NTFS and W98

G

Guest

I just got a Western Digital 320 Gig external HDD and use it mainly on my
XP-based desktop. I've got a notebook PC, as well, running W98 and after
getting the HDD installed on it too, it's not showing up in the list of
drives.
The HDD is running NTFS, and to be honest, I've forgot most of what I used
to know about FAT32 systems...
Will W98 read from this drive, and if not, can I use something like
Partition Magic to create a FAT32 partition on it (for my needs, I'd only
want maybe 10 Gigs for this) in order for it to be recognised by W98?

Thx
 
B

Brian A

FAT32 can not see NTFS but NTFS can see FAT32. If you already have the drive
formatted NTFS you'll have to reformat and partition the drive. I haven't used PM
but I've read that you can convert from NTFS to FAT32 with it, yet if you're not
partitioned it would be a waste of time.

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
 
B

Bruce Chambers

OzBushDude said:
I just got a Western Digital 320 Gig external HDD and use it mainly on my
XP-based desktop. I've got a notebook PC, as well, running W98 and after
getting the HDD installed on it too, it's not showing up in the list of
drives.
The HDD is running NTFS, and to be honest, I've forgot most of what I used
to know about FAT32 systems...
Will W98 read from this drive, and if not, can I use something like
Partition Magic to create a FAT32 partition on it (for my needs, I'd only
want maybe 10 Gigs for this) in order for it to be recognised by W98?

Thx


Win98 cannot natively read/access NTFS-formatted partitions. There
used to be some 3rd party solutions to add that capability, but I don't
know if they'd still be available, given Win98's advanced age. For
instance, Sysinternals used to provide such a driver, until Microsoft
acquired the company; you might still be able to find it on a freeware
site somewhere. Try Google.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell
 
G

Guest

Mr President,

Did the enclosure/external HHD come with a setup disk, if so most likely it
will have drivers for Win 98 too.. Use them on the laptop, so it will see
your 10GB FAT32 partition created with Partition Magic..
Cheers
j;-j
 
B

Bruce Chambers

Brian said:
FAT32 can not see NTFS but NTFS can see FAT32.


Sorry, but that's just wrong. NTFS and FAT32 are *file systems*. File
systems do not "see" or "read" one another. Operating systems "see" or
"read" compatible file systems.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell
 
G

Guest

Thx Jaymon -

Yes, it sure did come with setup apps for W98 and I ran them - I'm gonna try
using PM to carry out what I planned to do with the 10 gig slice.

If anyone is interested, I'll post my results on here - just give a hoy if
you would like me to.
 
L

LVTravel

You need to run PM on the XP machine and not the 98 machine to be safe.
Shrink the NTFS partition by 10 or so GB and then use PM to create and
format a FAT 32 partition in the free space. PM should work this way
without any problems.
 
G

Guest

Hoy..!
Cheers for the New year..
j;-j


OzBushDude said:
Thx Jaymon -

Yes, it sure did come with setup apps for W98 and I ran them - I'm gonna try
using PM to carry out what I planned to do with the 10 gig slice.

If anyone is interested, I'll post my results on here - just give a hoy if
you would like me to.
 
G

Guest

Hi Jaymon and anyone else interested:

Yup, all worked well. I used Partition Magic to:

1) Create a new 10 Gig logical partition on my 320 Gig drive - assigned a
new drive letter and created the partition as a FAT32.

2) Hooked the drive up to my notebook PC and it recognised the 10 Gig
partition.

All working well. Thanks for the help from those who responded. And HNY to
youse all, too!

Words of wisdom for this NYE and in general:

** If you drink, then drive, you're a bloody idiot!

** Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.
That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their
shoes.
=====================================================
 
D

DanS

Win98 cannot natively read/access NTFS-formatted partitions.
There
used to be some 3rd party solutions to add that capability, but I
don't know if they'd still be available, given Win98's advanced age.
For instance, Sysinternals used to provide such a driver, until
Microsoft acquired the company; you might still be able to find it on
a freeware site somewhere. Try Google.

NTFS for DOS - http://bootdisk.com/ntfs.htm

Bootdisk.com is an excellent source for all boot disks.
 
B

Bruce Chambers

Brian said:
I realize that and the fact of what I was getting at can be and was
construed as misleading by what I typed.


So you admit to deliberately giving misleading "information?" Why
would someone calling himself an MVP do that? Trying to give the others
a bad name?


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell
 

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