No FORMAT command in DISKPART

Question

I'm trying to get a bootable external USB drive, from which to install Server 2008 R2, but all the online help I find includes a FORMAT comment in the DISKPART session. My diskpart displays a list of commands in response to the format command, i.e. there is no format command. Here is an example of the command sequence I'm trying to run on XP SP 3:

DISKPART> select disk 1
DISKPART> clean
DISKPART> create partition primary
DISKPART> select partition 1
DISKPART> active
DISKPART> format fs=fat32
DISKPART> assign
DISKPART> exit

Answer 1

You're probably reading online help for Windows Vista or above. I believe the format option was added in Vista, as it's clearly an available command-line switch, not in XP though.

Answer 2

Had same issue here. You need to go to Disk Management and format it there after you have created a partition in DISKPART.

Right click My Computer, then select Manage. The go to Disk Management and select the partition you created. Right click on it and select Format. You'll be able to choose FAT32 from there and you're done.