Vista question, Dual Boot and FAT32 Support

[Barry Watzman]

Can Vista be installed on a FAT32 partition?

If not, does Vista support accessing FAT32 partitions on the hard drive,
assuming that it's installed on an NTFS partition?

What I want to configure is the following:

Partitions:
C: - FAT32, Windows XP
D: - Vista (not sure if FAT32 or NTFS)
E:, F:, G: - FAT32
H: - NTFS

-and-

I: - NTFS (different physical drive)

I want both XP and Vista to see the same drives/partitions with the same
drive letters.

I presume that I install XP first on C:, then Vista on D:. Do I need to
do anything special to get Vista installed on D: and seeing that drive
as D: and not as C: or some other drive?

Thanks

 

[Kerry Brown]

Answered inline.
http://www.vistahelp.ca

Can Vista be installed on a FAT32 partition?

No

If not, does Vista support accessing FAT32 partitions on the hard drive,
assuming that it's installed on an NTFS partition?

Yes

What I want to configure is the following:

Partitions:
C: - FAT32, Windows XP
D: - Vista (not sure if FAT32 or NTFS)
E:, F:, G: - FAT32
H: - NTFS

-and-

I: - NTFS (different physical drive)

I want both XP and Vista to see the same drives/partitions with the same
drive letters.

I presume that I install XP first on C:, then Vista on D:. Do I need to
do anything special to get Vista installed on D: and seeing that drive as
D: and not as C: or some other drive?

There is a very good chance that Vista and XP will not enumerate the drives
the same. It is a cosmetic issue that won't cause problems. You will still
be able to access the files. On NTFS partitions you may have to change the
NTFS security settings on some folders.

 

[Barry Watzman]

Re: "There is a very good chance that Vista and XP will not enumerate
the drives the same. It is a cosmetic issue that won't cause problems.
You will still be able to access the files. On NTFS partitions you may
have to change the NTFS security settings on some folders."

It would seem that I could change the drive letter assignments of all of
the non-OS data drives subsequent to installation. The big issue then
is how to get Vista to install itself on the 2nd partition as drive D:
(the first partition being the FAT32 partition containing XP). Is there
a specific way to do this? Someone suggested that I start the Vista
install from XP by running the setup program under XP (is it still
Winnt32.exe?), instead of booting from the DVD, would accomplish this.

 

[John Barnes]

If you install from within XP you will retain the same drive lettering as XP
and if the drive you are going to install on is D within XP it will be
within Vista. You will only be able to install the same bit level from
within XP ie Vista32bit or Vista64bit.

 

[Steve Urbach]

Re: "There is a very good chance that Vista and XP will not enumerate
the drives the same. It is a cosmetic issue that won't cause problems.
You will still be able to access the files. On NTFS partitions you may
have to change the NTFS security settings on some folders."

It would seem that I could change the drive letter assignments of all of
the non-OS data drives subsequent to installation. The big issue then
is how to get Vista to install itself on the 2nd partition as drive D:
(the first partition being the FAT32 partition containing XP). Is there
a specific way to do this? Someone suggested that I start the Vista
install from XP by running the setup program under XP (is it still
Winnt32.exe?), instead of booting from the DVD, would accomplish this.

I did a fresh install of Vista from XP pro on a second drive.
My Vista drive is F: (DVD and DVD-RW are/were set to ONLY D:, E: in
XP).
IIRC the HD drives are *normally* lettered Drive 0, first active
partition, Drive 1 first active partition, Drive 0 second active
partition, Drive 1 ....

Whatever *I* did, my drive letters remain the same during Dual Boot.
It must be able to be done. I am not *that* good to make that kind
of a tweak.