How do I format a hard drive on Windows 2000 & XP?
Go to Start – Control Panel – Administrative Tools – Computer Management – Disk Management.
Your drives and partitions will appear on a list and in graphical format. Simply choose the area which says “Unallocated” and right-click on it. Go to New Partition. Hit Next 4 times until you get several choices on the screen. Pick your file system format*, choose the Quick Format button, hit Next, and Finish when you see the summary. The partitioning and formatting process will take a short time, and will not require a reboot. Your drive is ready for use.
* If you are using Windows XP only, you do not need to read the info below.
Windows XP refuses to format a drive larger than 32gb in FAT32 format, NTFS is the only available choice. The only advantage of using FAT32 is compatability with Windows 98 and ME and Macintosh compatability. Other than that, NTFS will not cause any problems in Windows 2000 or XP. If you wish to format your hard drive in FAT32, you will need a Windows 98 or ME boot floppy disk and can format it from DOS. Windows 2000 and XP will read FAT32 partitions just fine up to 127gb.
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