How to format thumb drive as NTFS?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Paul Randall
  • Start date Start date
P

Paul Randall

Guest
Hi,
I'm running WXP SP2 on a two-year old Compaq laptop. A month ago, I
formatted three 2-GB thumb drives, one in Fat16, one in Fat32, and one in
NTFS format, but I think I may have done this on another computer, perhaps
with a Vista OS. I can write to and read from all three of these thumb
drives on this laptop. If I right click on any of these three thumb drives
in My Computer and choose Format, I get only two choices: Fat 16 and Fat 32
for 2GB thumb drives and only the Fat 32 choice for 4 GB thumb drives.
Seems like I should at least be able to do a NTFS reformat of the thumb
drive that is currently NTFS.

I've seen other threads that talk about no need for NTFS format on thumb
drives unless files greater than 2 GB are involved, but there is also the
problem that Fat 32 does not store Unicode file names properly, and this is
the feature I need.

Right now, I only have this laptop available. So how can I format a thumb
drive as NTFS on a WXP SP2 system?

-Paul Randall
 
Re: How to format thumb drive as NTFS?

"Paul Randall" <paulr90@aol.com> wrote in message
news:ut6GtjQHJHA.4884@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
> I'm running WXP SP2 on a two-year old Compaq laptop. A month ago, I formatted
> three 2-GB thumb drives, one in Fat16, one in Fat32, and one in NTFS format,
> but I think I may have done this on another computer, perhaps with a Vista OS.
> I can write to and read from all three of these thumb drives on this laptop.
> If I right click on any of these three thumb drives in My Computer and choose
> Format, I get only two choices: Fat 16 and Fat 32 for 2GB thumb drives and
> only the Fat 32 choice for 4 GB thumb drives. Seems like I should at least be
> able to do a NTFS reformat of the thumb drive that is currently NTFS.
>
> I've seen other threads that talk about no need for NTFS format on thumb
> drives unless files greater than 2 GB are involved, but there is also the
> problem that Fat 32 does not store Unicode file names properly, and this is
> the feature I need.
>
> Right now, I only have this laptop available. So how can I format a thumb
> drive as NTFS on a WXP SP2 system?
>
> -Paul Randall
>

See if the information in this article helps.

How do I format a USB Flash Drive to NTFS file system?
http://www.ntfs.com/quest22.htm

Good luck

Nepatsfan
 
Re: How to format thumb drive as NTFS?


"Paul Randall" <paulr90@aol.com> wrote in message
news:ut6GtjQHJHA.4884@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
> I'm running WXP SP2 on a two-year old Compaq laptop. A month ago, I
> formatted three 2-GB thumb drives, one in Fat16, one in Fat32, and one in
> NTFS format, but I think I may have done this on another computer, perhaps
> with a Vista OS. I can write to and read from all three of these thumb
> drives on this laptop. If I right click on any of these three thumb
> drives in My Computer and choose Format, I get only two choices: Fat 16
> and Fat 32 for 2GB thumb drives and only the Fat 32 choice for 4 GB thumb
> drives. Seems like I should at least be able to do a NTFS reformat of the
> thumb drive that is currently NTFS.
>
> I've seen other threads that talk about no need for NTFS format on thumb
> drives unless files greater than 2 GB are involved, but there is also the
> problem that Fat 32 does not store Unicode file names properly, and this
> is the feature I need.
>
> Right now, I only have this laptop available. So how can I format a thumb
> drive as NTFS on a WXP SP2 system?
>
> -Paul Randall
>
D/L the HP USB flash drive format tool from
http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=197
You can also make the flash drive bootable
 
Re: How to format thumb drive as NTFS?

*Bonjour Paul Randall * !
<news:ut6GtjQHJHA.4884@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl>

> I get only two choices: Fat 16 and Fat 32
> for 2GB thumb drives and only the Fat 32 choice for 4 GB thumb drives. Seems
> like I should at least be able to do a NTFS reformat of the thumb drive that
> is currently NTFS.

Start>Run>cmd /k convert /?

--
Regards, Jean-François
 
Re: How to format thumb drive as NTFS?


"JF" <JF@-> wrote in message news:OAyymiVHJHA.3932@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> *Bonjour Paul Randall * !
> <news:ut6GtjQHJHA.4884@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl>
>
>> I get only two choices: Fat 16 and Fat 32 for 2GB thumb drives and only
>> the Fat 32 choice for 4 GB thumb drives. Seems like I should at least be
>> able to do a NTFS reformat of the thumb drive that is currently NTFS.
>
> Start>Run>cmd /k convert /?

Thank you Nepatsfan, olfart, and Jean-François.
I tried all three methods, on three new unused 4GB thumb drives.
All three methods worked.
Thanks to olfart, I now have a slightly newer version of the HP USB flash
drive format tool too.

-Paul Randall
 
Back
Top