FAT32 OR NTFS with DVD-Ram/DVD-RW/DVD+RW?

[aris1978]

Hi

Is it possible to partition a DVD-RAM or DVD-RW or DVD+RW with NTFS or FAT32 or ext2 and then install a Win2K or Linux on any of them??

I heard that we can even have FAT32 on CD-RW, but how?? How can I format a CD-RW disk with FAT32??

 

[sandorski]

Huh? FAT32 and NTFS is for Hard drive partitioning, not DVD-ram.

 

[aris1978]

Erm...then what is this article talking about???

What's the difference between the various DVD recordable formats, and what should I buy?

 

[AndyHui]

The article says nothing of file systems used.

All optical media, ie CDR/CDRW/DVDRAM/DVD-R/DVD-RW, etc, use the ISO file system with perhaps the Joliet extensions.

They don't use FAT32 or NTFS.

 

[RickH]

Then why does my Write DVD software ask me if I want to format Fat32 or NTFS for a Panansonic RAM drive?????? R.

 

[no0b]

Originally posted by: RickH
Then why does my Write DVD software ask me if I want to format Fat32 or NTFS for a Panansonic RAM drive?????? R.

can you provide a screenshot of that part?

 

[RickH]

I will send it in an e-mail. r

 

[Adul]

weird,.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: AndyHui
The article says nothing of file systems used.

All optical media, ie CDR/CDRW/DVDRAM/DVD-R/DVD-RW, etc, use the ISO file system with perhaps the Joliet extensions.

They don't use FAT32 or NTFS.

Actually, DVD-RAM does support FAT32 and it's in the FAQ. In fact it's built right into Windows XP. I can confirm it works fine, although I generally use UDF 1.5 for my files under Windows because it's cross platform. Windows NT 4 does not understand FAT32, but will read UDF1.5. Also, my Mac will not read FAT32 on DVD-RAM but it will read, but not write, UDF 1.5 on DVD-RAM (unless I'm using burning software, which allows me to burn DVD-RAM UDF 1.5 discs). For my Mac I use HFS+ for DVD-RAM for OS-level read/write access. HFS+ is the native Mac hard drive file system.

RickH, I did not know that there was any NTFS support on DVD-RAM. I don't know why that software gives you that option. Try it and see what happens. I do know that Windows does not give me the option of NTFS on DVD-RAM.

Summary of my experiences:

Windows NT:
UDF1.5: Natively supported read on DVD-RAM. I haven't tried any other file system. (On Toshiba M1612 DVD-ROM, which reads DVD-RAM, but doesn't have any write capability.)

Windows XP:
FAT32: Natively supported read/write on DVD-RAM. Takes about 30 seconds to "format" the 4.7 GB disc.
UDF1.5: Natively supported read on DVD-RAM. Need Panasonic's drivers for OS-level write access. It takes about 5 seconds to "format" the disc.
UDF2.0: I'm not sure if reads are natively supported or not since I couldn't make a UDF2 disc until I installed the drivers. Need Panasonic's drivers for write access.
NTFS: Not supported on DVD-RAM.

Nero does not support DVD-RAM writes by the way.

Mac OS X:
FAT32: Works with hard drives (inconsistently), but I have not been able to get DVD-RAM FAT32 to work.
HFS+: Works fine, no extra drivers needed.
UDF1.5: Natively supported read, but need to use Roxio Toast for write access.
UDF2.0: Not recognized if I remember correctly.
NTFS: Not supported at all, with either hard drives or DVD-RAM.

---------------------------------

Check out Dell's DVD Windows XP info page. It again confirms FAT32 under XP for DVD-RAM. Also, it says that Windows XP includes native UDF2 read support.

 

[RickH]

Eug--you are correct, no NTFS. R

 

[aris1978]

Thanks for the information guys.

Now I'm wondering, is it possible to install a whole Win98 OS or any OS for that matter (*NIX, etc.) on a DVD-RAM. Somehow I believe I've seen an article about DVD-RAM that says one can actually install a complete OS on DVD-RAM disc. Anyone have any idea at all???

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: aris1978
Thanks for the information guys.

Now I'm wondering, is it possible to install a whole Win98 OS or any OS for that matter (*NIX, etc.) on a DVD-RAM. Somehow I believe I've seen an article about DVD-RAM that says one can actually install a complete OS on DVD-RAM disc. Anyone have any idea at all???

I dunno if the drive is bootable or not. I haven't tried.

However, considering that DVD-RAM is only 2X read (2.7 MB/s), it would take forever to boot and load software. A DVD-RAM runs at about 1/10th the speed of a hard drive, or even less when compared to the current ultra high speed drives..

 

[mastertech01]

I think the problem would be to get write support at DOS level. Maybe if you could image the drive from a basic install on another drive and set it up as a bootable drive.. more possible with SCSI I would think. But dreadfully slow as EUG mentioned. Would be an interesting project to try though....

 

[Codewiz]

Ok here is my results by accident. I have a panasonic LF-D201 drive. I run Windows XP. When I installed the drive I went ahead and installed the drivers for Windows 2000 that came on the cd with the drive. When I did that I had the option to format my DVD-RAM disks with FAT32 OR NTFS. No option for UDF1.5

I went ahead and went with NTFS since I have everything else formatted that way. About a week later I noticed panasonic had updated drivers for WinXP. I upgraded and I lost my option to format with NTFS. On top of that I could no long read my NTFS dvd-ram disks. I was really pissed at that point. Something had also been changed because I could not install the windows 2000 drivers from the cd anymore. Basically my data was lost. I decided last night to reinstall XP because it had been 7 months. I installed the windows 2000 drivers again and I had the option to format with NTFS again. I read my data off the dvd-ram disks. What sucks about the Windows 2000 drivers is the fact that it separates the dvd-ram drive into two drives in "My Computer" one is labeled dvd-ram and called optical. The other thing that sucks is you can't format with UDF.

Since I got my data off I went ahead and upgraded to the winXP drivers and my options are now only fat32 and udf.