Considering the "Dark Side"... Continued!!!
Hey Joel,
The purpose of using of a FAT32 Partition "On Your Boot and/or Slave/Storage Drive" (as a third partition
OSX / W7 / FAT32) is to have quicker access or easily transfer files between the two OS's
(OSX to FAT32 to W7 or vice-versa
"All Within the Same Machine") "Without using an External Drive" and then back into the "Boot or Slave/Storage Drive/s" for "Each of the OS's" on "One multi-partitioned drive" or "Multiple OS drives" all within one machine.
USB Flash Drives and some External HDD's (mostly 250GB or less) use the FAT32 format for ease of use across platform compatibility. Personally I do use a couple of external USB HDD's that are formatted in FAT32 for the compatibility
But this is not the always the best solution if using larger files than the FAT32 file system can support!
But, if I am using an External SSD/HDD for backup or to transfer files of 4GB or larger sizes, I use a SSD/HDD that is formatted for the OS that I am booted into,
so you get the full read/write privileges!
The biggest problem with FAT32 is that it is limited to a 4GB (individual/singular) file size
meaning that you cannot store any singular file that's size is larger than that 4GB file size limit! So if "All" of the individual file sizes are "No Larger than 4GB" or "Less than 4GB" (HD Video Files, VL HD Audio Files, Project Files, Estimates, AutoCad, SolidWorks, Catia, RISA, ???? Files) etc
you are probably OK?
That is why I use several "Wintec SSD ExpressCards" of different sizes (48-128GB) formatted in FAT32 to transfer files between OS's
also I have an ExpressCard Slot on my MBP17"
But I also use a "Sonnet Echo ExpressCard Pro Thunderbolt Adaptor" (you can as well on a MBP 2011>TB port) for the transferring of files from one machine to another! (Sonnet: sonnet.com)(Wintec: wintec.com) As they transfer files at approx. SATA II speeds (3gbs) instead of the limitations of the external USB2 or FW or USB3 HD's speeds
The thing is you still have or need the FAT32 format to GFS+/NTFS to deal with
But I do not have use valuable space of my Internal SSD/HDD, for a "third partition", as I want that for OS's/App's to keep the speed and stability of the system, and store files on the second SSD/HDD in the optical bay!
The use of Virtual Machine SW such as VMware Fusion, Parallels, VirtualBox, Virtual PC
etc, sometimes do not like more than two partitions per drive or sometimes have difficulty utilizing three+ partitions per drive.
The different file systems used by all OS's are always being challenged, as HD sizes get larger and larger
FAT32 is from W95 or a long time ago when the drives that used them were much smaller,
NTFS and HFS+ are also becoming outdated as the newer technology and size of SSD/HDD's increase. NTFS Boot Drive is limited to 2TB drive sizes, and HFS+ Boot Drive is limited to 3TB drive sizes (4TB Drives sometimes format to much less than 4TB's,
generally 2TB to 3.5TB, these drives cannot make use of the whole 4TB due to format limitations of the MBR of that drive, and even if installed in a new machine to use the 4TB dives they have to be formatted in ???).
Just like 32bit versions of Windows cannot use more than 3GB RAM even if 4GB is installed!
The NTFS Boot Drive's
Master Boot Record (MBR) is limited to 2TB drive sizes, and HFS+ Boot Drive is limited to 3TB drive sizes (4TB Drives sometimes format to much less than 4TB's,
generally 2TB to 3.5TB, these drives cannot make use of the whole 4TB due to format limitations of the MBR of that drive, and even if installed in a new machine to use the 4TB dives they have to be formatted in ???).
This article describes changes in Windows operating systems that will support disk logical unit sizes larger than 2 TB.
