exFat or FAT32 ?

[Martin Vieregg]

Since a few days, I thought that the only way to store data together with other OS is FAT32. Then I put a EXFAT pre-formatted SD card of my new Smartphone into the USB adapter, and - what a surprise - it can be accesses without any problems with ArcaOS without formatting via DFSEE.

I have got serious problems with FAT32 partitions on my Hard Disc with FAT32. ArcaOS often hangs.

Now my question:
(1) Is it better to format my USB sticks used for data transport between ArcaOS and other OS with EXfat instead of FAT32 ?
(2) Can I format a HD partition with EXFAT ?
(3) Is there a OS/2 tool (dfsee?) where I can format a partition with EXFAT?
(4) What about performance and stability on ArcaOS in comparison to FAT32 ?

[Roderick Klein]

When you write:
"I have got serious problems with FAT32 partitions on my Hard Disc with FAT32. ArcaOS often hangs."

So I guess you know what question is going to coming ? Tadaaa!
What is the version of number of the FAT32 driver you are using ?

Roderick Klein

[Dave Yeo]

Hi Martin, ArcaOS doesn't support exFat, there's patents and other issues. You will have to ask some of these questions to the developer, he might see this post and might not.
Basically Arca Noae has forked the fat32 driver, removed exFat etc and are trying (and mostly succeeding) to make it more stable.

[Valery Sedletski]

Since a few days, I thought that the only way to store data together with other OS is FAT32. Then I put a EXFAT pre-formatted SD card of my new Smartphone into the USB adapter, and - what a surprise - it can be accesses without any problems with ArcaOS without formatting via DFSEE.

-- Only if you installed the official version of fat32.ifs from Netlabs. The version supplied with ArcaOS is ripped off. It has exFAT and FAT12/FAT16 support
removed.

I have got serious problems with FAT32 partitions on my Hard Disc with FAT32. ArcaOS often hangs.

Now my question:
(1) Is it better to format my USB sticks used for data transport between ArcaOS and other OS with EXfat instead of FAT32 ?

  Yes, exFAT supports files with 64-bit lengths, so no 2 GB limit on file size. Also, SDXC cards are formatted in exFAT by default, so no need to reformat.

(2) Can I format a HD partition with EXFAT ?

  Yes. Windows version of exFAT format utility has artificial limitation that only removable media can  be formatted with exFAT. But other OS'es have no
limitations.

(3) Is there a OS/2 tool (dfsee?) where I can format a partition with EXFAT?

  Yes, standard fat32.ifs FORMAT routine. You should format with /fs:exfat parameter. But you need the fully functional fat32.ifs version (the one from
Netlabs).

(4) What about performance and stability on ArcaOS in comparison to FAT32 ?

  The same. As the code is mostly the same.

Are you sure you have the version from ArcaOS? Please provide the bldlevels of fat32.ifs and ufat32.dll/uunifat.dll here.

[Martin Vieregg]

I have got ArcaOS 5.0.2 and have installed a FAT32.IFS Netlabs driver (0.10-r384)

[Valery Sedletski]

> I have got ArcaOS 5.0.2 and have installed a FAT32.IFS Netlabs driver (0.10-r384)

So, it indeed has exFAT support. Also, there is support for FAT12/FAT16 with LFN's.

> I have got serious problems with FAT32 partitions on my Hard Disc with FAT32. ArcaOS often hangs.

It's hard to tell why it could hang without some investigation. Did you tried to run CHKDSK? Maybe, some disk errors?
Also, we need some debug info got when it's hanging. There are some debug options. You can use f32mon utility to
see some debug on screen. Also, newer OS/2 loaders like QSINIT, os4ldr or arcaldr support debugging via system log buffer.
So, you can copy the log buffer from a device to a file, like in some drivers like danis506 or uniaud.

Also, there is COM port support. If the system hangs, then you could take a debug log via a COM port and a null modem cable.
All three options show the same log. The latter option is useful when system hangs, or TRAP's There are some tips in fat32.inf
about debugging. Also, you can ask me here.

So, if you wish to debug the problems, we can try. And, there is a bugtracker at http://trac.netlabs.org/fat32/, so
we could continue there.

PS: Sorry about a late answer, I was busy

[Martin Vieregg]

It seems that the problems with FAT32 did vanish with ArcaOS 5.0.6 and its FAT32 driver. I cannot explain the behaviour. It seemed to be random problems.

[Dave Yeo]

Greg has made quite a few minor fixes to the Arca Noae fork that has made it more stable. IIRC, 5.0.7 has more updates to the driver