Returning to FAT32, Intel Celeron Processor

James Wilkinson james at westexe.demon.co.uk
Thu Sep 2 12:48:01 UTC 2004


Maria Ferrer wrote:
> 1.How do I format my hard drive to fat32 again after I install (or begin 
> installing) Linux? I tried using MS-DOS and it says that it is not 
> eligable to get formatted. Is there any free utility that I can use? 
> What is the website to it?

Welcome to the list, by the way.

Alexander Apprich suggested:
> You can use MS-DOS if you want to. Why MS-DOS was unable to format
> was/is probably the fact that the partition isn't a fat32 partition.
> 
> 1. Boot of your MS-DOS floppy disk
> 2. Choose "Delete Partition" (I guess it's the third entry)
> 3. Choose "Delete other Partition (I guess it's the fourth entry)
> 4. Choose the partition to delete

Unfortunately, DOS fdisk (in my experience) won't delete partitions if
it doesn't recognise the partition type (and it doesn't know about
Linux partitions).

You may find tomsrtbt (http://www.toms.net/rb), a version of Linux on
floppy disk, useful. You can delete Linux partitions using the fdisk
it provides.

Personally, I'd create new partitions using the OS you're going to put
on the disk. If it's Win9x, use the fdisk that comes on the boot floppy
or on the CD. If it's NT, 2K or XP, create the partitions as part of
the install process. If it's ME, I've no idea: I've managed to avoid
that one!

(Real MS-DOS doesn't understand FAT partitions larger than 2 GB).

James.

-- 
E-mail address: james | Mike Andrews' Corollary to Murphy's Law:
@westexe.demon.co.uk  | In any sufficiently large collection of texts, every
                      | possible misspeeling, as well as some that are not
                      | possible, will occur.





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