In past editions, Windows used 32-bit block numbers in the lower storage stack. This effectively limited support for single disk devices-which might be hardware RAID sets, sometimes called virtual disks or LUNs-to being no larger than 2 terabytes (TB). To get storage unit sizes beyond 2 TB, one had to combine multiple LUNs using the Volume Manager, leading to a volume limit of 64 TB with RAID0 or spanning or 62 TB with RAID5. RAID1 was also limited to 2 TB. The use of Volume Manager sets, however, imposes a performance penalty and can make some storage management scenarios difficult or impossible.
In contrast, the file system uses a 64-bit signed byte offset. This means that the absolute file system limit is actually 254 512-byte blocks. However, NTFS reduces this, because it supports a 32-bit cluster number * 64K per cluster maximum, which equals 256 TB.
Another complicating factor was the use of Master Book Record (MBR) partition types, which can only contain up to 232 blocks. GUID Partition Tables (GPT) can support a much larger number of blocks, but Windows only supported GPT on Intel Itanium machines.
Note: Microsoft recommends that for Windows Server 2003, basic disks should use 512-byte sectors (dynamic disks will only work with 512-byte sectors). Windows Vista and later operating systems will support up to 4-KB sector sizes.
Windows Support for Logical Units Larger than 2 TB
With Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows XP 64-bit Edition (x64), these limits have changed.
Microsoft added support for 64-bit block numbers in the disk/class layer, using the new SCSI Commands included in the SCSI-3 Block Commands-2 command set. Microsoft also enabled GPT support for all Windows Server 2003 SP1 platforms. With this change, for example, a snapshot of a GPT partition on an Itanium-based machine can now be transported to a 32-bit machine for data mining or archiving purposes.
The new limits are as follows:
Basic or dynamic volume size: 264 blocks = 273 bytes (too big to pronounce)
Maximum NTFS file system size that can be realized on Windows: 256 TB
Note: Disk devices with more than 2 TB of disk space must be converted to GPT format for all of the disk space to be usable. If the device uses MBR format, the disk space beyond 2 TB will be unusable.
~The use of Virtual Machine SW such as VMware Fusion, Parallels, VirtualBox, Virtual PC
etc, sometimes do not like more than two partitions per drive or sometimes have difficulty utilizing three+ partitions per drive.
The different file systems used by all OS's have continually been challenged, as HD sizes get larger and larger
FAT32 is from W95 or a long time ago when the drives that used them were much smaller,
NTFS and HFS+ are also becoming outdated as the newer technology and size of SSD/HDD's increase. The NTFS Boot Drive's
Master Boot Record (MBR) is limited to 2TB drive sizes, and HFS+ Boot Drive is limited to 3TB drive sizes (4TB Drives sometimes format to much less than 4TB's,
generally 2TB to 3.5TB, these drives cannot make use of the whole 4TB due to format limitations of the MBR of that drive, and even if installed in a new machine to use the 4TB dives they have to be formatted in ???).
Just like 32bit versions of Windows cannot access & execute more than 3GB RAM even if 4GB is installed & recognized!
Please Note The Sentence
The PDF mentioned in the following paragraph that is speaking about the MBR is straight from the Microsoft website!
** This is from an older PDF downloaded from the "Microsoft Website" awhile back **
it speaks a little about OS disk formatting, Master Boot Record (MBR) and file system partition limitations
Most operating systems do not have a 2TB limitation, however the master boot record structure (MBR) used to partition the disk could. A 32-bit operating systems memory is managed by addresses. Hence a 32-bit OS will have 2^32 addressable locations. Most disks have a standard 512 bytes per sector. Doing the math 2^32 * 512 = 2TB (2,199,023,255,040) is the maximum limit.
Several methods of exceeding the 2TB limit of a single volume exist:
A) If you are attaching the drive to a RAID controller that will partition and format the drive to present to the OS please contact the RAID controller manufacturer. You will only need to contact them if the boot partition of this drive will be larger than 2TB.
B) Use GUID Partition Tables (GPT) volumes available when using Windows Server 2003 /w SP1, Windows XP x64, Windows Vista or later versions.
C) Create 2TB partitions and use dynamic disks and spanning to aggregate the total available space. Spanned disks are capable of capacities up to 64TB.
