What's VFAT ?


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When I run Knoppix on my friends computer, I notice that in the Info Center app, under partitions I see /dev/hda1 is formatted with vfat. Is this a real file system or is it just a virtual drive format. I opened it and saw some files that look like they were installed by the manufacturer in this case, Dell. There is a folder called "Dell" and there looks like there are some settings like: ieee1394.mdm, io.sys, dvd.mdm and stuff that looks like it goes with his hardware.

Can I mount the drive and write to it without killing his data on Windows?

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Can I write to this hd in linux?
Yes.
Will it mess up the data?
It shouldn't. As long as you don't overwrite any files that may be critical to Windows... But it should be safe to add a directory there and stuff any data you want in there.
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What? VFAT is FAT32, ie the version of FAT that ships with Windows 95 OSR2 and above.

Of course VFAT is compatible with Windows XP - it's a damn Microsoft file system!

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VFAT is Fat12/16/32 all that crap.

If your kernel doesn't support it and you insert a floppy formatted in windows, its gonna bitch about no VFAT support but usually it does. NTFS is the one you have to add to the kernel.

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from what i've heard, VFat is the part of FAT16/32 that gives files their long file name support.

thats how a FAT16 drive that was limited to 8.3 in DOS/Win3.1 could suddenly have 255 characters when viewed in a VFat "aware" OS such as Windows 95.

in Linux before, when you mounted a FAT/DOS drive, it would show file names as 8.3. you had to mount them as VFat to show long file names.

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