G: Let me see if I got this right. You want to convert your external harddrive from an NTFS file system to FAT32. There are exactly two ways that I can think of.
1. Backup the files on your drive, reformat the drive with FAT32 and restore your data files.
2. Use a third party software like Partition Magic.

Note that the second method usually causes more problems than it solves. It might introduce errors to your data or worse, erase them altogether. The safest method is to reformat. However, if reformating and third party software are not open options to you, then you’re stuck with NTFS for life.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have other questions. I’ve assumed that you know how to format a drive so I haven’t included that information. If you don’t then leave another message and I’ll walk you through it.

Alot of people just want things to work. They are not too interested in finding out why or how it works. It is not ignorance. It is simply not in their interest to go through the paces. This is especially true in a world where deadlines and delivery takes centre stage.

From a corporate viewpoint, it is foolish to adopt a standard that is not widely supported. It doesn’t matter that it is the ‘better’ standard. What matters that their business partners and customers might not be able to read files from their storage media. And that is just bad business sense. They’ve read their history, learned their lesson, and fear the consequences of adopting new technology, especially technology dealing with something as simplistic as data storage.

The very point that you brought up about sacrificing the explorer interface is, on its own, a good enough deterrent for people.

We’re digressing. The topic is moving into discussions of ideals. Ideals does not make the world go round, although if it was, then the world would be a better place for it.

FYI, I have tried both SMB access (from Linux, Mac & Windows boxes) and Explore2fs out before. It’s not that hard, plus all the info needed is available off the ‘Net :).

Reasons:
1. XFS can be accessed by Windows (and any other OS that supports the SMB protocol, ie. “Network Places”) via Samba.

2. Windows XP can directly read an ext2/3 partition using Explore2fs.

So yes, I can format a 4GB Flash drive with ext2/3 and still “see” it (and write to it) from XP, although without the Windows Explorer interface, lah. Too bad, have to sacrifice a lil bit lor.

I also think it’s about time the average Joe knows more about computing choices out there, as I don’t regard ignorance as a virtue :)

And with NTFS, you get max 16 terrabytes of data, something you definitely can’t copy to FAT32. If you happen to have a 20 TB divx file :) try XFS on Linux, as the filesystem can take 8 exabytes max per file :) See http://www.suse.de/~aj/linux_lfs.html