Topic: FAT16 and FAT32 compatibility

Rob,
You could network computers together that have FAT16 and FAT32 file
systems.  You can even partition one drive w/ combinations of these two
file systems.  Maybe you're talking about NTFS and FAT32 - the former is
NT's file system and the latter is Win95B and later and Win98's file system
(if you choose, these two OS's can use FAT32).  Anyway, one cannot "see" an
NTFS partition from a FAT32 partition and visa versa.  (NTFS and FAT16 can
"see" each other, however.)  You can network the computers together
none-the-less w/ the limitation of these partitions (NTFS and FAT32) not
being able to be seen from one another.

As for the data, it simply needs to be stored on media that was formatted
on a PC compatible if you intend to read it on another PC compatible
machine.  In other words, you can't take (under normal circumstances) data
from a MAC machine and read it on a PC compatible machine (w/out doing some
extra stuff) and visa versa.

In Windows 98, you can go from FAT16 to FAT32 but that's a one way street.
 You can't go the other way - not using Windows 98 anyway.  You can
however, use a 3rd party utility like Power Quest's Partition Magic to go
back and forth.  I do it all the time w/ no problems.

Joan Rapier
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