Is the file system set to NTFS?
 

Quote:Using Windows XP, 2000 or NT, if you need to format a drive that is larger than 32 GB, Microsoft recommends using the NTFS file system in place of FAT32.

 
Windows does not let you to create FAT32 partition bigger than 32GB, you'll need to use 3rd party programs (like Acronis Partition Expert) for that.
 
Another option is to start from a Microsoft Windows 98 or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me) Startup disk and use the Format tool included on the disk (If you want to create >32GB FAT32 partition).
 
Limitations of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314463/EN-US/
 

@wilhelmus
 
Yes it automatically fills in the file system type (NTFS)
Anyway: creating the partitions (one primary 100GB and two logical 100GB , 33GB) works fine but the formatting part fails

I'd stick the HD in your computer, download the HD diagnostics from it's website, scan it and then partition and format it from there.

Thanks all,
 
I finally succeeded in solving the problem:
 
1. Use diskmanagement from XP pro to initialize the disk and create the partitions without formatting.
2. Use partition magic 8.0 to format the partitions (FAT32)
(strangely enough creating the partitions (+format) with PartitionMagic alone did not succeed)
 
Another solution is:
1. Use diskmanagement from XP pro to initialize the disk and create the partitions without formatting.
2. Format the partitions on a winME or lower machine.
 
Elas this is not preferred, because back in XP I could not defrag the partitions (windows said that it does not support these partitions formatted by older OS-es).
 
Good luck to you all,
 
Akitoto

Originally posted by akitoto:

Quote:Hi all, 
Recently I bought a maxtor 250GB Hard drive and put it in a casing to connect it through usb2 to my PC as an external drive. My Computer->Manage->Disk management tool sees the drive but lets me only format partitions of size smaller then or equal to 32GB (at 100% it gives an error saying that it could not complete the format succesfully). The jumpers are NOT set to the 32GB restriction. (the jumper I have set is "master"); bios is of 2002 and I am using XP pro with sp1. The 8 partitions of size 31 GB work fine but elas this is not what I want: I would like to have two partitions of size 100GB and one for the rest.
 
Can anyone help me?
 
Thanks Akitoto
 
Are you sure you have the drive connected through an USB2.0 Root Hub ?
Are you sure the drive is detected as 250GiB(232GB) in POST ?
Why haven't you updated to SP2 yet ?
 
I know someone with an ext. USB connected HDD (Maxtor)[smaller than 250GB] who had no problems formatting that disk after it had been divided in 2 equal parts, one part even with the largest possible cluster size (NTFS) ...