formatting with exfat

[Bill Cunningham]

Is there any way to install a new OS clean install using XP x64 with
exfat? My current filesystem is fat32 and I have no huge files or 4 GB or
more files so I really don't *need* exfat or ntfs. But I'd like to try
exfat. Can XP be transferred to a partition that is formated with exfat?
Does anyone know of any utilities ? I find conflicting information online.
Someone said fat32 only supports up to 3x GB. No MS's tools only format up
to that. Fat32 is designed to format to 2.2 TB but would be inefficient. And
over 4 GB files, well forget fat32. I hope I'm clear.

Bill

 

[Paul]

Is there any way to install a new OS clean install using XP x64 with
exfat? My current filesystem is fat32 and I have no huge files or 4 GB or
more files so I really don't *need* exfat or ntfs. But I'd like to try
exfat. Can XP be transferred to a partition that is formated with exfat?
Does anyone know of any utilities ? I find conflicting information online.
Someone said fat32 only supports up to 3x GB. No MS's tools only format up
to that. Fat32 is designed to format to 2.2 TB but would be inefficient. And
over 4 GB files, well forget fat32. I hope I'm clear.

Bill

Well, think about it.

Exfat is an "add-on" for WinXP. Install WinXP.
Then install the Exfat driver.

Now, think about the WinXP installer logic.
What does it know about Exfat ? Nothing.

What does an MSDOS floopy know about Exfat ?
Nothing. And the WinXP driver is not likely
to be of the right type to put on an MSDOS
floppy. (An MSDOS floppy is an example of a
console environment, suitable for doing a
WinXP installation.)

I would rate this idea as "a serious challenge"
and "not a slam dunk". Waste time on it if you want...

Exfat might be a good choice for a USB flash drive.
They say the file system and driver, have some
aspects that may work better with the large page
sizes of flash. If I were to stick Exfat anywhere, it
would be as a driver for a USB flash drive (key).

Will Exfat turn your computer into a space ship
and take you to the moon ? No. There are hardly
any G-forces at all. You can only get "geek satisfaction"
from your Exfat experiment.

Paul

 

[JJ]

Is there any way to install a new OS clean install using XP x64 with
exfat? My current filesystem is fat32 and I have no huge files or 4 GB or
more files so I really don't *need* exfat or ntfs. But I'd like to try
exfat. Can XP be transferred to a partition that is formated with exfat?
Does anyone know of any utilities ? I find conflicting information online.
Someone said fat32 only supports up to 3x GB. No MS's tools only format up
to that. Fat32 is designed to format to 2.2 TB but would be inefficient. And
over 4 GB files, well forget fat32. I hope I'm clear.

Bill

One HUGE problem with exFAT is that there's still so little support for
dedicated recovery from third party softwares. CHKDSK isn't enough and it
handles FAT-#/exFAT file system integrity error and bad cluster issue poorly
where it can actually severe problem.

Installing clean OS into exFAT partition is similar as installing OS into a
SATA harddisk in native SATA mode. With SATA, you'll have to
slipstream/integrate the SATA driver into the Windows CD using Microsoft's
tools or with nLite, since Windows XP doesn't include one. I've read that a
specific version already include it, but I don't know if it's an official
version, OEM, or user's slipstreamed. Same goes for exFAT driver but the
only problem is that the official exFAT driver package doesn't include the
INF file required for the slipstreaming. So it must be created manually. I'm
pretty sure the details can be found on the net.

 

[philo]

One HUGE problem with exFAT is that there's still so little support for
dedicated recovery from third party softwares. CHKDSK isn't enough and it
handles FAT-#/exFAT file system integrity error and bad cluster issue poorly
where it can actually severe problem.

I have a USB thumb drive that is formatted exFat that I use for copying
videos (over 4 gig) to Windows, Linux and Mac. It seemed like a good
idea but occasionally I've gotten data corruption. (Has never happened
with NTFS)

On another thread (or newsgroup) I advised to OP to use NTFS but he
refuses to listen.

 

[JJ]

I have a USB thumb drive that is formatted exFat that I use for copying
videos (over 4 gig) to Windows, Linux and Mac. It seemed like a good
idea but occasionally I've gotten data corruption. (Has never happened
with NTFS)

On another thread (or newsgroup) I advised to OP to use NTFS but he
refuses to listen.

exFAT design adds more integrity check for the boot record, but not for
other part of the file system. It's pretty much merely a FAT-64 with better
performance. And some wee bit added features which aren't commonly used and
not very useful.

The only better FAT-style file system are TFAT and TexFAT. i.e.
Transactional-safe FAT/exFAT, where incomplete file system modifications
would be reverted - just like NTFS. But they're only available on Windows
CE. There isn't any third party driver for desktop Windows. I've searched.

 

[philo]

exFAT design adds more integrity check for the boot record, but not for
other part of the file system. It's pretty much merely a FAT-64 with better
performance. And some wee bit added features which aren't commonly used and
not very useful.

The only better FAT-style file system are TFAT and TexFAT. i.e.
Transactional-safe FAT/exFAT, where incomplete file system modifications
would be reverted - just like NTFS. But they're only available on Windows
CE. There isn't any third party driver for desktop Windows. I've searched.

Thanks for the great info.

Anyway I see no logic by using anything other than NTFS for a Windows
installtion