can't format external hard drive with windows xp home edition

hey.

Was trying to covert my external hard drive from FAT32 to NTFS file system by formating it...........and it didnt work

Now there is no flie system or any gb on the drive........

Every time i try to do it it says "windows was unable to complete format"

I'm using windows xp home edition........

Might be related to this:

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...kb;en-us;329971

Yeah checked that out.........that wasn't the problem tho.....cheers anyway.........

Are you sure that external drive is not in use in any ways? Try to disable Disk Monitor on that drive and try again. When you do that within Windows, that could be a common cause.

For better results always use Ontrack Disk Manager (under DOS mode) to do formatting/partitioning/zero filling.

But in DOS mode, I doubt you'll have access to an external drive. Sounds like you did everything right, except for future reference, use "convert X: /fs:ntfs" to convert to NFTS (where X = drive letter of drive needing conversion).

When you plug in the drive (I assume it's USB, FireWire, or some sort of hot-swappable device), does Windows list it in My Computer? If so, open Disk Management and try to create a new partition on the drive, then format it.

>> But in DOS mode, I doubt you'll have access to an external drive

Sounds like you insist it's impossible. Have you ever had an USB drive? If not, don't give incorrect info and mislead others.

You didn't have to get rude. I said "doubt", not impossible, and I didn't insist. Likely someone having trouble with formatting an external drive doesn't know how to load USB or FireWire drivers and initialize a storage device located on that bus within DOS. However, if OnTrack can see external storage (and it may), then I apologize for being an utter idiot.

That info was completely correct and valid, and I have said nothing misleading. We're all on the same team here, so be nice.