# Needed: Program to format external hdd to FAT32 using Windows 7 64Bit



## HookeyStreet (Nov 15, 2009)

Im looking for a program that my m8 can use to do the above but I cant find one 

Thanks in advance for any help.


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## lemonadesoda (Nov 15, 2009)

I do believe most partition managers can format. But not sure if they run their own, or just execute from the OS. Worth a try though. Alternative: format from another PC then move the USB drive back across.


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## newtekie1 (Nov 15, 2009)

Acronis Disk Director

Great program, but not free.


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## VulkanBros (Nov 15, 2009)

You can use PTEdit from PowerQuest (Symantec)

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip


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## Polaris573 (Nov 15, 2009)

Go to the control panel and select "system and security" > click "administrative tools" > click "computer management" > In the left panel click "Disk Management" > Right click on the drive you want to format and select FAT32 as the file system type.

Alternatively you can open a command prompt with administrator privileges and type the following where X: is the drive you want to format.


```
format X: /FS:FAT32
```

For some reason you can't just right click on a drive in Windows Explorer and format it with your desired filesystem like you have in the past.  I don't get why unless they're trying to EOL Fat32 since people can use exFAT for portable flash media and NTFS is usually fine for larger external hard drives.


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## kenkickr (Nov 15, 2009)

Most hard drive manufactures will have format/partitioning software available on their site for *their* hard drives.


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## AsRock (Nov 15, 2009)

newtekie1 said:


> Acronis Disk Director
> 
> Great program, but not free.



FREE if you have a WD drive though.  All though i bet some options are missing


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