Reading a FAT formatted disk in a Win XP, NTFS formatted system

[Mike]

Backed up (just copied the files) my data and documents from my win98 (FAT
format) system. Installed Win XP on my computer and formatted the system
with NTFS. Now I can't read the backup disk and transfer the data to the
new system. Any clue on how to read the disk and transfer the data over.
When I try to read the disk it says it's not formatted. I am trying to find
a friend that has a win98 system but so far no luck. That way I can read
the files and just send them myself.

Thanks,

Mike

(e-mail address removed)

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Mike,

What medium did you copy the files to? What program (if any) did you use to
do this? Regardless of what file system they were copied from, the medium
you used determines that file format they are in now. This should not affect
your ability to regain the data, however, as an example, if you used packet
writing software to copy to CD, you may need to install the same ora similar
program under WinXP to regain access to the data.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[Mike]

Rick,

Used a HD (1.44) floppy. In Win 98 just dragged the directory and all its
files over form the c: drive to the a: drive. Files were there as I
confirmed it. Was able to read them off the floppy. Then did the install
of WIn XP, formatted the drive with NTFS. Now want to copy the files back
over to a documents directory. When I put the disk in the a: dirve it says
"disk is not formatted, do you want to format it?" Found a machine that has
win 98 on it and am going to see if it can read the disk. This is not the
first time this has happened. So I was figuring it was that the NTFS file
system cannot read the FAT file system. I remember something in the install
of win XP, when formatting in NTFS it states you will not be able to read
other file systems or maybe it was the other file systems cannot read the
NTFS. I am not sure. All I know is I cannot read the floppy disk and I
need to get the data off it.

Is that as clear as mud or what.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Answered privately, repeated here:

Actually, a lot of folks are having similar problems. It's because Win98 is
fairly fault tolerant and can handle misaligned floppy drive heads or dirty
"bits". WinXP can't, it's very particular about the hardware. The only real
solution is to recover them on another Win98 installation.

Floppies use FAT12, regardless of whether the system was using NTFS or
FAT32, both Win98 and WinXP (as well as any other version of Windows) can
read/write in FAT12 with equal ease. The file system in use is not the
issue. The message you saw regarding NTFS at installation is to warn users
that are dual booting a Win98 system that the NTFS partition will not be
visible from that installation (Win98 cannot read NTFS on a local drive,
over a network is fine).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone