hard disk Archives - The Big Tech Question

How do I format a hard drive in FAT32?

Sometimes you need to format a hard drive in FAT32 – for example, the PlayStation 4 requires an external drive to be in this format. But, in Windows, it’s sometimes not an option you’re given. What is FAT32 and how do you convert a disk into the format?

What is FAT32?

FAT32 is a 32-bit file system, originally introduced with Windows 2000. Unlike FAT16, FAT32 allows for much larger drives and individual files. Although, by default, both Mac and Windows uses alternative (and better) formats, the advantage of FAT32 is that it’s supported by both operating systems and Linux, for good measure.

So, a drive formatted with FAT32 will work with pretty much any operating system, hence its advantage for portable, external drives.

Formatting a hard drive to FAT32 with Windows

The problem for Windows owners is that it won’t give FAT32 as a formatting option if the drive capacity is greater than 32GB. But that’s not to say it can’t be done, you just need to find alternative means.

If you know what you’re doing with DOS, then the simplest solution is to use the FORMAT command. For example:

format /FS:FAT32 X:

Where X: is the drive you’re wanting to format. I’ve read that at 1TB and above even DOS will complain, however I found that it wouldn’t even work with a 512GB drive.

The alternative solution is to use a free program. I’d recommend both Verbatim FAT32 Tool and FAT32 Formatter.

Formatting to FAT32 on Mac

If you’re using a Mac:

Launch Disk Utility
Select your external drive in the list on the left of the Disk Utility window
Click “Erase”
Give the volume a name and select “MS-DOS (FAT)” as your file format
Finally, click the “Erase” button

Now read this: How do you clear disk space on a PlayStation 4?

How do I assign a letter to a hard disk in Windows?

Parents give us names for a reason: life would be too confusing if you were called Dave one day and Nicola the next. Windows, however, has no such qualms about renaming your disk drives as it sees fit.

One day you’ll plug in an external drive, and it will be called D. The next day it may be demoted to E or F, depending on what else has been plugged in before it. That’s incredibly annoying if you have programs or backup software looking for data stored on a particular drive.

So how do you assign a letter to a hard disk and ensure it’s given that same letter every time it’s plugged in?

How to assign a letter to a hard disk in Windows

Here’s how to do it in Windows 10, although previous versions of the operating system are similar.

Type “disk management” into the Windows 10 search bar and you should see an option to create hard disk partitions. We’re not going to do that, but click on it anyway to open the Disk Management settings.

Now right-click on the disk you wish to re-christen and select Change drive letter and paths.

On the next screen, click the Change button and choose which letter of the alphabet you wish to give to the disk drive from the drop-down menu. We suggest you choose a letter further down the alphabet to avoid any possible confusion with other external drives that you might plug in.

Click OK and close the Disk Management window and from now on, whenever you plug that disk into your computer, it will appear with the drive letter you specified.

Now click here: which apps take up the most space on my PC?

Main pic credit: Jeff Kubina/Flickr