Can anyone help. I recently = upgraded to a 10=20 Gig drive and I found to my disappointment the limits of FAT 16, = namely a=20 maximum of 2 Gig partitions, and not being able to see the last 2 Gig = of my=20 drive due to it having a limitation to the number of cylinders it = can see=20 on a hard drive. It appears that in order to be able to get around = this, I=20 would have to convert to FAT 32.

Let me first make a few statements. First I do not use = partitions=20 larger than 255MB for FAT 16. When you use 256MB and larger partitions = you eat=20 up a lot of disk space from slack space. As you increase the size of a = partition you also increase the cluster size. You waste an average of = 1/2=20 cluster per file. If you have a cluster size of 64 sectors (32KB) you = will=20 waste 16KB per file on average. If you have 10,000 files on a partiton = that=20 would waste about 160MB of drive space. It adds up very fast. That is = why FAT=20 32 was created, to reduce the slack space wasted as well as alloing = for larger=20 drives.

Does anyone know whether DR-DOS = 7.03 and NDO=20 3 works OK in FAT 32? If so, what about other DOS = programs?

No it does not. There are drivers and utilities that can = read FAT=20 32 and Long File Names (LFNs) but DOS program that read or write = directly to=20 the disk will not work and my damage a FAT 32. This does not mean that = most=20 programs will not work, but things like Norton Utilites and other such = things=20 that will write directly to the drive will not work. DOS utilities = like CHKDSK=20 will not work and probably a lot of other things will not = work.

There is a OEM version of the Kernel files 7.04/05 put = out by=20 Ontrack that will work with FAT 32 much better than a FAT 32 driver = and LFN=20 drivers and/or utilities. But this version does have some bugs. = Personally I=20 don't trust DOS working with FAT 32 at all. WINDOZE makes enough of a = mess and=20 crashes enough by itself as well as trashing a FAT 32 partition, I = would not=20 add to it by allowing DOS to write to a FAT 32 until someone = determines that=20 there is a stable option to do this.

Alternatively, would = there be a=20 problem in changing the Windows 98 partition (drive E:) to FAT 32 = and=20 leaving my DOS drives (C: & D:) in FAT 16?

Absolutely not, in fact this is exactly the way I do it. = WINDOZE=20 98 will put it's kernel and boot files and a few other files it uses = to=20 install and log stuff to on drive C:, it will use something like 10MB = to=20 install and leave something like 3MB of files of drive C: WINDOZE will = boot=20 from C: to begin with then go to E: as though it was the root = partition for=20 WINDOZE. However, 95 has a bad habit of putting it's GRP files in the = C: root=20 directory, so after WINDOZE gets through loading all of it's crap, I = move=20 those files to the WINDOZE directory i.e. E:\WINDOWS or whatever you = want to=20 call it.

My computer boots from C: and I use = System=20 Commander on drive C: to switch between operating = systems.

You can use DRDOS LOADER to do this. I no longer have 8x on my = system but=20 did it this way when I had it. I use NT now and will be putting Linux = on=20 shortly. My C: D: drive is an IDE 345MB with about 70MB as C: and = 255MB as D:=20 both are FAT 16. The second drive is a 3GB SCSI and the first = partition is an=20 ext2 Linux partition, the second is a 625 MB DOS primary partition ( I = use=20 this to download and store large files. The next is a 1GB FAT DOS = primary=20 which is also used to store large files. I am backing those up and = will use=20 that as another Linux partition when I install Linux. The next is an = Extended=20 partition. The first logical drive is a 144MB FAT 16, used for = backups. The=20 second logical is a 1GB which I use for NT and used for 9x. After I = install=20 Linux I will use LILO as myboot manager. I'll still probably leave = LOADER=20 installed and can set the appropriate boot partition with FDISK should = an=20 emergency occur with LILO and still boot from DOS or NT. At One time I = had=20 DOS, Linux and OS/2 on the system and used LILO as the boot manager = and got=20 rid of the OS/2 boot manager. The reason I will keep the DRDOS boot = manager is=20 because DOS FDISK plays musical chairs with the partition table even = if the=20 only thing you do is set the boot partition to another partition. = DRDOS FDSIK=20 from 7.03 does not seem to do this any more, But I won't take any = chances on=20 it.

Pat