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Installing Vista x64 Ultimate on FAT32


Jody Thornton

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I only have Partition Magic 8 (DOS) here, and it does not give me an option to convert. It may be because it detects error 105: Partition starts on wrong boundary.

I had decided to deploy Windows to NTFS then boot Partition Magic before booting Windows. If there is any other tool I should try, let me know.

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That's basically my plan. I would have tried v7 though. So maybe your saving me some work (exactly the reason I'm posting these questions :)

I wonder if you have to remove sparse points/files first. I remember doing that when converting XP Pro to FAT32.

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Besides jaclaz, if you're not interested in what I'm doing with Vista, you don't have to be the one to answer. Maybe others have an opinion on this.

@Jody: Well, for starters... I'm dencorso, not jaclaz, and you replied to my post as if I were jaclaz... :w00t:

Now, the fact I couldn't care less for Vista if I tried, does not mean I didn't read *very* carefully *all* of Dietmar's posts, which sometimes require some deep reflection due to the way his German interferes with his English. One of the few who experimented with moving Vista (x86, but Vista nonetheless) to FAT-32 and reported it in very fine detail is Dietmar. And his method consists in:

  • Install Vista normally and confirm it's working.
  • Save a (bit-by-bit) image of it, as backup.
  • Copy all the files in it, except pagefile.sys and hyberfil.sys to another partition (preferably in a different HDD) using copy, robocopy or xcopy (I'm sure xxcopy can do it better than those). Replace the rare files > 4 GiB by 0 byte dummies, if any is found.
  • Format the original partition Vista was installed in with FAT-32 (fat32format is the fastest reliable way to do it).
  • Copy back all the files from the original Vista installation that were copied to that different partition, again with, say, xxcopy.
  • Restore the boot sector to a bootable vista FAT-32 using bootsect.exe (despite what I said above, maybe the one from Vista sp0 may be required).
  • Now Vista should be booting and working from FAT-32

All may other comments, too, were not intended to be mean, just to point out that the questions you were coming with are actually *unanswerable*, unless one actualy checks the answer experimentally. I never even though about Google while writing my reply, because the numerous Dietmar threads across 3 forums are about all that matters in this case, or do contain pointers to any other relevant materials, so once one is aware of them, Google, Yandex, DuckDuckGo, etc. are all useless, even if a German-English dictionary may come in handy. I'm genuinely interested in what you may find out, once you start experimenting. I intend to do so myself with 7 x86, as I said. But, for now I simply don't have time to do it properly, so I didn't start. I really meant no offense at all. Cheers! cheers.gif

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I'm wondering if the method of deploying matters. For my test, I had deployed a Windows 7 x64 image with Imagex to a single partition. I can also try using DISM with a System Reserved partition. All my Vista images are archived now and I'm actually using Diskpart from Windows 8. I figured that it would probably be better to attempt to convert the file system prior to booting into Windows for the first time, which is why I did not want to consider doing a manual install from DVD.

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Apparently, Tripredacus, what really matters is the copy (file-by-file) to a 2nd place, then back, with the conversion to FAT-32 in the middle, and then the correction of the bootsector to a FAT-32 bootable one. Whether it was actually booted previously seems not to affect the result. And how does it work over an extended time period has not been reported at all, AFAIK...

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A good plan also helps, but with image backups one can recover from almost any mistake, so even a lousy plan is a good way to start.

For NO apparent reason ;):

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084967/quotes?item=qt0378851

:lol:

@JodyThornton

I will issue this official statement :w00t: :

To the best of my knowledge, the only successful attempt to install Vista on a FAT32 partition was the one Dietmar made in 2006 (and a link to the method he used was given). I listed what - in my experience and opinion - could be the additional issues that you may face in either attempting to replicate that method adapting it to the 64 bit (newer, i.e. with SP's) version of the Vista OS or using a different method, as a way to try and help you. Still as far as I know, noone ever attempted (let alone succeeded at) installing a Vista x64 on a FAT32 partition, so the matter is IMHO very experimental if not "first time ever", hence it is unlikely that you will be able to find a MSFN member (or anyone else :ph34r:) capable of answering to questions like:

Aside from all of that, will the proper working of the WinSxS folder be ensured under FAT32? Or will the absence of links (hard/symbolic) cause problems here?

from direct experience, and I believe that what dencorso meant when he suggested you to start carrying your own experiments was intended as a similar advice.

Forrestreversedisappear_version1.gif

jaclaz

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Apparently, Tripredacus, what really matters is the copy (file-by-file) to a 2nd place, then back, with the conversion to FAT-32 in the middle, and then the correction of the bootsector to a FAT-32 bootable one. Whether it was actually booted previously seems not to affect the result. And how does it work over an extended time period has not been reported at all, AFAIK...

Xcopy won't do it. It blows up when trying to create Documents and Settings directory on the destination. There doesn't seem to be a way to skip errors, although booting Windows without that folder might be some problem. My command was:

xcopy q:\*.* c:\*.* /S /E /K /H /N /B

It did copy the boot files over tho...

