How to delete an NTFS HDD and go back to FAT32?

Mike89 · Post by **Mike89** » Mon Nov 10, 2003 4:27 am

I just changed a hard drive on my system (I have 2 hdds). Now I have the spare hard drive that I want to give to a friend. Problem is the disk is full of my old stuff (no OS on it, it was my 2nd hdd) and it's NTFS. I want to delete everything on this drive. Which is the best way to go about that?

My friend is going to use this hard drive as the 2nd hard drive in his system (he's running XP Pro, the same as I am but his first hard drive is FAT32).

I don't want to put it back in my computer to delete the stuff, I want to delete it when I put it in his computer.

Once the stuff is deleted, I also want to have it back to FAT32. It's a small drive, 20.5 gig and my friend's 1st drive is also small (13 gig), I see no point in turning his 1st drive to NTFS.

Augix · Post by **Augix** » Mon Nov 10, 2003 5:19 am

the easiest easiest way would be a reformating with Partition magic (version 7 or higher), but why would you want to?

NTFS is much better than FAT32 for security and disk space management.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Mon Nov 10, 2003 8:51 am

Once installed in his computer you can go to Disk Manager (Control Panel, Admin Tools, Computer Management, Disk Manager) and do anything you want (delete, partition & then format).

You can leave it NTFS if you want. Just because the primary drive is FAT32, doesn't mean this one has to be.

I'd go with NTFS personally. You have a file size restriction with FAT32.

Mike89 · Post by **Mike89** » Mon Nov 10, 2003 12:26 pm

I don't see a "Disk Manager". In the Computer Managment box I see.

Computer Management (local)
Storage
Services and Applications

Under the Storage is "Disk Management". Clicking this shows my drives on the right. Right clicking on my second drive does not give me the option to delete or format. What am I not seeing?

Also, am I going to have any problems deleting the stuff on this drive being all the stuff was put on by an adminstrator (me) on one machine and then trying to delete it on a different computer with a different administrator (my friend)?

I guess I will leave it as NTFS. I was thinking that I had to make it FAT32, being the 1st drive on my friend's computer was FAT32. So I just want to delete the drive of all it's contents.

Demrok · Post by **Demrok** » Mon Nov 10, 2003 12:40 pm

this is what is SHOULD look like, but yeah, Partition Magic 8 is the shiznit

as well, I have a 40 gig maxtor in NTFS it's 37.8 gigs with FAT32 it is 34.2

NTFS bettah!
if you are only using the drive ina WinXP environment go with NTFS if there's Win98... FAT32 for you !