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General discussion

CAN XP EVEN READ VISTA FILES?!!!!

Sep 25, 2007 3:51PM PDT

ive tried putting files from my vista computer to my xp computer by burning data on a cd, transfering files to an external hard drive through usb, and networking. none of them worked for me, are any three of these even possible? can xp read ANY files that come from a vista computer?

Discussion is locked

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Yes...
Sep 25, 2007 9:37PM PDT

There are no differences between the files, so a .txt file is the same under XP as it is under Vista, and likewise for .doc, .jpg, etc. In fact there are only a couple file types natively supported by Vista that aren't under XP, such as the new pdf-competition .XPS. However, you didn't mention what the file types are, what problem occurs, or the associated error message, if applicable, so it's hard to tell what the root of the problem is. Fill in the details and we'll see what we can do to help.

John

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vista TO xp
Sep 26, 2007 4:05AM PDT

this problem happened with all my files, jpeg, avi, btmp. the most basic files. there is no error message when i try to transfer files using an external hard drive by usb, theres just nothing there when i open the drive like i never put the files on it. and when i burn the files on cd it says the disk needs to be formatted. so theres no real error messages. its like im using 2 os' from different sides of the world. all files i try to transfer from vista TO xp specificly. xp to vistas not a problem, its vista to xp. the files copy to disk or drive, but when i try to open in xp the drives and cds are blank.

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You have other problems
Sep 28, 2007 8:03AM PDT

Like it has already been mentioned, there is no difference between the files on Vista vs. XP vs. Win98 or Apple anything. The files formats are determined by the program that wrote them, not the operating system they are used on.

If you wrote CDs that appear 'blank' on another computer, then possibly you just did not finish writing the CD. CDs and DVDs need to be 'finalized' (short definition: closed to further writing) before other computers can read that disk.