Formatting Floppies with XP

[wumply]

I do have XP and just now I went C:\ and right clicked on my A drive. I then clicked 'format' from the pop-up menu. There was a disk with stuff on it in the drive. It proceded to format it and it did, for I checked. It showed nothing on the drive when I now clicked on it.

But I noticed that the File System of the Format window was listed as FAT. Is this inconsistent or not with the fact that XP uses the NTFS file system?

[egghead]

Q. How does FAT32 handle formatting my floppy disks?

A. Floppy disks are formatted as FAT12, even if you have formatted your hard disk to FAT32. The utility, Format.com is prohibited from making a FAT32 file system on a floppy disk. Since FAT16 and FAT32 are compatible, either file system is capable of reading the data from the floppy disk.


FAT is the normal file system for floppies, however if you have a utility installed to enable NTFS floppies then you can select NTFS from the drop down menu,
how to format a floppy,
http://www.helpwithpcs.com/tipsandtricks/formatting-floppy-disk-win-xp.htm


Windows NT has never supported NTFS floppy disks, because Microsoft claims that floppy disks are too small for NTFS data structures. NTFSFlp, a program that will both format and enable NTFS support on floppy disks, proves this to be wrong. Now you can see for yourself why NTFS on floppies, while possible, is not a great idea

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/ntfsfloppy.shtml

hope that helps

[SupaStar]

Nice bit of info there egg.

[joshsiao]

Well, will floppies run more efficient then? Becasue NTFS rocks!

[wumply]

OK, that answer answered my question. But it raised another one I've never found out the answer to. I hear the term "Windows NT" all the time. Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP(home, pro) are all operating systems. Is "Windows NT" as written here an actual operating system? And if it is, who uses it? Then I hear 'NTFS' a lot...New Technology System, right? That's not an O/S I assume...is it some sort of program on which Windows NT and XP are based? I need clarification. Thanks.

[stuart]

new technology file system it replaced fat 32 more secure and less wastefull with disk space

windows nt4 is mainly used by busineses

[Conan]

OK, that answer answered my question. But it raised another one I've never found out the answer to. I hear the term "Windows NT" all the time. Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP(home, pro) are all operating systems. Is "Windows NT" as written here an actual operating system? And if it is, who uses it? Then I hear 'NTFS' a lot...New Technology System, right? That's not an O/S I assume...is it some sort of program on which Windows NT and XP are based? I need clarification. Thanks.

Windows NT was the business version of Windows about the same time as the Windows 98 era. It's the grandpa of Windows 2000 and XP. NTFS is the file system which is an improvement over the FAT file system. You can use FAT with Windows XP but it's not recommended.