WinXP not recognizing FAT32 volume

[blackrain]

I've got a 200GB SATA HD. It's partitioned as follows:

Partition 1: 30GB (Win98 second edition Fat 32)
Partition 2: 100GB (Winxp NTFS)
Partition 3: 60GB (Fat32)

I created Partition 3 in windows 98.

When I reboot into winxp, it sees Partition 3 but wants to format it. Of course, winxp can't format a 60GB partition in fat32 (its not even an option)

Although winxp has a 32GB format limitation I thought it could support all fat32 drives.

One workaround would be just to split the 60GB drive into 2 partitions and have winxp format them, but I am just curious as to why this isn't working.

Also, for some reason, fdisk only sees partition 3 as 97% usage and FAT16. But windows 98 reports all the space and says its fat32.

 

[DaveSimmons]

XP can see/use properly formatted FAT32 partitions of any size, it just can't format ones larger than 32GB.

Are you sure partition 3 is formatted properly? If you have a partition tool or download a drive manufacturer tool you might try destroying and re-creating it.

 

[blackrain]

I installed maxblast in win98 which mounted the partition. Then I formatted in win98. That was my original method of making the partition. So you think I should try repartitioning and re-formatting.

 

[blackrain]

 

[DaveSimmons]

or something 🙂 . I'm just saying if it's set up correctly XP will be able to use it.

You might need to re-scan drives in disk manager to get XP to see it.

 

[blackrain]

I installed maxblast 4 in winxp and tried to reformat the drive. It shows it as FAT16. How weird.

I'm thinking about starting over with the partitions. Windows 98 boot cdrom recognizes my sata drive. Should I boot with the win98 cdrom and repartition everything (3 fat 32 partitions). Then in winxp install, choose to change file system on partition 2 to ntfs.

Can fdisk on the win98 boot cdrom make a 100GB and a 60GB partition?

The maxblast cdrom doen't recognize my sata drive on booting.

 

[blackrain]

Update:
I tried repartitioning the 60GB space into two 30GB partitions. Winxp disk management now shows the option to format them in fat32. I guess this will be a temporary solution although I would prefer one 60GB partition.

I also installed partition doctor and it said that all the partitions are fine. Not sure why this is considered by maxblast software to be non-standard partitioning when I try to convert the unallocated 60GB space to a partition.


Edit: It seems to me that the problem is related to the fat32 setup in win98. Its being reported by win98 as fat32 but everywhere else it is being reported as fat 16.

 

[gtjr]

fat32 and ntfs dont mix well, if you use fat32 , use it on all drives

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: gtjr
fat32 and ntfs dont mix well, if you use fat32 , use it on all drives

Nonsense. I've been mixing the two on desktops and Win2000 servers for years without any issues.

But welcome to the forums anyway 🙂

 

[blackrain]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons

Originally posted by: gtjr
fat32 and ntfs dont mix well, if you use fat32 , use it on all drives

Nonsense. I've been mixing the two on desktops and Win2000 servers for years without any issues.

But welcome to the forums anyway 🙂

I second that. This has never been a problem with me before. Anyway, problem was solved as follows.

Since fdisk was reporting only 97% usage and fat16, I booted via win98SE cdrom, ran fdisk, deleted the partition, setup a logical partition for the entire 60GB space, rebooted, booted from win98SE cdrom again, formatted and voila!

Works now in both.

For some reason, maxblast did not format it properly when I used it win98. I have had problems before with maxblast.

By the way, if the partition was previously set as a primary partition (it was previously used as a second non-boot drive in another pc), could that have been in part the problem?? It seems like the fdisk logical drive assignment had helped.