NTFS to FAT32 problems

[Hot Tub]

I am selling my computer, that has Windows XP on it, to a friend who wants it with Windows 98 installed on it. I am having a problem getting the drive partioned and formated so I can install Win98. Says there is no room to create a dos partition and from a dos prompt, it can't find the C drive. Is there a place on the web that would give me step by step directions on going backwards from NTFS to FAT32? Any advice would be appreciated.

[NuTs62]

Win98?

heh, I think if you just booted with the CD-Rom, it'll ask you if you want to partition and format the drive, and then you can format it which way you want from there. But in Fat32, there is a limit as to how big each partition can be. As for step-by-step, I don't know hope this helps a little.

[Jeffbx]

You need to remove the NTFS partitions before you can create FAT32. You can usually do this with FDISK if you have a DOS boot disk (remove non-DOS partitions), but if that doesn't work, boot with the XP cd, start the installation, and you'll get to a screen where you can remove all the partitions. Just exit setup after that & start the 98 setup.

[Hot Tub]

Your right. The dos boot disk using FDISK would not delete the NTFS partition that was sitting out there even when I used the delete Non DOS partitions option. I had to boot with the Windows XP disk and it gave me the option to remove it that way. Thanks for the help.

[hoey222]

or you could low level format the whole drive

i use maxllf - it's a maxtor low-level format tool.

[Ladogaboy]

Originally posted by hoey222
or you could low level format the whole drive

i use maxllf - it's a maxtor low-level format tool.

Does this program only reformat, or can it create/delete partitions as well?

[Jeffbx]

Originally posted by Ladogaboy
Does this program only reformat, or can it create/delete partitions as well?

A low level format resets the drive to a totally empty state, as it was when it was shipped from the factory. After you LLF a drive, you then need to create partitions & do the OS format of your choice.

LLF utilities from the drive mfrs will ONLY do a LLF, and they will only work with their own drives. So you couldn't LLF an IBM drive with a Maxtor utility (or if you could you'd likely fry the drive).