Kbase 17689: FAT32 explained, Progress and performance, Win95 OSR2
| Autor |
Progress Software Corporation - Progress |
| Acesso |
Público |
| Publicação |
5/10/1998 |
|
FAT32 explained, Progress and performance, Win95 OSR2
DRAFT COPY - Currently under review and edit.
INTRODUCTION:
=============
This Kb-base gives a brief overview of FAT32 shipped with
Windows95 OSR 2 and Progress on this file system.
WHY YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS:
===========================
As the first operation on a new PC is to partition and format a disk,
and since OSR2 gives the option to use FAT32, it might be good to
know what the implications are with this file system and progress.
OSR2 is the second release of Win95 only sold as OEM togheter with
new PC's. (See KB-base 17603 on how to check the win95 version)
PROCEDURAL APPROACH:
====================
The FAT32 is a new file system shipped with Win95 OSR2 it uses a 4k
cluster size (when a partition is under 8GB) The maximum size of a
partition is 2 TeraByte (2048 GigaBytes).
It does not have a fixed size for the root entries, so you can now
store as many directories and files you want in the root of your
drive. Without changes, DOS applications can only access files which
aren't bigger than 2 GBytes, and Win32 applications can work with
files up to 4 GBytes.
FAT32 partitions are only accessible from this new Windows95 and the i
included DOS 7.1. No other operating system can access any data,
including WinNT 4.0. (WinImage is a utility that lets you access
FAT32 partitions with Windows NT) All disk utilities that aren't
written for FAT32 won't work correctly with the new file system.
Win95 OSR 2 ships with new versions of FDISK, Format, Scandisk and
defrag that can work with FAT32 partitions. However, the included
DriveSpace3 can not!.
Can you install and run Progress on a FAT32 partition?
ETSC has installed and run Progress without any problems.
Is it recommended?
NO! since there are many issues regarding other programs not being
able to run on this file system and since test have shown FAT32 to be
slower than FAT16 it is not recommended as a file system.
REFERENCE TO WRITTEN DOCUMENTATION
==================================
Win95 Documentation
CFE 13/2-1998
Progress Software Technical Support Note # 17689