Desktop Cannot Read Anything That Is not FAT32

[Ajfer03]

Hey everyone, I recently built a computer out of some parts I had lying around. (specs: ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe, 4GB of RAM, KingSpec 64 GB SSD, Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD, and an AMD Athlon Dual-Core clocked at 3.01 Ghz.) I put Windows XP Professional on the PC, however when I tried to use my HDD that I have installed in the PC itself, it required me to format it before using it. (It let me format it with NTFS) But now, every time I but a removable drive, it can only read it if the file system is FAT32, and if it can't read it, it makes me format the drive before use, in the FAT32 file format! I'm still installing drivers for the Mobo, and maybe the storage controller driver is out-of-date or something like that. Any suggestions?

[Mark.]

have to dust of my XP memory here, but didn't XP only read a max of 2GB partitions?so plugging in a 8GB USB stick would not be read, but partition that into 4x2GB partitions and you're good to go.

[Ajfer03]

+Mark
I never thought of that, and I will test this when I get home. However, when I plugged my 16 GB Cruzer Glide into it (it was formatted to fat32 and had Linux Mint Installer on it) it was read perfectly fine and I got the message that it was 16GB. Another thing is that I had an 8GB Flash drive formatted to exFat and it needed to be formatted to FAT32. I did so and I only got 200MB of space available on the Stick! Thanks for the reply.

[patio]

I would re-do the 8G....and or see if it has partitions...

[BC_Programmer]

formatted to exFat

Windows XP doesn't support ExFat.

As a result, Windows XP won't see any ExFat Partition at all. Drives formatted with ExFat however almost always have a "buffer" of unallocated space at the front of the drive- XP can see this and will happily format it to FAT32.

[Ajfer03]

Thanks BC,
That makes sense. I didn't know this because my laptop, which also is Windows XP that I set up myself with a legitimate copy of Windows XP somehow sees all of my USB thumb sticks that have exFAT and can format in exFAT as well.

[BC_Programmer]

Yeah- exFAT support used to be available via Windows Update and a KB article download/hotfix that they made available, so your laptop probably got that. For some reason, they pulled it. It's a massive pain in the *censored* to find it now.

I think the topic came up previously in some manner because I remember going on something of a quest to find the bloody thing! I remember stumbling upon a few MS Support topics where people remembered the update being available and asked where it was, and all they seemed to get was useless replies from a MVP. Pretty amusing. "I need this update file to add exFat support" and they ask "What do you think the update will fix?" and then go on a rant about how their system is probably already infected.

I eventually landed on This page,- apparently the writer had the same hilarious experience trying to find information and even links the same support topic(s). They provide downloads there. I went ahead and also Mirrored the MS Update file.

[Ajfer03]

Thanks again BC,

But I went and updated to a "completely authentic" version of windows 10. Works for me. 

[Mark.]

well done on moving up to Win10.
I'm not criticising those still on XP, or on any older OS's, everyone has their reasons, but in this case the solution to go to a new gen OS with better native support for this sort of stuff worked in this case.