Article ID: 151414 - Last Review: January 30, 2007 - Revision: 3.1

Windows 95/98 Partition Types Not Recognized by Windows NT

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This article was previously published under Q151414

SUMMARY

Windows NT does not recognize Windows 95/98 FAT32 partitions. There are currently no plans to create a FAT32 driver for Windows NT.

OEM versions of Windows 95 support four partition types for FAT file systems that Windows NT does not recognize. The partition type can be identified by the System ID byte in the partition table. This byte is located at the following offsets:

   0x1C2 = Partition 1
   0x1D2 = Partition 2
   0x1E2 = Partition 3
   0x1F2 = Partition 4

The four values used by Windows 95 that Windows NT does not recognize are as follows:

   0x0B      Primary  Fat32 Partitions up to 2047 GB
   0x0C      Same as 0x0B, uses Logical Block Address Int 0x13 extensions
   0x0E      Same as 0x06, uses Logical Block Address Int 0x13 extensions
   0x0F      Same as 0x05, uses Logical Block Address Int 0x13 extensions

The FAT partition types that Windows NT version 3.X and 4.0 can recognize are:

   0x01      Fat12 < 10 megabytes
   0x04      Fat16 < 32 megabytes
   0x06      Fat16 > 32 megabytes
   0x05      Extended (may be FAT, HPFS or NTFS)

To work around this issue when you install Windows NT 4.0, make sure that both your boot partition and the partition you are installing to is either formatted with the FAT16 or NTFS file system, or is not formatted.

For more information about the FAT32 file system or troubleshooting Windows NT 4.0 Setup, click an article number below to view that article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

126690 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126690/EN-US/ ) Windows NT 4.0 Setup Troubleshooting Guide

154997 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/154997/EN-US/ ) Description of the FAT32 File System

173694 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/173694/EN-US/ ) Err Msg: ERROR: Setup Was Unable to Install the Boot Loader