Re: vfat not seen by Vista

Chris wrote:
Vlad_Inhaler wrote:

On Aug 29, 11:19 am, Chris <ch...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello,

I have created a partition and formated it as vfat a long time ago. When
I recently boot into Windows Vista, Vista doesn't see the partition and
doesn't allow me to assign it a drive letter.

I created the partition using Yast's Partitioner in openSUSE 10.2.

I would like to avoid formatting the partition in Vista since I have put
a lot of files on the partition already.

Has this happened to anyone else? If so, what did you do to fix it?

Thanks,
--
Chris
Firstly, this is a Linux forum. I really don't have much idea why
Vista would refuse to look at a vfat filesystem.
What I'd tend to look at would be to
- boot up in Linux (rescue system or knoppix),
- copy the contents of that partition to some other device (USB
Stick?),
- boot up in Vista again
- format the partition
- copy from the USB stick back to the partition.
Just a thought, vfat is not that secure. Is Vista trying to protect
you from a filesystem which does not implement access-rights?

I figured that vfat was just fat32. I use the partition to share files
between the Linux and Vista on the same computer. vfat just seemed like a
lowest common denominator. I just find it odd that a linux vfat formated
partition isn't useable in Vista.

Also, I asked in this "Linux forum" (as you put it) because the partition
was formated using a Linux tool. I thought perhaps I was missing some
secret magical switch to mkfs or option in Yast.

If I cannot find the "right way" to format using vfat so that Vista will
like it, then I will have to reformat using Vista.

I had a similar issue with a large USB hard drive I recently bought.
When I got it, it was already formatted with NTFS so the first thing I
did was to reformat it with the partitioner in YaST as vfat which, like
you, I believe is FAT32. openSUSE saw the partition fine, but WinXP
didn't. WinXP could see the drive, but didn't recognise the partition
type. I then reformatted it again, with WinXP as FAT32 and it is now
visible on both openSUSE and WinXP.

No, I can't explain it but I'd be interested to hear an explanation if
anyone can!

.

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