Re: NTFS -> FAT32

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Hi, Bob.

Very interesting thread! I want to comment on just one small part:

Because I repartitioned in Win2K using Disk Management, I was forced
to create a 32GB FAT32 partition.

Can I increase the size of that by some other means and get Win2K to
run properly, or does the 32GB limitation apply to all FAT32 Windows
operations?

This is an oft-misunderstood limitation of Win2K/XP/Vista. The confusion is because we often forget that "create" and "format" a partition are separate operations.

We usually hear that "Win2K can't create a FAT32 volume larger than 32 GB". Actually, Disk Management can CREATE a volume (either a primary partition or a logical drive in an extended partition) bigger than any HD available today. But if that volume is larger than 32 GB, then DM cannot format it as FAT32. This is a limitation imposed by Microsoft to encourage us to retire FAT(x) and migrate to NTFS.

If you have a 100 GB volume formatted as FAT32 by some other operating system (such as Win98), then Win2K will happily use the whole thing.

For details, see the Win2K Resource Kit online:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/default.mspx?mfr=true

and navigate to:
Windows 2000 Resource Kit > Windows 2000 Professional Resource Kit > System Configuration and Management > File Systems > File System Comparisons

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Currently running Windows Mail 7.0 in Vista x86 RC2 Build 5744)

"Citizen Bob" <spam@xxxxxxx> wrote in message news:453b1805.801703@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Fri, 20 Oct 2006 16:45:33 +1000, "Pegasus \(MVP\)" <I.can@xxxxxxx>
wrote:

Here is the recipe:
1. Install the DUT as a slave disk on some different machine.
2. Copy the system partition to some other location:
XCOPY D:\ C:\SomeFolder\ /s /h /k /c 1>c:\test.log 2>&1
3. Examine c:\test.log for error messages.
4. Make sure that the target location contains the same amount
of data as the source location.
5. Repartition & reformat the DUT.

Because I repartitioned in Win2K using Disk Management, I was forced
to create a 32GB FAT32 partition.

Can I increase the size of that by some other means and get Win2K to
run properly, or does the 32GB limitation apply to all FAT32 Windows
operations?

.

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