Select partition X: X refers the partition number that you need to format. List partition: list all partitions on the disk. Select disk 1: select the disk which contains the target drive. List disk: see all disks connected to your computer, and you need to identify which drive needs to be formatted by size. And type the following commands in sequence:
DISKPART will open in a command prompt window. On your keyboard, press the "Windows + R" at the same time to open "Run" Window, then type "Diskpart" and click "OK" (click Yes if prompted by the User Access Control). Warning: The formatting process means data loss, so back up everything important before proceeding. You will need local administrator access on the computer to follow these steps. Below are steps to format disk to FAT32 via Diskpart command line. However, if you fail to format hard drive to FAT32 successfully via these two built-in tools and receive formatting errors like " Windows was unable to complete the format" or "The format did not complete successfully", you can turn to DiskPart.exe tool. Usually, you can format a disk to FAT32 in File Explorer and Disk Management. Step by step: Diskpart format to FAT32 in Windows 11/10/8/7
③If you need to connect your hard drive to a NAS device, but the NTFS won't allow the NAS device to access the drive, then you need to format or convert NTFS to FAT32.
②If you want your device to be compatible with more operating systems, like Mac, Linux and some other older versions of Windows including Windows 98, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, etc, the FAT32 is the best choice.
①If you plan to use the disk on PS3, Xbox or some other games consoles that only supports FAT32 file system, then you will need to format the disk to FAT32. No matter you are using a pendrive, SD card, USB flash drive, SSD or other external hard drives to store your data, you will need to format it to FAT32 in the following situations.