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Re: Fwd: Formatting USB stick

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In message <5262094265cvjazz@waitrose.com>
          Chris Newman <cvjazz@waitrose.com> wrote:

> Hi, I am sure this has been asked many times before but if I ever
> remembered the answer, I have certainly forgotten it now. Sorry if this
> question is a bit basic. I have several thumb drives / memory sticks / USB
> flash drives (call them what you will. I am using a RiscPC 700  Adjust 4.39
> & want to format them to be compatible (& with Windows etc) They are all
> 2GB or below to be usable on my machine. I want to format some of them to
> clear stuff & ensure there are no errors. If I stick them in my Windows
> machine & choose Format, the top of the list is FAT so I presume this means
> they are currently FAT16. Am I right in that assumption? Is there any other
> way of checking what the current format is? Should I reformat them as FAT
> (16) or is there any advantage in formatting them FAT32? Will my RiscPC
> even recognise FAT32?

FAT can in theory refer to FAT12, FAT16 or FAT32.  However, very little
other than floppy discs use FAT12, so really it's down to FAT16 and
FAT32.

There is no difference in principle between the way all three of them
work, but there are differences in detail.  As usual, they are trade-
offs; you might say that FAT16 is better with a small number of large
files, whereas FAT32 is better with a large number of small files.
In reality, you would be pushed to notice the difference.

A drive of around 2 GB is highly likely to be FAT16.

My recommendation as a starting point is to try formatting one and
see if the Risc PC recognises the result.  If it does, you've won.

Dave

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Fwd: Formatting USB stick Chris Newman <cvjazz@waitrose.com> - 2012-02-15 18:55 +0000
  Re: Fwd: Formatting USB stick Dave Higton <davehigton@dsl.pipex.com> - 2012-02-15 19:29 +0000
    Re: Fwd: Formatting USB stick Chris Newman <cvjazz@waitrose.com> - 2012-02-17 14:12 +0000
      Re: Fwd: Formatting USB stick Tony Moore <old_coaster@yahoo.co.uk> - 2012-02-17 14:57 +0000
        Re: Fwd: Formatting USB stick Chris Newman <cvjazz@waitrose.com> - 2012-02-17 15:34 +0000
          Re: Fwd: Formatting USB stick Tony Moore <old_coaster@yahoo.co.uk> - 2012-02-17 16:00 +0000
            Re: Fwd: Formatting USB stick Chris Newman <cvjazz@waitrose.com> - 2012-02-17 22:53 +0000
        Re: Fwd: Formatting USB stick druck <news@druck.org.uk> - 2012-02-17 19:33 +0000
          Re: Fwd: Formatting USB stick Tony Moore <old_coaster@yahoo.co.uk> - 2012-02-17 21:39 +0000
            Re: Fwd: Formatting USB stick Chris Newman <cvjazz@waitrose.com> - 2012-02-17 22:50 +0000
  Re: Fwd: Formatting USB stick Fred Bambrough <fred@[127.0.0.1]> - 2012-02-15 20:13 +0000
    Re: Fwd: Formatting USB stick druck <news@druck.org.uk> - 2012-02-15 23:07 +0000
      Re: Fwd: Formatting USB stick Chris Newman <cvjazz@waitrose.com> - 2012-02-16 00:13 +0000
      Re: Fwd: Formatting USB stick jeff <jeffrey.a.doggett@gmail.com> - 2012-02-15 23:57 -0800
      Re: Fwd: Formatting USB stick Dave Higton <davehigton@dsl.pipex.com> - 2012-02-16 20:20 +0000

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