Vista doesn't grok what FAT format is

My original post didn't show up - this might be a dupe (sorry).

>I have a somewhat new Intel chipped dual core with Vista installed at the
> factory. I have an external FAT (probably FAT32) formatted USB connected
> hard drive that I used with my AMD Athlon Windows XP computer. I mostly
> used
> it to store files on it in case of a crash (I don't use back-up software,
> just copy the files over that I'd want to have in case of a
> crash/re-install).
>
> Problem - Vista doesn't seem to understand FAT formatting. Vista can read
> this external OK (though according to it there a few corrupted folders
> with
> lots of bytes in them it can't read and I can't delete, filenames shows as
> weird characters). And every time I turn on the external to copy a file
> from
> it (or store), 1st thing is that Vista wants to check the hard drive. If I
> say OK it hangs I guess because trying to check a FAT formatted HD as a
> NTFS (??) formatted one.
>
> Question 1 - If I am correct about this (??), is there some fix that can
> be
> installed to Vista so it can cope with trying to fix a FAT or FAT32
> formatted external hard drive? (160 GB). ...And by the way along with this
> I
> can't seem to get rid of a ton of files that seem to be in my recycle bin
> from the external that only show when the external is turned on (talking
> thousands of files that I've deleted on the external).
>
> Question 2 - If I decide to let Vista format my external hard drive, after
> I
> copy over the files stored on the external, then can this external FAT
> formatted hard drive be safely formatted by Vista (which will end up as
> NTFS
> I assume)?
>
> I do like having Vista, it seems pretty much rock solid so far. Even runs
> World of Warcraft smoothly (7600GT video card). .....But, let me rephrase
> that - I do like Vista AFTER disabling the super-ultra totally completely
> annoying permission-needed to copy/move/delete sequence. Pre-installed
> Norton Internet Security seems to work well with Vista and hopefully will
> pick up the loss of the permission-needed-to-do-anything that I did
> disable.
> ...Though when I turn on my computer, I still have to watch Vista tell me
> in
> a bubble (that goes away) that I've messed up and it wants to fix my
> security breech, along with having an X in a start-bar icon where the
> bubble
> emerges from..
>
> Thanks for any input on all of this.

Search on your own name. There was an answer you 13 hours ago.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban MVP
Microsoft Windows Shell/User


"Dennis" <> wrote in message
news:%...
> My original post didn't show up - this might be a dupe (sorry).
>
>>I have a somewhat new Intel chipped dual core with Vista installed at the
>> factory. I have an external FAT (probably FAT32) formatted USB connected
>> hard drive that I used with my AMD Athlon Windows XP computer. I mostly
>> used
>> it to store files on it in case of a crash (I don't use back-up software,
>> just copy the files over that I'd want to have in case of a
>> crash/re-install).
>>
>> Problem - Vista doesn't seem to understand FAT formatting. Vista can read
>> this external OK (though according to it there a few corrupted folders
>> with
>> lots of bytes in them it can't read and I can't delete, filenames shows
>> as
>> weird characters). And every time I turn on the external to copy a file
>> from
>> it (or store), 1st thing is that Vista wants to check the hard drive. If
>> I
>> say OK it hangs I guess because trying to check a FAT formatted HD as a
>> NTFS (??) formatted one.
>>
>> Question 1 - If I am correct about this (??), is there some fix that can
>> be
>> installed to Vista so it can cope with trying to fix a FAT or FAT32
>> formatted external hard drive? (160 GB). ...And by the way along with
>> this I
>> can't seem to get rid of a ton of files that seem to be in my recycle bin
>> from the external that only show when the external is turned on (talking
>> thousands of files that I've deleted on the external).
>>
>> Question 2 - If I decide to let Vista format my external hard drive,
>> after I
>> copy over the files stored on the external, then can this external FAT
>> formatted hard drive be safely formatted by Vista (which will end up as
>> NTFS
>> I assume)?
>>
>> I do like having Vista, it seems pretty much rock solid so far. Even runs
>> World of Warcraft smoothly (7600GT video card). .....But, let me rephrase
>> that - I do like Vista AFTER disabling the super-ultra totally completely
>> annoying permission-needed to copy/move/delete sequence. Pre-installed
>> Norton Internet Security seems to work well with Vista and hopefully will
>> pick up the loss of the permission-needed-to-do-anything that I did
>> disable.
>> ...Though when I turn on my computer, I still have to watch Vista tell me
>> in
>> a bubble (that goes away) that I've messed up and it wants to fix my
>> security breech, along with having an X in a start-bar icon where the
>> bubble
>> emerges from..
>>
>> Thanks for any input on all of this.
>