[vox-tech] Reformatting a FAT32 partition

[Jonathan Stickel]

As far as I know (which isn't all that much), Linux supports reading and 
writing to FAT32.  I have a dual boot system with a 3rd partition that 
is FAT32 which I use from both WinXP and RH8 Linux.  You could probably 
use FAT, but it is limited to 2GB.

For whatever reason, Linux likes to refer to FAT32 as VFAT.  You will 
need an appropriate line in your fstab to mount it on startup.  There is 
also the issue of FAT32 not supporting user-associations for each file, 
so you need to use the "umask" command.

I am sure others can help you more.

Jonathan


Richard S. Crawford wrote:
> Crud.  My Googling of this problem indicates that this can only be done 
> by repartitioning the partition, and even then it isn't 100% reliable.
> 
> Hee hee.  Back to parted I go.  Whee!
> 
> 
> Richard S. Crawford wrote:
> 
>> While rebuilding my system, I created a partition that I meant to 
>> share between Windows and Linux for the occasional document that *has* 
>> to be in MS Word, or the occasional graphic that I just can't figure 
>> out how to fix in GIMP.  Originally, I accidentally formatted the 
>> partition as FAT32, and got a message from my kernel as I was booting 
>> up that said, "Warning -- FAT32 support is still alpha."  Which I 
>> knew, of course.
>>
>> So now, I'm back in Windows, trying to reformat that partition as FAT 
>> instead of FAT32.  Windows says it can't complete the format for some 
>> reason.
>>
>> Anyone have any ideas why, or how to fix this?
> 
>