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Contents still there after formatting

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by jim phelps 2 views

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I have two hard drives in my W2k computer: C and E. I moved my page file to C, then I formatted E using Disk Management.

Now when I go to E using My Computer, all of the contents are still there! Why?

Both drives are FAT32.

10 replies

by sgt_shultz

change your swap files size on both drives to zero. then reboot, and format E:. see if that does it...try running chkdsk /r on e:...

by donmars

I do not think 2000 will run with 0 swap file it will generate a temp number. I believe you did something wrong or did not do something you thought you did. This may sound simple but do it all again, the formating of E, CAREFULLY. How large is E? IsE multi partitioned?

by jim phelps

I was VERY careful when I formated E. And E is NOT multi-partitioned. I had to manually delete the contents of E.

by parvus1202

If you move all your E files to C, make sure that no icons are open on E or it will not reformat. After closing all icons, click my computer then r-click E drive on roll down choose format, and it will do the job. But make sure that you will boot onC drive.

by jim phelps

There were duplicate files on C and E, and I simply wanted to clean E. Prior to W2K, all you needed to do was format a drive to clean it. But this time, I manually deleted all the files off of E.

by rswatsenbarg

How large is your E: drive? Windows 2000 can't format a partition greater than 32Mb using the FAT32 file system.

The Win2K/XP FastFAT driver can mount and support volumes larger than 32 GB that use the FAT32 file system, but you cannot create one using the Format tool. According to Microsoft this behaviour is by design.

See the following Knowledgebase article for more info.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314463

If you need to format a FAT32 partition greater than 32GB, you will need to do it under Windows 98/SE/ME.

If all else fails, repartition the E: drive into smaller drives that fit within the 32Mb limitation.

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