Fat32

Ullrich · #1 26th July 2007, 09:54 AM

If you format your hard drive or USB drive as FAT 32, does it freely recognize by both Windows and Linux?

I formatted my Linux partitions on the hard drive as Ext3 and Windows XP as NTFS.

My question is on FAT32 format. Does FAT32 recognize both Windows and Linux?

I had some problems with some USB drives. When I change from Linux to Windows, it failed to recognize.
I rarely go to Windows XP side.

SteveGYBE · #2 26th July 2007, 09:58 AM

Ullrich - I have a FAT32 extended partition left over from Windows Mistake Edition - I can access it fine from Fedora and even mount it at boot.

Ullrich · #3 26th July 2007, 08:39 PM

Steve
So what you say is FAT 32 is compatible with both Linux and Windows.
What is Windows Mistake edition?

leigh123linux · #4 26th July 2007, 08:43 PM

Windows Mistake Edition = any microsoft OS

Unless he means Windows ME

SteveGYBE · #5 27th July 2007, 10:02 AM

Leigh is correct - Windows ME, which was difficult to boot consistently but once running proved almost impossible to shut down cleanly.

But enough of that - FAT32 partitions can be mounted by Linux without any additional drivers, but of course do not support standard 'Nix file permissions so I believe they inherit their permissions from the mount-point permissons.