FORMAT NTFS Partition back to FAT32

Is there a version of Format that will recognize a NTFS partition
and allow it to be re-formatted as FAT32?

Wish to remove Win2000 in favor of Win98se.

Machine only has a 3.5 dsk drive, no CD. CD is available via network
share.

I *think* there are utilities to do this (I'm not sure.) However, you'd
probably have an easier and more successful time of it if you simply
repartition the drive and create a new FAT32 partition. Format it and
install Win98SE clean. Even if you can reformat the drive and save data,
there will be a ton of crap that you no longer want or need.

If you need to save data from the existing partition, you'll want to either
back it up to another computer or some external storage (external HD, CDR,
etc.) or if your HD is large enough, use a partitioning tool like BootIt NG
to shrink the existing partition and create a new one to store your backup.
Then move the data you want to save, then replace the OS partition. Or, if
you have lots of HD room, shrink the existing partition, slide it to the end
of the drive, then create your new Win98 partition at the beginning of the
drive. If you do it this way, and use a boot manager (BootIt NG also does
this), you can retain the ability to keep your Win2K system functional.
You'll have to boot to Win2K to move data to the Win98 system, since Win98
can't read the NTFS partition, but this is pretty much the way I do this
kind of job.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

wrote in message
...
Is there a version of Format that will recognize a NTFS partition
and allow it to be re-formatted as FAT32?

Wish to remove Win2000 in favor of Win98se.

Machine only has a 3.5 dsk drive, no CD. CD is available via network
share.

wrote in message
...

Is there a version of Format that will recognize a NTFS partition
and allow it to be re-formatted as FAT32?

What happens when you run Win98 FDISK ?
If it recognizes the partition you should be able to
remove it, then make a new partition and use
FAT FORMAT.EXE.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Don Phillipson wrote:

wrote in message
...

Is there a version of Format that will recognize a NTFS partition
and allow it to be re-formatted as FAT32?

What happens when you run Win98 FDISK ?
If it recognizes the partition you should be able to
remove it, then make a new partition and use
FAT FORMAT.EXE.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

The copy of FORMAT I tried is from W98se. It says unrecognized file
format.
I have since read that FDISK can Delete the NTFS partition. I have the
later WinME version of Fdisk to use but am unsure of what condition the
disk will be left in after a Delete. It is as simple as running Format
after that?

Any data is already saved elsewhere.

Use FDISK to Delete existing partition(s). You may need to restart and go
back to FDISK, then create new partition(s). Restart and then FORMAT the
partition. Win98 Startup disk should have mo problem with this, though I use
a different tool (BootIt NG).

You don't say how large the disk is, but the ideal setup for a Win9x system
is to create a FAT32 no larger than 8192MB (8GB) for the OS. Then create an
Extended partition with the remaining space, then create one or more Volumes
inside that Extended partition (Volume is another name for partition--sort
of.) I like to create a 2-4 GB TEMP partition (D:\) to hold TEMP and
Temporary Internet Files. After that, user data partition(s). I usually use
E:\ for My Documents, Outlook Express storage, etc., and one or more for
large file storage--multi-media, music, videos, downloaded program
installers, etc.

Again, I don't know how large your drive is, but the 8GB suggestion for the
OS partition is to keep the cluster size to 4KB. Win98, 98SE and ME are
built to use the presence of 4KB clusters to greatly improve performance. If
you go over 8GB, the cluster size is automatically enlarged to 8, 16, or 32
KB, depending on the size of the partition.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User


wrote in message
...
Don Phillipson wrote:

wrote in message
...

Is there a version of Format that will recognize a NTFS partition
and allow it to be re-formatted as FAT32?

What happens when you run Win98 FDISK ?
If it recognizes the partition you should be able to
remove it, then make a new partition and use
FAT FORMAT.EXE.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

The copy of FORMAT I tried is from W98se. It says unrecognized file
format.
I have since read that FDISK can Delete the NTFS partition. I have the
later WinME version of Fdisk to use but am unsure of what condition the
disk will be left in after a Delete. It is as simple as running Format
after that?

Any data is already saved elsewhere.

Thanks, I can do this. Power is flaky right now. Surges bounced off the UPS
twice. Maybe tomorrow.

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote:

Use FDISK to Delete existing partition(s). You may need to restart and go
back to FDISK, then create new partition(s). Restart and then FORMAT the
partition. Win98 Startup disk should have mo problem with this, though I use
a different tool (BootIt NG).

You don't say how large the disk is, but the ideal setup for a Win9x system
is to create a FAT32 no larger than 8192MB (8GB) for the OS. Then create an
Extended partition with the remaining space, then create one or more Volumes
inside that Extended partition (Volume is another name for partition--sort
of.) I like to create a 2-4 GB TEMP partition (D:\) to hold TEMP and
Temporary Internet Files. After that, user data partition(s). I usually use
E:\ for My Documents, Outlook Express storage, etc., and one or more for
large file storage--multi-media, music, videos, downloaded program
installers, etc.

Again, I don't know how large your drive is, but the 8GB suggestion for the
OS partition is to keep the cluster size to 4KB. Win98, 98SE and ME are
built to use the presence of 4KB clusters to greatly improve performance. If
you go over 8GB, the cluster size is automatically enlarged to 8, 16, or 32
KB, depending on the size of the partition.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

wrote in message
...
Don Phillipson wrote:

wrote in message
...

