How to Format External Hard Drive to FAT32 in Windows

Category : Tutorial

FAT32 was firstly published and released with Windows 98 and has been substituted by the more vigorous NTFS in Windows XP and Windows Vista. Even though FAT32 has been replaced by NTFS, it still functions a precious object. The reason why FAT32 is still valuable is because hard drives configured in FAT32 could be employed by either Windows computer or a Macintosh. As a result, there are many people willing to format a large external USB or Fire-wire hard drive to FAT32. So, if you are looking for steps of how to format external hard drive to FAT32 in Windows, check out the following information that might be the best solution for you.

One thing for sure, you have to keep in mind that formatting a hard drive will erase all the data contained on that drive. Nonetheless, you really have to make sure that there is nothing important that you wish to keep in the drive before formatting it. Well, that is the first and foremost step of formatting external hard drive to FAT 32 in Windows. Now, let’s move on to the next step. To format your external hard drive, you have to connect your hard drive. If you are using an external hard drive, you have to plug in it.

To format the external hard drive that has been plugged in it, you have to click Start and select the Control Panel. After that, you have to double click on the Administrative Tools and then double click again on the Computer Management. If you have done those steps, you can simply select the Disk Management in the left side of the panel under the Storage. Concerning the fact that you only need to click particular options, formatting external hard drive to FAT32 is really simple and easy. Check out the other steps in formatting the hard drive to FAT32.

After you have found the Disk Management, you have to note the drive letter associated with the hard drive that you are willing to format. After that, you can click Start. In the Start Search box, you have to type CMD and press Enter in order to open a Command Prompt window. After that, as you can find the Command Prompt section, you can simply input “format DRIVE: /FS: FAT32” (deprive of the quotation marks), and then simply press Enter. Keep in mind that you have to replace the DRIVE with the character of the section that you wish to format.

Formatting the external hard drive to FAT32 can also be done if you are using DOS command prompt. The thing is that if you have an external hard drive that is 1TB or larger, there might be an error saying that the volume is too big for FAT32. Therefore, it is recommended for you to use a program called Swiss Knife to format an external hard drive. However, formatting your external hard drive to FAT32 may be simple and easy. Try the steps have been mentioned above to help you format your external hard drive to FAT32 which is still valuable to use.

Tag:

No related posts.

Post a comment

23