Formating removable hard drive for FATS32

[#1]

Have been trying to format a new removable 320Gb hard drive for FAT32 files using XP Pro.
Apparently this is possible by using the command    format (drive letter): /FS:FAT32
I get the usual warning screen re loss of data etc then Y to proceed.    All seems well as you see the % completed.  After 100% the process closes.
But when I look at the drive via 'Disc Management' it is recognised but where is says file type it is blank.
And when I try to use this HD to back-up to my music files (from a Brenan HD music player) it refuses which makes me think that it has not been formated after all.
Any comments, help or ideas would be much appreciated.

[#2]

Why not create a partition and format it through Disk Management in XP?
That will definitely give FAT32 as an option and saves delving into the command line interface.

[#3]

Any particular reason why you don't want to use the more robust NTFS format?

[#4]

not sure about the Brenam he is using, but I have some devices that will not write to NTFS

[#5]

from the Brennam site http://www.brennan.co.uk/itemcontent.php/content/help#Q2

Quote

(If you are technically minded the JB7 uses FAT32 so if you have a USB drive you may need to reformat the USB drive to FAT32 and if the drive is bigger than 500G you will need to partition it into smaller drives and the JB7 backup drive should be first in the partition table and be made active. Beware reformatting a drive will erase any previous data.)

[#6]

Quote from: pierre_pierre

.... I have some devices that will not write to NTFS

Indeed; an Apple computer for example, or at least not without some fiddling. 
I once spent some time trying to work out why I could not write a backup file to my FAT32 formatted external hard drive.  The reason was that it was a very large file and FAT32 doesn't allow files of 4 Gigabytes or larger.  That rather put me off FAT32, so I don't use it now unless I have to.   

[#7]

Quote from: HPsauce

Why not create a partition and format it through Disk Management in XP? That will definitely give FAT32 as an option and saves delving into the command line interface.

As far as I know Disk management in XP will not format in FAT32.
Yes the Brenan uses FAT32 as quote from Brenan site.
So that leaves me with original querry..

[#8]

You could use a Linux CD to do it.

[#9]

Quote from: paulo

As far as I know Disk management in XP will not format in FAT32.

I don't have XP in front of me but I'm sure that cannot be correct.  XP can format floppy disks, pen drives etc. which need to be formatted with FAT32.  I've done this and I'm sure I've never resorted to the format command.

Quote from: A

You could use a Linux CD to do it.

Ah Linux, the answer to all our problems. 

[#10]

XP can do FAT, FAT32 and NTFS.

[#11]

Thanks for that HP, please tell how because when I try I get a box saying "do you want to format this disk"  yes,  New box with 'capacity',  'volume label', 'file system' with a drop down choice with 2 to choose from which is 'NTFS' or 'exFat' (what ever that is)
FAT32 does not seem to be an option.

[#12]

Ex(tended) FAT explained here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT .  If you are running XP you must have deliberately installed an add-on for Windows to give you this option, even if you have forgotten about this by now.
 

[#13]

May be but still no sign of FATS32 as an option!!

[#14]

there is also the problem with disc size, as on the Brennam report, they limit to 500G per Partition, so perhaps that has to be set up before you format

[#15]

Yes I did notice the disk size warning from Brennan but the one I'm trying to format is only 320Gb