poster
638 posts since Nov 2004
Reputation Points: 16
Solved Threads: 19
 

This article has been dead for over three months

Post: Markdown Syntax: Formatting Help
You