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Date:	Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:49:12 -0700
From:	"Harry Motin" <hmotin@sbcglobal.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	< "scoug-help@scoug.com" > scoug-help@scoug.com >
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Establishing FAT32

Content Type: text/plain

Yes, and the documentation for FAT32 now states that the FAT32.IFS driver will not load
during a boot up in which a FAT32 partition does not exist.

Also, with regard to Colin's issue about formatting the FAT32 under OS/2-ECS, the FAT32
documentation states the following:

While format support as in the command line "format F: /FS:FAT32" is planned,
it is not implemented in FAT32.IFS yet. Until then, to format FAT32 partitions,
an advanced disk tool like DFSee and the F32Blank utility available at Hobbes
are needed.

FAT32 support is somewhat limited in OS/2 world: we have an IFS that allows us
to read/write data from and to FAT32 partitions, but we cannot format them.
FAT32 Blanker somewhat fills this gap, with the help of advanced disk utilities
such as DFSee.

Formatting FAT32 Volumes
========================

Formatting FAT32 can be done numerous ways. Presently, the only way to format a
volume FAT32 under either eComStation or OS/2 is to use DFSee and F32blank together.
The procedure is as follows:

1.Find out the volume relevant data: Heads, Sectors, Starting point and Size using DFSee
2.Feed F32Blank with that data to generate a file with blank FATs suitable for the volume
3.Detach the volume (with LVM it's called 'hide' or similar)
4.Use DFSee to overwrite the volume with the file contents, using "wrim".
5.Attach again the volume.
6.If after this you can't read/write properly the volume or it appears as not empty,
then you MUST reboot and check it again.
7.If you don't like DFSee go and find something else capable of doing the job.

If this is too complicated for some people, the USB media can be formatted using one
of the Window's versions. Each Windows version has it own built in limitations.

Win95R2 <= 16 GB
Windows 98 second addition - Volumes < 128 GB and > 512 MB
Windows ME - 512 MB to 2 TB.
Windows XP <= 32 GB.

Other formatting alternatives

FreeDOS <= 16 GB
Partition Commander versions 8 and 9 (Limitations unknown)

HCM

On Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:15:41 -0700, Steven Levine wrote:

>>As I recall you need a permanent FAT32 partition so the FAT32 file system
>>is loaded at boot. That is what I needed to do when I installed my FAT32
>>FS. After that I could install a USB FAT32 formatted drive and access it
>>without problems.
>
>This may have been true at one time, but best I can tell, this is not
>longer true.

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