Format 80GB HDD to FAT32 with XP boot sector (for XPe Image)

You can download the tool from hard drive vendor to format the drive and alos diagnostic if the drive has problem.

not sure why you need the XP bootsector.
can you run it from a fat32 system ?

Currently, the only method we have of doing this is to create a 30GB partition, format it to FAT32, mark it as Active and then boot XPe to it. After that, we can go back and resize the partition to the full amount. It just seems wasteful and there must be a better way. I need an XP boot sector because it needs to look for ntldr.

so ) if i understand you correct, you do not need the XP bootsector, but you would like to format partitions larger t han  32 Gb ?
i have no problems doing that with FDisk, but you need the latest one
download it here :  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/263044

I believe we tried using the latest version of fdisk and it still did not work. I think the problem is with formatting. We can create the partition in Windows XP just fine and leave it unformatted. Then go and use a partition tool or fat32format and try and format it but there's no luck.

Essentially, I'm trying to prevent myself from having to boot to someone else in order to format these drives correctly, I'm hoping for a Windows program that can do this.

how is this drive connected?   fdisk should do it for ide, i did not try it on sata though

They are SATA drives connected through a USB adapter. FDISK does not work in Windows XP as it's not a tool for Windows XP. We tried booting a DOS disk and running FDISK and it did not help. In fact, it took forever to verify and create the partition and then verify it again. I do not think FDISK is the solution.

seems a bit of a mispostbon my behalf. i meant format instead of FDISK.
but note that FDISK DOES work as well with fat32 as NTFS, (and XP)
>>   In fact, it took forever to verify and create the partition and then verify it again.    <<   can you post something specific?  like disk model and size and how long ?fdisk should be finished in a couple of minutes; maybe you have a disk problem here.

They are 80GB WD 2.5" SATA drives. To my knowledge, FDISK does not format a partition. It took about 10-15 minutes to go through and create a full 80GB partition. I will try again with another drive if time permits, but I don't believe it's a drive issue as we are currently using it.

>>  FDISK does not format a partition   <<   correct, see my post above
10-15 minutes is much too long.
did you test the drive yet ?http://support.wdc.com/download/#diagutils      

The drive tested fine and works after a 30GB partition is created in XP and then formatted with FAT32. The only problem with this is that I need to resize the partition after this to utilize the full 80GB.

you can resize anytime with bootit-ng (free ) : www.terabyteunlimited.com/       
do not install it on the disk, hit esc - then select partition work > your partition > resize
though it should format bigger sizes (i formatted up to120 GB) - your system supports big disk sizes? over 128 GB?

why don't you try it?

I will try it on a non-important system. I just don't want it to unmark my drive as the bootable one.

ok- your decision; no problems

The WD utilities (Windows) worked, but broke the machine it was run on. Selecting the drive to be the new bootable drive copies all files (essentially Ghosts it). I canceled this process when I noticed it was copying files. I was able to delete the files and copy the XPe files and boot to it. The machine that ran the utilities, however, cannot access Windows. It just sits at the Welcome screen with no login options (It just says Windows XP Professional, and that's it). I'll see if I can find out a way to use the WD tools and something else to get it to boot.

Thanks.

Using the WD tool to partition and format it and then set it active in Windows did not work. It is still stuck at 'Verifying DMI Pool Data..........'. It will sit there until the machine is turned off.

>>  The machine that ran the utilities   <<  i suppose it ran XP?
then try a repâir install; or better even, download DARTS, and do a system restore (this wil set everything as it was) :
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5D600369-0554-4595-8AB4-C34B2860E087&displaylang=en                                    DARTS

The machine that was running it is a test machine, so it can be wiped and replaced. The WD Tools did not resolve the issue either.

why do you keep using the wd tools?   i suggested  the best tools i know

You suggested I try it and I did, I'm just giving a follow-up in case anyone reads this in the future. Also, I did not try Bootit-ng because it requires booting outside of Windows. I'm trying to avoid booting out of Windows since we would have users remote into a machine to prepare the hard drives.

no problem, you're welcome!