FAT32 With WinXP Pro

[Dan Kogler]

I'm hoping someone can help me out here. I'm trying to install winXP Pro on a blank hard drive, but I need to use the FAT32 file system because I need compatability with a lot of Win9x systems. Is there any way to do this? Or is there any way to convert an NTFS file sustem to FAT32? Thanks for any help.

 

[oDin]

just boot of the xp cd and install like you normaly would. when it asks what file system to use select fat 32....or....you could format it with a win98 boot disk then install xp...when it asks you if you want to convert the file systems just say no!....also, you can't go from ntfs to fat32. you can go from fat32 to ntfs but not the othe way around

 

[Luna64]

What do you mean you can't go from NTFS to Fat32 ?

I have done it before.

Whats to stop you ?

Unless your just talking about inside Windows setup.

 

[adamg]

Yeah, boot off the XP CD and get to the formatting screen. To format a partition in FAT32 you must select or make a partition that is smaller than 32GB, otherwise the FAT32 option is not available under 2000/XP. You can probably create larger FAT32 partitions using a W98 boot disk, but i dont know if Windows XP will install on that.

 

[Dan Kogler]

What do you mean FAT32 can't recognize partitions larger than 32GB?!? I was recently using Win98 with FAT32 on a 60GB hard drive and that worked just fine with no partitions. Shouldn't that work as well with XP?

 

[Hipster Doofus]

Partition Magic will go from NTFS to FAT32..........if anyones interested.

 

[scsa20]

it's recommended that you do not convert NTFS to FAT32 because it might cause curyption to the files on the drive

 

[pappcam]

What do you mean by compatibility with Win 9x systems. If you mean network compatibility then your file system will not affect anything. You only need FAT32 if you dual boot with a Win 9x system.

 

[oDin]

Originally posted by Luna64
What do you mean you can't go from NTFS to Fat32 ?

I have done it before.

Whats to stop you ?

Unless your just talking about inside Windows setup.

as far as i know you can not convert a ntfs partition to fat(either fat16 or fat32) without removing that partition and recreating it.

how did you do it?

 

[scsa20]

you can convert NTFS to FAT32 using Partition Magic, but once again I'm going to say that it isn't recommended and doing so might corypt your hard drive.

 

[melon]

FAT32 is recognized on hard drives larger than 32 GB, but the cluster size is ballooned; something like 32 or 64K? I don't remember, but I wouldn't be so silly as to actually do it myself. It is incredibly inefficient and your hard drive is probably being eaten up by tiny files. Compare that to NTFS with 4K clusters and it really does make a difference in free space.

Melon

 

[Dan Kogler]

The reason why I need FAT32 is because all my backup CD's were made using Win98 and FAT32. When I try to use them in winXP Pro (using NTFS), it only recognizes them as blank CD's.

Also, I regularly need to transfer files betweem my computer and my friend's computers. All of whom use Win9x.

That's why I need WinXP Pro running a FAT32 file system, even though it's incredably inefficient on a 60GB hard drive.

Any suggestions?

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

Just use fat32 and partition your hard drive .... use partition magic its great ......

 

[deadzombie]

Originally posted by Dan Kogler
The reason why I need FAT32 is because all my backup CD's were made using Win98 and FAT32. When I try to use them in winXP Pro (using NTFS), it only recognizes them as blank CD's.


Also, I regularly need to transfer files betweem my computer and my friend's computers. All of whom use Win9x.

That's why I need WinXP Pro running a FAT32 file system, even though it's incredably inefficient on a 60GB hard drive.

Any suggestions?

Are you certain it's WinXP? WinXP will still reads and writes to Fat32 even if your drives are using NTFS. For example, on a small LAN I have, my file server runs encrypted NTFS, my workstation runs two NTFS and one Fat32 drives and then my wifes system is all FAT32. We have zero problems transferring files, and I can gaurantee many of my media CD's are years old, written on either NTFS or FAT32 - that's never even been an issue.

Sounds to me like the problem might be your cd reader.

 

[j79zlr]

Agreed, XP, NT, 2000 see NTFS and FAT32,16 but 9x cannot see NTFS.

That is beside the point, anything you burn on CD from a 9x system should be seen with XP regardless of format.

 

[zyfos]

Yeah, XP can read both NTFS and FAT32 (backward compatible and stuff). Windows 9x cannot read NTFS. You should be able to read and write to a FAT32 partition in XP reguardless of what your personal harddrive uses. In fact, I use a small little FAT32 partition so I can transfer files between my XP (NTFS) and Linux OSes (dual boot).
As for CD's, I think they use their own file system called CDFS (Compact Disc File System) which is independant of the operating system. It's like regular floppy disks that use FAT12, which most OSes can read.

 

[The_Schwarz]

Originally posted by scsa20
you can convert NTFS to FAT32 using Partition Magic, but once again I'm going to say that it isn't recommended and doing so might corypt your hard drive.

If you are too cheap (like me) to purchase a copy of partition magic, there is a place called kazza (just kidding).

You can also use fdisk and format off a windows 98 boot disk, and windows xp will see it.

 

[rettahc]

Okay, if you want a FAT32 partition larger than 32gig you need to create it using a win98 boot disk. XP (and 2000?) will only format a fat32 up to 32gigs.

and CD's are written in their on file system not FAT or NTFS