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General discussion

Need to do this right!

Feb 17, 2007 3:11AM PST

I recently purchased a 500GB external USB 2.0 drive. It came pre-formatted as 1 huge FAT32 partition which came up fine under WinXP Pro. (I am doubtful that files on such a drive would be accessed properly, due to past experience and MS's imposed FAT32 32GB limit.)

I fiddled around a bit and got the drive to mount properly under Win98SE (even though the manual says Win98SE is not supported) so that I could use FDISK and FORMAT.

Being a PC Tech with many clients on mixed platforms, I set-up a dual-boot Win98SE and Win2k Pro with various SpyWare and Antivirus scanners in the 32GB Primary partition so that I can boot 'clean' should the need arise.

It was my hope to put MP3's from my CD collection on the other 460GB+ partion to use with my laptop when I DJ parties so that I don't have to make any more mix CD's or lug so much stuff around.

Well, the 32GB primary partition comes up fine on WinXP Pro... However, the Logical Drive in the Extended partition does not. It shows 'Healthy' but not 'On-line' in DiskManagement; when I attempt to access it, it prompts me to format it as NTFS.

Why can't WinXP access the Logical Drive in the Extended partition properly?

How should I proceed:

1. Break the large Logical Drive in the Extended partition into 4 drives < 137GB? (Will WinXP and Win2K be able to properly access them then?)

2. Format the drive in NTFS and use the Win98 NTFS reader from MS's SysInternals should I need to access the partition from Win98SE?

3. Some other course of action that I haven't considered?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Discussion is locked

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2K and XP have "issues".
Feb 17, 2007 4:43AM PST

Such a large drive has issues with those OSes without service packs. The level of SP is very important on both but let me forewarn you that I see too many FAT32 drive volumes vaporize as owners move between machines. From my view there is no solid fix to this but NTFS does appear to help.

http://www.48bitlba.com notes the issues of OS and more.

Your later comment appears to say you are considering this as a storage device. Why would you risk your collection to a known bad combo of FAT32 and USB?

Bob

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More comments
Feb 17, 2007 5:09AM PST

First, thanks for your prompt reply.

Second, I am having time-out issues so I cannot read http://www.48bitlba.com/

I'll assume this has to do with 48-bit addressing and the 137GB limit of such, which is why I suggested in "Option 1" that I split the large drive into 4 smaller ones each less than (&ltWink 137GB

My Win98SE has all available MS updates including MDAC 2.81 etc.
WinXP Pro SP2 with all updates except IE 7 (piece of $*&%!)
Win2K Pro SP4 with all updates

I have not attempted to access the extended 460+GB partition from Win2K Pro, just WinXP Pro

Nor have I written any files to that partion from Win98SE

The files will be -COPIES-... I am currently ripping my CD collection to a 2nd internal EIDE 120GB NTFS hard drive on my WinXP pro machine.

When full, I intend to catalog it, label it and put it in the closet!

No way would I take a drive full of files into 'the field' or to a party w/o a backup...

I am leaning toward 'option 2': NTFS volume with the reader installed on my Win98SE machine.

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48bitlba also notes issues with...
Feb 17, 2007 7:45AM PST

Drives over 127GB (not just partitions) and Windows 98 issues. The site works here so try to get to it later.

I solved my need for a smaller fat32 drive with another USB drive.

Bob

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So there seems to be no way around it
Feb 28, 2007 11:10AM PST

OK, so I took the 500GB drive out of the case and reformatted it as NTFS. I copied all my current music files to it, etc.

I purchased a 120GB SATA drive for the case, that I will use "in the field" to do what I originally intended, plus 100GB of music for parties. (about 10,000 songs)

Still would like an answer as to why WinXP Pro with SP2 couldn't access the large extended FAT32 partition properly. (Machine is a AMD Athlon XP 2400 on a Foxcon MB.)

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That may be the "clue".
Feb 28, 2007 11:26AM PST

What created this giant FAT32? It may not meet one of Microsoft's "standards." By this time you've read the link and it's best to stay on the straight and narrow if you want your filesystems to stick around. There are some that may get upset about that but I'm sharing what I've learned.

Bob

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As previously stated...
Mar 1, 2007 8:15AM PST

The drive came pre-formated as one 500GB 'giant FAT32'.

As I said, I got the device to work under Win98SE and used good ol' FDISK and FORMAT to partition the drive.

I cannot find any reason why a large extended FAT32 partition would come up as 'Healthy' but not 'On-line' (ie. not be accessible) under WinXP Pro SP2; perhaps the pre-SATA AMD motherboard needs a BIOS update?

I thought the OS was supposed to handle it... As per the info on the LBA48 site, I have proceeded, as stated, with NTFS and the drive is working fine.

However, any insight into this 'anomaly' would be appreciated, as I cannot be the only one who has experienced this issue.

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It doesn't work.
Mar 1, 2007 8:22AM PST

I make no apology for the issues of big FAT32 drives and Microsoft. I can only share that people show me busted daily it seems.

Bob