dapxin

Tonight, my 500GB drive arrived and I wanted FAT32 filesystem on it as I will be using it exclusively via the USB caddie.

I knew there is a design limitation on XP that won't make this a jolly good ride.

Enter this terrific tool, from the chaps m here --> Fat32Formater

Here is how to use as advised on the webpage:

Click Start menu, select Run and enter diskmgmt.msc 

If it asks you to initialise the disk, make sure you select a Basic disk, as opposed to a Dynamic. 
There's a guide on Disk Management here You need to find the disk with unallocated space. Right click on it and select "New Partition" and follow these steps, clicking "Next" to get move on at each stage. 
Partition Wizard starts, just click next to move on
Select Primary Partition.
Enter the maximum size for the Partition Size
Choose assign a drive letter. I used F: 
Select "Do not Format this partition"
There will be a dialog box, summarising all the previous stuff. Click Finish

Now you have a drive letter, this is what we will pass to the formatter

Once you have a drive letter, the rest is easy.

***** THIS WILL WIPE YOUR HARD DRIVE SKY CLEAN************

C:\fat32format <driver letter>

Pronto. Done.

How pretty!