Hi guys, I need to re partition a new drive in Windows XP. The drive manager only seems to give me the option to partition in NTFS this is no good for my purpose as its to be used for playing Mp3 files on a hardware player thats only compatible with Fat 16 / 32 partitions.

Is there any other program that can do it for me from within windows (preferably free) or any other way ?

(I'm aware that I wont get the file compression etc in Fat 32 but it need to be FAT).

I don't understand why windows won't let you do it. However, you should be able to create the partition using windows driver manager and then use the format command from a cmd shell.

Alternatively Gparted is very good for all partitioning stuff. Its a live cd found here http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

I know tell me about it. It has a drop down for the type but only NTFS no other type there.

I don't fancy using the Cmd shell. I had to repair some ones installation the other day using line cmds in recovery console, drove me nuts. One simple mistake & I have re - type it again. Not good when your tired & have two kittens trying to jump over the keys. I think I might look at Mupets live CD first before I try the CMd shell route.

Thanks guys.

Just one thing I realised, I wont get the full 250 GB of the drive if I partition Fat 32 will I ? (although high capacity Ipods/mp3 players use it, They must do because my hardware device supports them).

nope you will get the full 250gb fat32 is only limited in size when you try and format using the windows installer. If you use gparted you should be good to go.

Oh thats good to know

You can recall previous commands with the cursor up/down keys and you can edit them with left/right.

you can also use tab to autocomplete commands for example c:\prog then tab and it will auto complete to c:\program files\

thanks, will it ever guess wrong ?

It will cycle through all the matches - every time you press tab it goes to the next one.

hmm swear I wrote a response to this ... oh well. Yeh its not guessing its going through the possibilities by looking at whats in the directory/hd