Does Windows 7 RC (build 7100) support FAT32 partitions?

[kick]

I have just installed the public RC build of Win7 to do some emulator testing / benchmarking and see if Win7 performs good enough on old hardware.
The RC build (7100) was supposed to bring back R/W support for FAT32 partitions that was removed in the beta, but to my surprise, Windows 7 still thinks that my FAT32 partition doesn't exist!

I have two partitions on the hard drive - the first one is formatted with the FAT32 f.s. and the second one (the Win7 system partition) with NTFS.

Is there any way to get this partition recognized (even read-only) by Windows 7?
Is this an issue in the final (RTM, b7600) version of Win7 as well?

[Deathlike2]

According to some sites, it is supported in the retail version of Win7.

[Squall_Leonhart]

Windows 7 does not assign drive letters to secondary system drives.

........which by now anyone who has google access should know how to fix.

[PHoNyMiKe]

I'm still using 7127 and it reads a fat32 flash drive no problem. if I wasn't so lazy I'd install the retail version.

[odditude]

format says yes

Code: Select all

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\>format /?
Formats a disk for use with Windows.

FORMAT volume [/FS:file-system] [/V:label] [/Q] [/A:size] [/C] [/X] [/P:passes]
[/S:state]
FORMAT volume [/V:label] [/Q] [/F:size] [/P:passes]
FORMAT volume [/V:label] [/Q] [/T:tracks /N:sectors] [/P:passes]
FORMAT volume [/V:label] [/Q] [/P:passes]
FORMAT volume [/Q]

  volume          Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon),
                  mount point, or volume name.
  /FS:filesystem  Specifies the type of the file system (FAT, FAT32, exFAT, NTFS,
                  or UDF).
  /V:label        Specifies the volume label.
  /Q              Performs a quick format. Note that this switch overrides /P.
  /C              NTFS only: Files created on the new volume will be compressed
                  by default.
  /X              Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary.  All opened
                  handles to the volume would no longer be valid.
  /R:revision     UDF only: Forces the format to a specific UDF version
                  (1.02, 1.50, 2.00, 2.01, 2.50).  The default
                  revision is 2.01.
  /D              UDF 2.50 only: Metadata will be duplicated.
  /A:size         Overrides the default allocation unit size. Default settings
                  are strongly recommended for general use.
                  NTFS supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K.
                  FAT supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K,
                  (128K, 256K for sector size > 512 bytes).
                  FAT32 supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K,
                  (128K, 256K for sector size > 512 bytes).
                  exFAT supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K,
                  128K, 256K, 512K, 1M, 2M, 4M, 8M, 16M, 32M.

                  Note that the FAT and FAT32 files systems impose the
                  following restrictions on the number of clusters on a volume:

                  FAT: Number of clusters <= 65526
                  FAT32: 65526 < Number of clusters < 4177918

                  Format will immediately stop processing if it decides that
                  the above requirements cannot be met using the specified
                  cluster size.

                  NTFS compression is not supported for allocation unit sizes
                  above 4096.

  /F:size         Specifies the size of the floppy disk to format (1.44)
  /T:tracks       Specifies the number of tracks per disk side.
  /N:sectors      Specifies the number of sectors per track.
  /P:passes       Zero every sector on the volume passes times. This switch is
                  not valid with /Q
  /S:state        Where "state" is either "enable" or "disable"
                  Short names are enabled by default

[franpa]

neither build 7600 or 7127 are the Release Candidate build (build 7100)

[odditude]

Is this an issue in the final (RTM, b7600) version of Win7 as well?

[Deathlike2]

Bold is great for this situation.

[Rashidi]

Code: Select all

FAT32: 65,526 < Number of clusters < 4,177,918 

is that windows ver 6.1 (win7) fat32 limitation?
or its just format limitation?

in any case, it quite lame as previous version could do better.

[PHoNyMiKe]

neither build 7600 or 7127 are the Release Candidate build (build 7100)

only if you believe that a square is not a rectangle...