SCSI Drives Using FAT32 Should Be Repartitioned When Moved

• Microsoft Windows 95
• Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2

SYMPTOMS

After you move a SCSI hard disk formatted with the FAT32 file system from one SCSI controller to another controller, you may not be able to reliably write data to and read data from the hard disk.

CAUSE

This behavior can occur if you partition and format a hard disk using a SCSI controller that fully supports interrupt 13 extensions and you then move the hard disk to a controller that does not fully support the interrupt 13 extensions.

RESOLUTION

To move a drive using the FAT32 file system to a different controller, you must verify that both controllers fully support interrupt 13 extensions in the same manner. If they do not, data loss may occur.

Microsoft only supports the use of fixed media on the same controller used to partition and format the media.

NOTE: This information does not apply to removable media.

MORE INFORMATION

Windows 95 uses logical block addressing (LBA) on most SCSI drives to access data. With drives using the FAT32 file system with interrupt 13 extensions, Windows 95 depends on the BIOS to fully support the interrupt 13 extensions.

This problem typically occurs only with drives 8 gigabytes and larger in size.