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Using old Fox HDD on external USB drive

It is possible to format to FAT32 on WIN7 Pro, but only from the DOS prompt (CMD), it you try this please be careful you select the correct HDD, you need to know the name and drive letter of the USB HDD. from the CMD prompt enter format /FS:FAT32 X: (where X is the drive letter of the USB HDD), you will then be asked the current volume label (the HDD's name)

Alternatively you could use a computer running another version of Windows, XP, Windows 8 /8.1 etc. will allow formatting to FAT32 and you can do a quick format (the CMD format is very slow - it takes hours ! !)
 
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Now I remember that when I first used Disk Management intending to delete the partitions, it told me I should delete the "volume". This confused me so I used Diskpart command line to delete the partitions. Mistake I think.

I look at the disk now using Diskpart / List volume and it shows me all the volumes attached to the laptop, even though I selected disk 1. i.e. it is showing the DVD Rom (Vol o (zero)), all the volumes on my Drive C and Volume 5 is the USB disk (letter J)

Can I delete this last volume and start again? Do I need to use Disk Management to recreate the partition/volume?

Would I be best to use fDisk?

or format: 5 /fs: FAT32 /v: J /a: 4096

........... and thus let it do a full format rather than a quick one?
 
I think it would be safer (and a lot quicker) to use a computer running another version of Windows to do a quick FAT32 Format
EDIT
There may be a 'Quick' option you can select from the DOS format, e.g. :-
format /FS:FAT32 X: /Q
 
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I'm lost here, but what you originally wanted to do was to delete all the partitions and then create just one which covered the whole disk, or delete all the partitions except one and then expand the partition to cover the whole disk. Windows is calling a partition a volume (and some partitions can contain multiple virtual partitions).

If this were me I would fire up my PC with a bootable CD of GParted (Gnu Partition Editor) - this runs from the CD and does not affect your PC. It provides much better disk management tools than anything else (running a stripped down version of Linux). You will be able to see what you are doing in a graphical environment and set up the disk to your liking.

Download GParted ISO (burn file to CD)

GParted web site (other downloads available, including for USB if your machine can boot from it - much faster than CD)
 
I cannot believe how difficult this is proving for me.

I powered up my old XP desktop PC - what a noise it makes!! Connected the HDD and in Explorer right clicked and selected Format. Would only give me NTFS or exFAT.

So I opened up cmd prompt and ran format /FS:FAT32 X: /Q Had to force dismount to release of handles and it ran but then said the drive (496GB) is too big for FAT32.

aaaaaargh!! :(

Downloading GParted .............
 
Connect the USB caddy to your Windows PC and open up disk management. Right click on the NTFS volume of the external drive (double check!) and delete. The space on the drive will now be 'unallocated'. It you eject and plug in to a USB port on the HDR-FOX and you should now be able to format the external drive. The HDR-FOX will create a single EXT3 partition.

To add, the external drive needs to be one single, unallocated volume. If you have multiple partitions on the drive it won't work.
 
WELL!!
That worked :thumbsup:
Thank you Monty's Twin :)

....... and I wonder if there's something else I missed - possibly earlier.

When the unallocated HDD was plugged into the HDR and I used Menu / Settings / System / Data Storage / Storage: to find it.
Again it appeared only to show the internal HDD when I pushed right arrow to select a drive. However, when I then pressed down arrow to what looked like a blank space, a blue rectangle appeared and so did the drive image showing 458GB space. I could then format the drive successfully .......... YEA :)

Now it shows up as USB-1.

Thanks to all for all the help and sorry to be such a PITA

Jerry
Now to find out how to use the Web If. Bye Bye. ........................ for now :rolleyes:
 
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