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Formatting an 80GB disk under NTFS with W2K

I have a Western Digital 80 GB FireWire Hard Drive that is
formatted as FAT32 by the installation software provided
with the hard drive. I want to use it to work with large
video files, so I would like to format it under NTFS in
order to overcome the FAT32 maximum file size limit.
When I try to format it under NTFS with W2K (both from "My
Computer" or using the Disk Management Utility, in both
cases as administrator) I get the following message after a
apparently successful (long) time during which the formatting
procedure has reached its end:
"Windows was unable to complete the format".
The disk appears to be still formatted as FAT32 after the
unsuccessful NTFS operation.
How should I proceed to accomplish the NTFS formatting?

Thank you
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billblack

Have you tried "convert x: /fs:ntfs" from the CMD prompt?  Where x: is of course your drive letter.

billblack
billblack is right..
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ASKER

I tried out billblack's suggestion, but didn't work.
Here is a log of what happened (drive g: is the 80GB FAT32
drive I would like to format as NTFS: note that is is
empty!):

Z:\>convert g: /fs:ntfs /v
The type of the file system is FAT32.
Determining disk space required for file system
conversion...
Insufficient disk space for conversion
The conversion failed.
G: was not converted to ntfs

Since the g: drive is empty (74.5 GB Total Space; 74.5 Free
Space), why do I get the error message "Insufficient disk
space for conversion", and how can I manage to successfully
accomplish the "convert" operation?

Thank you
What happens if you do

Start > Run cmd

format g: /fs:NTFS

Or

I am not sure if the Recovery Console will see the disk because it is a Firewire. But you could try and see if it will. If it does then run this command

Type MAP, and then press ENTER.

Note the drive that you want to reformat. The drive letters may be different in Recovery Console from what they are in Windows 2000.

format g: /fs:NTFS


The Crazy One
What happens if you do a "chkdsk g:"?  Please post the results!!
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ASKER

Hi billblack.
I tried what you suggested, namely:

Z:\>chkdsk g:
The type of the file system is FAT32.
Volume Serial Number is 310B-11EC
Windows is verifying files and folders...
File and folder verification is complete.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problem.
   78,129,056 KB total disk space.
   78,129,024 KB are available.

       32,768 bytes in each allocation unit.
    2,441,533 total allocation units on disk.
    2,441,532 allocation units available on disk.

Is this the kind of info you asked for?

sfups
sfups,
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modulo

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