Can Windows 98 Detect a 160 GB HDD Partitioned to 32 GB FAT32?

[kaos]

I have 160 gb hdd and i partitioned it 32 gb(fat32) chunks using extended partitions.
I am now using windows xp. Can windows 98 detect this hdd?

 

[dduardo]

Fat32 isn't very good. I suggest you format ntfs. Why are you dual booting windows 98 and windows xp?

 

[Integral]

Fat32 isn't very good. I suggest you format ntfs. Why are you dual booting windows 98 and windows xp?

Why is NTFS better then Fat 32? Does it have a smaller cluster? Or is it security?

Is there a utility (like the one that converted fat16 to fat 32) for converting fat32 to NTFS?

(Still contemplating shifting to a NT platform.)

 

[dduardo]

ntfs is better because it is more reliable, can supports more files, doesn't defragment as much and has security labels. In terms of speed fat32 is probable faster as is the case with ext2 versus ext3 for linux. Journaling operations causes some overhead, but is worth the extra reliablility.

 

[kaos]

yes i am dual booting win 98 and xp as there are some programmes that arent compatible
even with emulation (some old dos programs) and i can't seem to detect the hard disk.

 

[dduardo]

What programs are you running that would force you to run windows 98? Are you trying to run some really old games? If this is the case then there are plenty virtual machines for those type of games such as scummVM:

http://www.scummvm.org/

 

[chroot]

Or hell, run Win98 in vmware or bochs, and use NTFS on your disk. The bottom line is that FAT32 is going to make you waste a LOT of that 160 GB capacity with enormous chunk sizes.

- Warren

 

[chroot]

Nevermind, I now realized you broke the 160 GB disk up into a bunch of 32 GB partitions, so the chunk size issue is not relevant -- but it'll still be really inconvenient to use 5 small logical disks that way.

- Warren

 

[kaos]

ok nvm thanks guys

 

[gnome]

You're dual-booting Windows 98 just to run DOS programs?

Put a small dos partition at the beginning of the disk and just install dos on it. (Why do you want anywhere near 32gb for dos games?) Configure your boot manager (grub, ntloader, or whatever you like) to hide the dos partition when you boot XP and hide the XP partition(s) when you boot dos. That works fine for me with a couple of 80gb disks.

Then you can use NTFS for your XP partitions.

If you want you could probably do the same thing with Win98, but why bother if all you need is dos?

(I think "32gb" is the max for Win98SE, it may be less for earlier versions. Maybe you're just slightly over the limit.)