Re: Use of FAT32 with WXP


Jim Carlock wrote:

....
"Wolfgang Kern" replied:
: My winXP (original CD, not upgraded) is limited to 64 GB partitions
: and show a cluster size of 32 KB with FAT32 on this size.
: I don't know why, it could have used smaller clusters as well
: because the limit is 2^28 clusters (FAT32 uses only 28-bits).

Hi Rod and Wolfgang.

I recently ran into a case where the minimum size for a file on the
HDD was 32KB. The disk drive was perhaps 170GB total space. It was
infected with some sort of virus and I ended up re-installing XP.

Because of the infection, I'm pretty sure I elected to repartition
and reformat the drive prior to the install. The first XP versions
by default installed on a FAT32 partition and I pursued the normal
XP way of doing things (no third party software, no Microsoft OEM
preinstallation).

I used XP's "convert.exe" application to convert from FAT32 to NTFS
(no problems to report there). I thought it was peculiar for the
files to take up so much space. So I concur with Wolfgang on this.

The Win98 machine was hit by lightning last year so I'm not sure it
boots any longer and I started attempting installs of Linux onto it,
but I'm willing to possibly dig into this on the weekend.

I can possibly get a second system up and running as well (which had
overheating problems last year, heat sink epoxy should fix). This one
has a 40GB hard disk drive.

I have DOS600, win98se, XPhome and my KESYS in one machine with three
HDs (two are >128G) where every one got several different partitions,
beside FAT16/32, NTFS and my KEFS, I reserved Linux-partitions
(had to use PQmagic for it) to once study this filesystems in detail.

I don't want to promise anything, but if there's interest, I'm willing
to explore.

win98 wont support nor understand NTFS at all, and it is limited
to FAT32 max.32kB clusters and 64 GB partitions as well.

I'm currently looking for a DVD writer, and I know this newsgroup is
not the place for such things, but any comments, suggestions or links
describing quality DVD writers is appreciated.

Clients always want to see the best (best announced) products in
their new toys, but for myself I just bought a cheap 'noname'
for 25 Euro (~40 US$ ?). It works. And if it goes bad after some
time it wont hurt me too much.
__
wolfgang


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: convert ntfs to fat 32?
    ... part in it as "suspect", including the cpu, motherboard, memory, hard ... could install either 98 or both 98 and XP in a dual boot configuration. ... Install XP on D:, FAT32, probably about a 12 gig partition ... I'd advise against creating FAT32 partitions larger than 16 gigs ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: convert ntfs to fat 32?
    ... part in it as "suspect", including the cpu, motherboard, memory, hard ... could install either 98 or both 98 and XP in a dual boot configuration. ... Install XP on D:, FAT32, probably about a 12 gig partition ... I'd advise against creating FAT32 partitions larger than 16 gigs ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Detection of partition type?
    ... | This is the one and only way that FAT type is determined. ... (including the two unused clusters at start)] ... I manually inserted partitions into a FAT32 formatted drive, ...
    (alt.lang.asm)
  • Re: Upgrading HDDs and switching partitions.
    ... C:, E:, both partitions are FAT32. ... Install and restore XP ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: FAT32 to NTFS cluster size query
    ... What's more, when I tried to research the issue earlier today I did in fact come across the above link, but I'm still not quite clear whether I actually have to realign or not. ... It would be safer to align the partitions on 4K boundaries, if you do the convert without making sure that the partitions are aligned and if you end up with 512 byte clusters the changes will not be reversible, the only way out will be to format the drive. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)