For those of you who aren't techie inclined, FAT32 is a Microsoft software technology, that allows us to use the physical disk. Basically, it was introduced in Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2, so yea, it's quite old. If you are running Windows XP, chances are that your hard disk drive (HDD) is formatted based on NTFS (NT File System). However, most of us that use external HDDs like would sometimes like universal access and since, NTFS formatted disks are GENERALLY not supported in other systems like Mac OS X and Linux, most of us like to format their external HDD using FAT32. Do note that our thumb drives are actually using FAT16 for those 2 GB and below and FAT32 for those above 2GB.
Windows XP has a limit on FAT32 partitions, 32 GB, so the Disk Manager does not allow you to format partitions above32GB. I don't know why Microsoft did this since FAT32 allows partitions of up to 8TB.
However, I found this link for a fat32formatter and a guide. It really helped, especially for those who wish to use a HDD across Windows XP and Mac OS
http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/in...fat32format.htm
But, if you intend to use Windows XP only, stick to NTFS, FAT32 has many limitations and inefficiencies. For example, in disk usage, if the cluster size is 32KB, and your file is say 33KB, your file will take 2 clusters (64KB), but actually has 33KB of real data. Also, FAT32 has a file size limit of 4GB, but I doubt anyone stores a file of size 4GB and more, unless you like to backup your DVDs or do lots of video editing.
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