Format question? FAT or NTFS

Fat32 does have limits on partition size.
You might consider creating other partitions to keep your special programs
on, so if the Windows partition does crash, you will not lose them.

--
Jerry

Have a nice day!

"Michel Savard" <mighty.mike@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:QEFib.3689$PM2.346675@news20.bellglobal.com.. .

> I have just purchased a new system with a 120Gigs harddrive and I tried to
> format it with a Win98 boot disk with Fdisk and format but for soem reason
> it can only fdisk to 60 gigs?
> Is this because of FAT32 restrictions?
> Would I be better to format NTFS?
> Wouldn't it be easier to maintain with FAT32 format?
>
> Thank you for your help in this mattter.
>
>
>

Yes
Yes
No

--
Steve C. Ray
Replace "mail" with "36db"
"Michel Savard" <mighty.mike@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:QEFib.3689$PM2.346675@news20.bellglobal.com.. .

> I have just purchased a new system with a 120Gigs harddrive and I tried to
> format it with a Win98 boot disk with Fdisk and format but for soem reason
> it can only fdisk to 60 gigs?
> Is this because of FAT32 restrictions?
> Would I be better to format NTFS?
> Wouldn't it be easier to maintain with FAT32 format?
>
> Thank you for your help in this mattter.
>
>
>

NTFS is bot more stable and more secure.



"Michel Savard" <mighty.mike@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:QEFib.3689$PM2.346675@news20.bellglobal.com.. .

> I have just purchased a new system with a 120Gigs harddrive and I tried to
> format it with a Win98 boot disk with Fdisk and format but for soem reason
> it can only fdisk to 60 gigs?
> Is this because of FAT32 restrictions?
> Would I be better to format NTFS?
> Wouldn't it be easier to maintain with FAT32 format?
>
> Thank you for your help in this mattter.
>
>
>

I know at one time Win98 fdisk would work with Western Digital harddrives
bigger then 64GBs.
You had to download a patch from Microsoft to fix the problem.
I had to use the Western Digital utility floppy disk to partition my WD 80GB
I'm assuming your going to be using Win XP on this new system.
Boot off the CD-ROM/ or DVD drive with the Win XP CD, let it setup the
partition (s).

"Michel Savard" <mighty.mike@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:QEFib.3689$PM2.346675@news20.bellglobal.com.. .

> I have just purchased a new system with a 120Gigs harddrive and I tried to
> format it with a Win98 boot disk with Fdisk and format but for soem reason
> it can only fdisk to 60 gigs?
> Is this because of FAT32 restrictions?
> Would I be better to format NTFS?
> Wouldn't it be easier to maintain with FAT32 format?
>
> Thank you for your help in this mattter.
>
>
>

The older version of fdisk does not properly report the drive size if larger
then 64GB's but can still be used if you're making just one large partition
or if you use percentages instead of MB's when dividing the drive into
multiple partitions. Afterwards, Windows will correct show/use the full
amount of the partitions. This was fixed in the later version of fdisk
(which properly reports the sizes of drives greater then 64GB's) that can be
found in the Windows Me boot disk which you can download here:

http://www.bootdisk.com

"Tod" <no_spam_me@comcast.net> wrote in message
newsbLib.765968$uu5.133860@sccrnsc04...

> I know at one time Win98 fdisk would work with Western Digital harddrives
> bigger then 64GBs.
> You had to download a patch from Microsoft to fix the problem.
> I had to use the Western Digital utility floppy disk to partition my WD

80GB

> I'm assuming your going to be using Win XP on this new system.
> Boot off the CD-ROM/ or DVD drive with the Win XP CD, let it setup the
> partition (s).
>
> "Michel Savard" <mighty.mike@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
> news:QEFib.3689$PM2.346675@news20.bellglobal.com.. .

to

reason

>
>

Michel,

There is no need to use a boot disk etc to format your drive, you can do
this during he install of Windows XP after booting form the CD ROM.
You can then create a partition for install format it (NTFS recommended) and
then once operational use the built in tools to manage your disks.

--
Regards,

Mike
--
Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights

Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
newsgroups

"Michel Savard" <mighty.mike@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:QEFib.3689$PM2.346675@news20.bellglobal.com.. .

> I have just purchased a new system with a 120Gigs harddrive and I tried to
> format it with a Win98 boot disk with Fdisk and format but for soem reason
> it can only fdisk to 60 gigs?
> Is this because of FAT32 restrictions?
> Would I be better to format NTFS?
> Wouldn't it be easier to maintain with FAT32 format?
>
> Thank you for your help in this mattter.
>
>
>

Michel - your PC clock appear to be set to the year 2026.
Since we do not wish to have everyone see your post for the next 23 years,
would you mind if I removed it?

--
Regards,

Mike
--
Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights

Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
newsgroups

"Michel Savard" <mighty.mike@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:QEFib.3689$PM2.346675@news20.bellglobal.com.. .

> I have just purchased a new system with a 120Gigs harddrive and I tried to
> format it with a Win98 boot disk with Fdisk and format but for soem reason
> it can only fdisk to 60 gigs?
> Is this because of FAT32 restrictions?
> Would I be better to format NTFS?
> Wouldn't it be easier to maintain with FAT32 format?
>
> Thank you for your help in this mattter.
>
>
>

There's an updated version of Fdisk at
<http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];263044>.
Fdisk Does Not Recognize Full Size of Hard Disks Larger than 64 GB

On Tue, 13 Oct 2026 19:15:03 -0400, "Michel Savard"
<mighty.mike@sympatico.ca> wrote:

>I have just purchased a new system with a 120Gigs harddrive and I tried to
>format it with a Win98 boot disk with Fdisk and format but for soem reason
>it can only fdisk to 60 gigs?
>Is this because of FAT32 restrictions?
>Would I be better to format NTFS?
>Wouldn't it be easier to maintain with FAT32 format?
>
>Thank you for your help in this mattter.
>
>

"Mike Brannigan [MSFT]" <mikebran@online.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:%23BlEmTkkDHA.2364@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...

> Michel,
>
> There is no need to use a boot disk etc to format your drive,

Unless he really wants/needs to create and format a FAT32 partition larger
then 32GB :-)

> you can do
> this during he install of Windows XP after booting form the CD ROM.
> You can then create a partition for install format it (NTFS recommended)

and

> then once operational use the built in tools to manage your disks.
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Mike
> --
> Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]
>
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
> rights
>
> Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
> newsgroups
>
> "Michel Savard" <mighty.mike@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
> news:QEFib.3689$PM2.346675@news20.bellglobal.com.. .

to

reason

>
>

Thank you all for your prompt reply.
I have changed my clock to show 2003 now. Not sure how it got to change?


"Michel Savard" <mighty.mike@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:QEFib.3689$PM2.346675@news20.bellglobal.com.. .

> I have just purchased a new system with a 120Gigs harddrive and I tried to
> format it with a Win98 boot disk with Fdisk and format but for soem reason
> it can only fdisk to 60 gigs?
> Is this because of FAT32 restrictions?
> Would I be better to format NTFS?
> Wouldn't it be easier to maintain with FAT32 format?
>
> Thank you for your help in this mattter.
>
>
>