----- Original Message -----
From: "David Hurst"
Subject: [PCSOFT] WindowsXP and hard drives


> In preparing for installing XP on my HP Pavilion 9694, AMD Athlon
> 800mhz, 40gb HD system; I saw in the install instructions that Fat32
> supports only up to 32GB drives.  What happens to the rest of my 40GB
> drive..???  Thought I better be sure before I do the upgrade.
-----------------------------
David,

In theory, Fat 32 can be used on drives up to 2 TB (Terabytes). I'm running a 60 GB drive, Fat 32, as one
single partition - everything is fine. Fat 32 is "most efficient" with drives between 512 MB on up to 32 GB.
This does not mean Fat 32 will not handle larger drives - it just won't do so as efficiently. When you
increase HD size, the cluster size also increases, which leads to increased slack space (wasted space). To see
for yourself, check the properties of a file - you'll see the actual "file size", and the "size on disk".
Usually the "size on disk" is larger than the file itself - this difference is slack space. Now, I know squat
about XP, but unless it is seriously flawed, I'm sure it won't have any issues with Fat 32 and your entire
drive will show up just fine. Here's an article from Microsoft that should help you. (You may have to copy &
paste the entire URL).

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q310/5/25.ASP?LN=EN-US&SD=gn&FR=0&qry=Fat32%20limitations&rnk
=21&src=DHCS_MSPSS_gn_SRCH&SPR=MSALL


Regards,
Alan Thompson

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