FAT32 Possible?

[Barry]

Just wondering, if I begin with a clean format & new partition in FAT32,
would VISTA RC install (or is NTFS mandatory)? MS website mentions the
benefits of NTFS but it's unclear if VISTA would require an existing FAT32
partition to be converted to NTFS. (NTFS has been my preference at work
and FAT32 at home). Thanks.

 

[Peter]

Vista requires NTFS and if you want to compare files systems click the
following link where you'll see that NTFS is preferable in any case:
http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm

--
Peter
Toronto, Canada
XP Pro SP2 x 2 + Vista Beta
P4 D865GBFL HT @ 3.0ghz 2.0gb DDR 700gb HD
ATI Radeon 9550 Graphics
Creative Soundblaster Audigy 4 Audio

 

[Dominic Payer]

See
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/wi...60b-0433-4ba1-a2f4-9338915fdb4b.mspx?mfr=true

You could install on FAT 32, but only reformat partitions up to 32GB in
Vista. The maximum individual file size is only 4GB - limiting if you want
to use large multimedia files or burn DVDs.

FAT32 partitions larger than 32GB can be used but not created or reformatted
by Vista.

 

[AJR]

Interesting quote from the TechNet site:

"Windows Vista provides support for Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me
file systems, including FAT16 and FAT32 file systems. If you upgrade
computers that use FAT or FAT32 as their file system, consider converting
the partitions to NTFS."

 

[Barry]

Thanks for the helpful replies!

 

[Michael Cecil]

Just wondering, if I begin with a clean format & new partition in FAT32,
would VISTA RC install (or is NTFS mandatory)? MS website mentions the
benefits of NTFS but it's unclear if VISTA would require an existing FAT32
partition to be converted to NTFS. (NTFS has been my preference at work
and FAT32 at home). Thanks.

Vista will only install using NTFS. I tried converting the partition
afterwards to FAT32 and used Vista that way for several days without any
problems, but of course, you lose the advantages of NTFS as well as things
like all the reparse points that are initially installed.