Re: How to format FAT32 in Windows XP?

Bill in Co. wrote:

Anna wrote:

PD43 wrote:

Nope. When you boot to DOS, it can't see an NTFS partition.


"Bill in Co." <not_really_here@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OYxCtykeIHA.536@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Except with third party tools.


Well, PD43 (& Bill), not exactly...

A DOS boot disk, e.g., a Win9x/Me "Startup Disk", will "see" NTFS partitions
very well. At least for the most part. The *only* NTFS partitions it will
not recognize are those logical drives created in an extended partition.
Anna


Not on my system it doesn't.
Not unless I have NTFSDOS (or whatever) loaded. We must have different systems. :-)

Besides which, AFAIK, it is impossible for DOS-based enviroment to see NTFS partitions *unless* some NTFS driver has been loaded for it on that disk. And it's not on a standard Win9x/DOS startup disk.

It's a "trick" question on the test, Bill ;-)

Use fdisk and you will see that DOS does "see" NTFS drives. Seeing the drive doesn't mean that it can use the drive or even explore it, if you try to use the CD command to the drive you won't be able to access it. But DOS fdisk can see and even deleted NTFS drives... unless it gets caught up in the logical drive loop, then it cannot delete the drive without the use of other tools.

John
.

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