ive converted my WD HD 1tb from fat32 to ntfs, but after it cant be read by my DVD player (LG dvd player with usb slot). when it was in fat32, everything was fine.

Please help me format my 1tb Western Digital HD to fat32 which was the original format when i bought it.

Windows XP can not format fat32 beyond 32 gb -- you need another system to do that.

However, Fat32 over a 1 TB filesystem will have HUGE cluster sizes and waste most of the space. NTFS is a much better choice.

What's the issue with accessing the device in NTFS?

i stored all my movie files on my 1tb external hd and used to play via usb port on LG dvd player. but after i convert my 1tb external hard drive to ntfs, player cannot read the movie files.

please help. is there any way to convert my 1tb external HD to fat32? the original format is fat32. (western digital my book)

let me get this straight ... this is the sequence you used?

1- copy files to the 1TB device

2- alter to NTFS

and now you "don't have access"?

Apparently it is not obvious to you but sadly, (2) wipes out everything on the device
and thus anything that was on it is now GONE

im sorry if im not clear.

1. i copy my files to 1tb device.
2. i play my movies on my DVD player via usb device using my 1tb device at fat32 format and everything is ok. im using it for 1 mo. now.
3. i plug the 1tb device on my destop computer and convert it to ntfs format.
4. i checked the files inside the 1 tb device and everything is ok.(all files are inside)
5. i try to play my 1tb device on my dvd player via usb port and the files cant be read.

this only means that the DVD player can only read fat32 format thats why i want to reformat my 1tb device from ntfs to fat32 format.

is there any way to format my 1tb device to fat32?

Sorry, the files were lost when you formatted as NTFS. Step (4) was not possible if step (3) was successful.
It was most likely that you had the window open from step(2) and did not refresh the view after completing step (3).

files are not lost because:
3. i plug the 1tb device on my destop computer and convert it to ntfs format. (on command prompt i typed "convert g: /fs:ntfs /v"
4. i checked the files inside the 1 tb device and everything is ok.(all files are inside)
5. i try to play my 1tb device on my dvd player via usb port and the files cant be read.
6. i plug the device on my desktop computer and transfred the files on my 500gb hd.
7. now im in the process of formatting the 1tb device but windows wont allow me to.

Ok you can't convert back it's a one way process, you would have to format the drive which means loosing what ever is on it , the problem you have though is Xp can only format upto 32GB with fat32 you will loose a hell of a lot of space.

i finally got the answer in western digital website.

yes. it can be formatted to fat32 by downloading a small program from their site.

thanks.

how to format 1tb external HD to fat32, link attached.

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc....i=&p_topview=1

good find, I knew Xp couldn't do the whole drive, i didn't know WD had created a utility to do the job, now i do for future reference, at least with WD drives.

You can also create large FAT32 partitions easily with gparted - it's really the most useful partitioning tool I've ever used and it's free.

BTW - don't forget guys that there is the "convert" command in Windows to change a FAT32 drive to NTFS. It's a non-destructive process but only works one way.

yes, that was my oversight

I new about the convert i just didn't know there was a way to go back to a fat32 format and use the whole drive, it's good to know it's possible.

Microsoft Rules:
You cannot format a volume larger than 32 gigabytes (GB) in size using the FAT32 file system during the Windows XP installation process. Windows XP can mount and support FAT32 volumes larger than 32 GB (subject to the other limits), but you cannot create a FAT32 volume larger than 32 GB by using the Format tool during Setup. If you need to format a volume that is larger than 32 GB, use the NTFS file system to format it. Another option is to start from a Microsoft Windows 98 or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me) Startup disk and use the Format tool included on the disk.

For additional information about how to use a Microsoft Windows 98 or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me) Startup disk to format a hard disk, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
255867 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/255867/EN-US/) How to Use Fdisk and Format to Partition/Repartition a Hard Disk
NOTE: When you attempt to format a FAT32 partition that is larger than 32 GB during the Windows XP installation process, the format operation fails near the end of the process, and you may receive the following error message:

Logical Disk Manager: Volume size too big.

• MS-DOS, the original version of Microsoft Windows 95, and Microsoft Windows NT 4.0-and-earlier do not recognize FAT32 partitions, and are unable to start from a FAT32 volume.

• You cannot create a file larger than (2^32)-1 bytes (this is one byte less than 4 GB) on a FAT32 partition.

For additional information about the FAT32 file system, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

310525 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310525/EN-US/) Description of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP

I used this utility on my 1TB external HD but it gives me an error.

"Error: Drive size is too small or not supported! (WD10EAVS-00D7B0)"

Did anyone else run into this issue?

jobeard, you are not only wrong, but your as thick as brick as well.

your crappy answers and failure to recognize that this particular issue was outside of your scope of expertise, not only makes you look dumb, but it also slowed down the entire proccess of solving this problem.

thank god dangeon solved his own problem and was kind enough to post his answer, because if we had to rely on you, we wouldn't have anything but a bunch of ntfs drives that are only usable in windows xp or vista,

you cant write to them on mac, and you cant even access them through things like xbox 360's ps3's or wii's, so yea great job jobeard you should have just stayed in the kiddie pool on this one.

so i guess you never heard of: convert X: /ntfs

yea i did except my error was (WD10EAVS-00D7B1)

That was uncalled for and untrue. Do you make a habit of joining forums simply to tell reputable, long standing members that they are idiots?

You didn't even contribute to the thread. You just came in and flamed in a thread about a problem that had already been solved. I can't see you getting much respect around here unless you rejoin with a different name. If you do that, I'd suggest you treat our members with more respect.

This is some thread. You can tell by the fact that even I'm staying out of it.

Although it did come as a surprise to me when I learned one post carried with it the new designation CLSID; "Really F*****g Important TS VIP".

you are correct in that I over looked the conversion from FAT to NTFS can be done in-place without data loss -- but that was acknowledge further in the thread.

OS X 10.3 can read NTFS and with an mod, R/w too.

10.4 can R/W NTFS natively

considering the source, the rest I'll just ignore.

have a good day