Is there a version of Format that will recognize a NTFS partition
and allow it to be re-formatted as FAT32?

What happens when you run Win98 FDISK ?
If it recognizes the partition you should be able to
remove it, then make a new partition and use
FAT FORMAT.EXE.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

The copy of FORMAT I tried is from W98se. It says unrecognized file
format.
I have since read that FDISK can Delete the NTFS partition. I have the
later WinME version of Fdisk to use but am unsure of what condition the
disk will be left in after a Delete. It is as simple as running Format
after that?

Any data is already saved elsewhere.

Good luck!

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

wrote in message
...
Thanks, I can do this. Power is flaky right now. Surges bounced off the
UPS
twice. Maybe tomorrow.

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote:

Use FDISK to Delete existing partition(s). You may need to restart and go
back to FDISK, then create new partition(s). Restart and then FORMAT the
partition. Win98 Startup disk should have mo problem with this, though I
use
a different tool (BootIt NG).

You don't say how large the disk is, but the ideal setup for a Win9x
system
is to create a FAT32 no larger than 8192MB (8GB) for the OS. Then create
an
Extended partition with the remaining space, then create one or more
Volumes
inside that Extended partition (Volume is another name for
partition--sort
of.) I like to create a 2-4 GB TEMP partition (D:\) to hold TEMP and
Temporary Internet Files. After that, user data partition(s). I usually
use
E:\ for My Documents, Outlook Express storage, etc., and one or more for
large file storage--multi-media, music, videos, downloaded program
installers, etc.

Again, I don't know how large your drive is, but the 8GB suggestion for
the
OS partition is to keep the cluster size to 4KB. Win98, 98SE and ME are
built to use the presence of 4KB clusters to greatly improve performance.
If
you go over 8GB, the cluster size is automatically enlarged to 8, 16, or
32
KB, depending on the size of the partition.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

wrote in message
...
Don Phillipson wrote:

wrote in message
...

Is there a version of Format that will recognize a NTFS partition
and allow it to be re-formatted as FAT32?

What happens when you run Win98 FDISK ?
If it recognizes the partition you should be able to
remove it, then make a new partition and use
FAT FORMAT.EXE.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

The copy of FORMAT I tried is from W98se. It says unrecognized file
format.
I have since read that FDISK can Delete the NTFS partition. I have the
later WinME version of Fdisk to use but am unsure of what condition the
disk will be left in after a Delete. It is as simple as running Format
after that?

Any data is already saved elsewhere.

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote:

Good luck!

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

wrote in message
...
Thanks, I can do this. Power is flaky right now. Surges bounced off the
UPS
twice. Maybe tomorrow.

"Gary S. Terhune" wrote:

Use FDISK to Delete existing partition(s). You may need to restart and go
back to FDISK, then create new partition(s). Restart and then FORMAT the
partition. Win98 Startup disk should have mo problem with this, though I
use
a different tool (BootIt NG).

You don't say how large the disk is, but the ideal setup for a Win9x
system
is to create a FAT32 no larger than 8192MB (8GB) for the OS. Then create
an
Extended partition with the remaining space, then create one or more
Volumes
inside that Extended partition (Volume is another name for
partition--sort
of.) I like to create a 2-4 GB TEMP partition (D:\) to hold TEMP and
Temporary Internet Files. After that, user data partition(s). I usually
use
E:\ for My Documents, Outlook Express storage, etc., and one or more for
large file storage--multi-media, music, videos, downloaded program
installers, etc.

Again, I don't know how large your drive is, but the 8GB suggestion for
the
OS partition is to keep the cluster size to 4KB. Win98, 98SE and ME are
built to use the presence of 4KB clusters to greatly improve performance.
If
you go over 8GB, the cluster size is automatically enlarged to 8, 16, or
32
KB, depending on the size of the partition.

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

wrote in message
...
Don Phillipson wrote:

wrote in message
...

Is there a version of Format that will recognize a NTFS partition
and allow it to be re-formatted as FAT32?

What happens when you run Win98 FDISK ?
If it recognizes the partition you should be able to
remove it, then make a new partition and use
FAT FORMAT.EXE.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

The copy of FORMAT I tried is from W98se. It says unrecognized file
format.
I have since read that FDISK can Delete the NTFS partition. I have the
later WinME version of Fdisk to use but am unsure of what condition the
disk will be left in after a Delete. It is as simple as running Format
after that?

Any data is already saved elsewhere.







The good news is........it's fixed! I'll keep the Win2000.

Seems Win2000 won't handle a Hosts file.
The same Hosts file will run quickly on a Win9x box.
Remove the file and W2000 runs like normal.
Such is life.

Odd. Have you tried an empty file named HOSTS? That would give you some
indication of whether it's the mechanisms involved or due to the content of
the HOSTS file you're using.

Where do you get your HOSTS files?

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User

wrote in message
...
The good news is........it's fixed! I'll keep the Win2000.

Seems Win2000 won't handle a Hosts file.
The same Hosts file will run quickly on a Win9x box.
Remove the file and W2000 runs like normal.
Such is life.