Elias Saba’s Blog

So you connected a hard drive to Windows XP, you right-clicked on the drive inside “My Computer”, you selected “Format…”, you went to change the “File system” option from NTFS to FAT32, and finally you mashed your head into your monitor because windows is not giving you the option to select FAT32 even though you know you’ve seen it there before.

Don’t fret. I just went through this process moments ago and here is how I got around it:

NOTE: This process will delete all data on your drive!

1. Download fat32format.exe (zip)
Don’t worry, you don’t have to install anything. It’s just a single file standalone utility you’ll use once and delete.
2. Place fat32format.exe in your C:\ folder
3. Right-click on “My Computer” and select “Manage”
4. Click “Disk Management” on the left under “Storage”
5. Right-click on the drive you want formated to FAT32 and select “Delete Partition…”
6. Click “Yes” to delete all partitions
7. Right-click on the same drive and select “New Partition”
8. A wizard will open up, click “Next” to continue
9. Select “Primary Partition”
10. Enter the partition size
11. Choose a drive letter and remember it (for example: “F”)
12. Select “Do not Format this partition”
13. Click finish
14. Open a command prompt (Start menu -> Run… -> type: “cmd” -> Click OK)
15. Type “C:\fat32format F:” and hit enter (where “C” is the drive you placed fat32format.exe in step 2, and “F” is the drive letter you selected in step 11)
16. Type “y” and hit enter
17. Close everything and enjoy your FAT32 drive.