I haven't ever used the Computer Management utility in Windows XP. I used a third-party boot manager (BootIt NG) to create the following partitions on my 40GB hard disk: |-WinXP(ntfs)-|-docs(fat32)-|-Linux(rfs)-| BootIt is no longer installed because the Linux bootloader overwrites it in the MBR hence my needing to use the utility in XP. I forgot to format the FAT32 partition, despite knowing it's the one file system that does need formatting when you convert to it from another system. My question is, how do I do that in XP Disk Management? Disk Management shows that partition as "Unallocated." I've spent so long getting these partitions and OS installs right so far, I really don't want to reinstall/repartition if there's an easier way this time. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance :)

You need to make the unallocated space active. In the bootom viewing area of disc management, right click on the partition and make it active. then go back and right click again and choose format it should then ask to what format that you wish to use (fat/ntsf). IN THE MATTERS OF STYLE, swim with the current; in matters of principle, STAND LIKE A ROCK

To expand a little. When you use the XP disk manager to format a drive, it will do the partitioning (either FAT32 or NTFS) before formatting.

I don't use linux but i do use BootItNG and swear by it. I don't see how the linux overwrites the program. I have never heard of it doing that before either. Just currious as to that. IN THE MATTERS OF STYLE, swim with the current; in matters of principle, STAND LIKE A ROCK