NT not able to read Fat32?

[DJFuji]

I'm running NT4 with the latest SP at work but when I brought my WinMe, 40GB Fat32 drive to work and plugged it in, NT doesn't see it. I mean, disk admin sees that it exists (which tells me that BIOS is fine with it) but the actual OS can't read it. When you click on the drive it says the drive does not contain a recognized file system. I always thought NT could read Fat32...? Someone said something about the drive being in "raw" format and not really NTFS but I have no other evidence to back that claim up. Any ideas out there? Ive already placed the drive on secondary master and secondary slave, to no avail.

 

[tippmann]

NT4 can't read fat32...

 

[Deckard]

Unless FAT32 compatability was added in a SP, it's true that it NT 4 does not recognize FAT32. However, there is a utility available that allows NT to see FAT32. Also, there is a utility to allow Win98 to see NTFS partitions. I have not used either, but I know they exist. They might be made by Winternals, and there may be others that exist besides the Winternals version. I doubt if any of them are free.

 

[BadThad]

SYSINTERNALS has the utilities.

 

[Ben]

<< SYSINTERNALS has the utilities. >>


Yep, works good too.

 

[DJFuji]

Update: Talked to a friend of mine today and he said that NT is kind of strange in that it will only read FAT32 drives if the PRIMARY BOOT DRIVE is using FAT. Otherwise, if, like most people, you use NTFS for your primary boot drive, NT won't read FAT32 when you install an additional drive later. Microsoft won't confirm or deny this (they just say that NT doesnt support fat32--period), but apparently this theory has been confirmed by actually doing it. Anyone else know anything about this?

 

[shathal]

Now there's a novelty. Would be quite curious myself whether anyone can deny or confirm this.

Btw - do you mean the primary boot partition being FAT-16, or FAT-32 or just any FAT instead of NTFS?

 

[NeMeSi]

It's sort of comical that you are A+ certified and that you work at Staples as a PC technicain :Q

Anyways, it does not matter if the HDD is the primary, secondary, etc. drive. A NT box will not be able to view any info on a FAT32 drive without a third party program. Upgrade to Win2k, and you'll be OK.

 

[DJFuji]

nemesi: I know what you mean about the A+ and staples bit. Actually though, I'm a programmer for the Marines right now. I got my A+ before i enlisted and got my staples certification (an oxymoron, yes) while I worked there for a short time. Staples wanted to pay me as a sales associate but wanted me to work as a technician. Go figure. Needless to say, I wasn't there all that long.

Anyway, Microsoft hasn't said anything about supporting FAT32 based on the IDE configuration, (in fact, they state NT does NOT support fat32 at all), but a friend of mine actually DID the primary drive=FAT32 thing and he has absolutely no problem with two FAT32 drives on an NT machine. I still have no clue what the RAW format is though...

 

[Accipiter]

My 2c. If the primary drive is Fat32 and NT can only be installed as NTFS then how would you be running NT?

 

[NeMeSi]

Without trying to be rude here: I think your friend is full of sh*t. I have yet to see this work? Thats just like having a blind man judge a beauty contest, ain't going to work!

Maybe I'm alittle behind on things; has anybody every seen this work except for DJ Fuji's friend?

 

[Ben]

The program from SysInternals will let you read any FAT32 drive on the system.

The only limitation is that you can't install NT on a FAT32 drive.

 

[HansXP]

<< Microsoft won't confirm or deny this (they just say that NT doesnt support fat32--period), but apparently this theory has been confirmed by actually doing it. Anyone else know anything about this? >>



NT4 can't read/write to FAT32 partitions, period. Your friend is talking BS. You'll need a 3rd party utility to do it.

 

[Abzstrak]

I'd agree you friend is full of it... Benn using NT a LONG time and I've seen systems with a FAT16 boot drive, NTFS data drive and another HDD in the system thats fat32 for booting into win9x... NT could not read the fat32 drive that I recall and I would never expect it to.

 

[DJFuji]

So what would happen if you booted from a 9x CD and used fdisk and format to create a fat32 partition. Then you put the NT disk in and hit install to install to the FAT32 drive? Obviously I haven't done this before, but would NT reject the FAT32 partition? Btw, i did finally install win 2k...

 

[NeMeSi]

If you were to do that, when you were prompted to choose what partition you want NT to reside on, the FAT32 partition would either A. Not show up B. Be an unrecognized partition

Both ways, you couldn't install it. You can't &quot;trick&quot; NT into installing on something it doesn't, and will not, understand. Sorry man. :frown: Like I said originally, go to Windows 2000 Professional and everything will work fine.