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@Trip

At the time ycopy was developed exactly to allow that kind of "blind copy" and go on notwithstanding the errors (but logging them ;)):

http://www.ruahine.com/download.html

http://www.ruahine.com/faq.html

http://www.ruahine.com/guide.html

Really cannot say if it works on newer Windows and/or if it is suitable to the experiment, though :blushing:.

jaclaz

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I found another one with a GUI called FastCopy that has a native 64bit version. yCopy is 32bit only and USB doesn't seem to work on my test PC with my 32bit PE. :\

Anyways, see attached for the great list of files that were skipped, which I am guessing is due to 8.3 support. Log file is bigger than what I'd want to upload to MSFN and Pastebin won't let me upload there either. So here is the log file showing the full stats and all the directories that would not copy. The 13,324 "ErrorFiles" are all in WinSxS.

TotalRead = 13333.7 MBTotalWrite = 12024.3 MBTotalFiles = 58764 (11567)TotalSkip = 14.2 MBSkipFiles = 35 (0)TotalTime= 537.03 secTransRate= 22.39 MB/sFileRate  = 109.42 files/sFinished. (ErrorFiles : 13324  ErrorDirs : 44)WriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Documents and SettingsWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\ProgramData\Application DataWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\ProgramData\DesktopWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\ProgramData\DocumentsWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\ProgramData\FavoritesWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\ProgramData\Start MenuWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\ProgramData\TemplatesWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Application DataWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\HistoryWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Temporary Internet FilesWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Administrator\Application DataWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Administrator\CookiesWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Administrator\Documents\My MusicWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Administrator\Documents\My PicturesWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Administrator\Documents\My VideosWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Administrator\Local SettingsWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Administrator\My DocumentsWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Administrator\NetHoodWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Administrator\PrintHoodWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Administrator\RecentWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Administrator\SendToWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Administrator\Start MenuWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Administrator\TemplatesWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\All UsersWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Application DataWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\HistoryWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Temporary Internet FilesWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Default\Application DataWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Default\CookiesWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Default\Documents\My MusicWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Default\Documents\My PicturesWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Default\Documents\My VideosWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Default\Local SettingsWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Default\My DocumentsWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Default\NetHoodWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Default\PrintHoodWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Default\RecentWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Default\SendToWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Default\Start MenuWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Default\TemplatesWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Default UserWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Public\Documents\My MusicWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Public\Documents\My PicturesWriteReparsePoint(dir)(Incorrect function.1) : D:\Users\Public\Documents\My Videos

The OS did actually start to boot. Showing the animation, then a cursor for a moment, then "setting up registry" before ending with a 0x000000F4 STOP error. It wrote a crash dump too, but I would suspect the cause of the BSOD has something to do with those Dirs not existing... :whistle:

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First off, I wanted to apologize; I never meant blast anyone. I think you know where I was coming from, and I'm sorry I misinterpreted the intended tone of resonses.

Wow this is getting involved. I was just hoping to use a partition conversion utility. I will still try that though.

Edited by JodyThornton
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Your apologies are warmly accepted. :yes:

What I wrote *is* easy to misinterpret, and you don't know me enough to be able to guess how I meant it.

...And emoticons help little in cases like that, regretably.

Now, the subject is really involved. You've ventured into one of the long-standing open problems about Vista and successors.

Dietmar has proven it's doable to boot Vista sp0 x86 from FAT-32. No one knows how good it's long-time stability is.

And nothing more is know about all other Vista+ OSes, except for the experiments Tripredacus has just performed.

I hope to be able to join the experimentation after Dec 20 or so. Before that I'll have to be content to provide suggestions and discuss results, but I won't be able to contribute any original experiments myself, although I'd much like to.

For now I have to say I keep betting the best way to copy the proble directories and files is XXCOPY, which is very powerful and up to date. IIRR it does have a x64 version, but that's not free. [Later edit: I stand corrected. Thanks, bphlpt! :thumbup ] The free version is a command-line application, although it may use an independent progress-bar window (which I deem absolutely unnecessary, but some users love). I think XXCopy and FAT32Format are the best alternatives to perform their respective jobs, in this case. Please do you all kindly give a good look at XXCOPY and Reparse Points... I'm sure one of those options may solve the issue you found, Tripredacus.

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  • All XXCOPY packages come with both the 32-bit version (XXCOPY)

    and the 64-bit version (XXCOPY64). With one site license, you may

    mix and match the word-size (32-bit vs 64-bit) as needed.

And this is true even for the free Home version, as best as I can tell.

Cheers and Regards

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Anyways, see attached for the great list of files that were skipped, which I am guessing is due to 8.3 support.

No, nothing connected to 8.3, all your errors - as expected - are with "reparsepoints" which you can read as "hard or soft links or mountpoints",

Try - as Dietmar did - to create just the empty directory/directory structure for each one of those.

You can use a small batch/oneliner to re-parse the output log you have.

Something like:

FOR /F "tokens=2,3 delims=:" %%A IN ('type mylog.log ^| FIND "\"') DO ECHO "%%A:%%B"

If it works (or modify to make it work, I did not test it), replace ECHO with MD.

I would personally also experiment with XXcopy. :)

First off, I wanted to apologize; I never meant blast anyone. I think you know where I was coming from, and I'm sorry I misinterpreted the intended tone of resonses.

NO prob :thumbup .

jaclaz

Edited by jaclaz
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I think you may get to fix it by playing with the numerous command-line options offered by xxcopy.

Then again, using two different apps to copy the partition contents could be a solution, too, even if a somewhat more awkward one.

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