Some years ago, HP created a neat utility to format USB sticks – including formatting them using NTFS (something that XP/Server 2003 does not do). I first wrote about this utility in May 2005, and again in late 2006. Originally released by HP for their USB memory sticks, the utility appears to have been removed from the HP site. The name of the utility is: HPUSBFW.EXE, and a quick Google search yields several places you can download it from. I got the utility some years back from the HP site and it’s still working fine (just formatted a 2gb memory stick this morning to NTFS). No idea what the legalities of obtaining this HP utility form other non-HP sites, so tread carefully.
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Sysinternals had a utility for doing the same thing on floppy disks, NTFSflp, along with documentation on how the built-in formatter made itself incompatible (a few different characteristics, including wanting a journal which was too big to fit on a floppy). It seems to have disappeared post-MS takeover though.
http://www.themobiusproject.com/mirrors/www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/NtfsFlp.html
http://www.themobiusproject.com/mirrors/www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/NtfsFlp.html
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