See Partitions and Volumes for Disk Spanning information:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd163559.aspx
This 2TB limitation is normally not an issue as not many people boot from their large data arrays. Large data arrays are most often used for data storage, video files, picture libraries, and music libraries. Not as the primary boot device.
Since MBR disks are capable of containing four partitions, even if none of the above options work, you can create multiple partitions on a disk. Each partition capable of containing 2TB still allows 8TB on a single disk. Using spanning options within the OS you can create a single large spanned volume to present to the OS.
Only Windows Vista Enterprise and Windows Vista Ultimate editions support dynamic disks.
Note: A spanned (extended) volume is actually less reliable than a simple disk. Unlike a mirror or RAID-5 volume, which both have built-in redundancy, a spanned or striped volume will be broken and all data lost if any disk in the volume fails.
Please see your RAID controller manufacturers website for RAID controller limitations, RAID controller firmware upgrades and/or driver updates.
Windows Users:
Win XP 32-bit and Win2K do not support volumes greater than 2TB.
Win x64, 64-bit operating systems do, but in order to create volumes bigger than 2TB from these operating systems, you must convert the disk to GPT file system.
Note: Disk devices with more than 2 TB of disk space must be converted to GPT format for all of the disk space to be usable. If the device uses MBR format, the disk space beyond 2 TB will be unusable.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg463528.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/gg463525.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/GPT_FAQ.msp
FAT 32
FAT (File Allocation Table) Originally, FAT was only 16 bits, the second release of Windows 95 it was 32 bits (FAT 32). In theory, FAT 32 volume sizes can range from less than 1MB all the way to 2TB. It is the native file system of Win 98, Win ME, and additionally it is supported by Win 2K, Win XP, and Vista. When FAT 32 is used with Windows, the volume size is limited to 32GB (by the Windows partition utility, i.e. Disk Manager), and file size is limited to 4GB.
Use FAT 32 (MS-DOS) if you will be sharing the drive between Windows 2000 and Windows XP or Windows Vista. Maximum single file size is 4GB.
NTFS
New Technology Filing System is the native file system for Win NT, Win 2K, Win XP, and Vista. Several new features are available with NTFS, i.e. file compression, encryption, permissions, and auditing, as well as the ability to mirror drives and RAID 5 capabilities. A maximum of 2TB Partition size when initialized in MBR format. Volumes created in NTFS can only be accessed by Win NT, Win 2K, Win XP, and Vista without additional third-party products.
Using NTFS with Win 2K, Win XP, or Vista will increase performance when compared to FAT 32.
See Windows 2TB Boot Partition Limitation:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946557
GPT
In theory, a GPT disk can be up to 2^64 logical blocks in length. Logical blocks are commonly 512 bytes in size.
Win Server 2003 SP1, Win XP x64 edition, and later versions, the maximum raw partition of 18 exabytes can be supported. (Windows file systems currently are limited to 256 terabytes each.)
See Windows and GPT FAQs:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/GPT_FAQ.msp
For a partial list of verified controllers, please go to
http://www.wdc.com/support.
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Where are your backups storing too... an internal drive or external drive or remote server
?
Both OSX Time Machine and Windows Backup can be setup to work well, but it depends on where it is storing the BU!
Also the files should just be files no matter where their stored, unless you are changing their ext to dot
when you save!
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OSX-HFS+ can read only, but not write to MSW-NTFS,
The links I posted about "Paragon Software Group" "NFTS for OSX" and "GFS+ for Windows",
Provide the drivers to allow you to read and write in both OS's
Repeat they "Do Allow You" you to access files across both OS's!
Over the weekend I downloaded the two App's and I can open all the files while on "OSX" or "Windows 7U 64bit"... !
As I have not had enough time to use everything, but so far all looks great
** Side note
as well as the ability to run the "iTunes Library" from the second SDD Storage/Slave Drive in the Optical Bay
which is formatted in OSX HFS+
while booted into W7U!
...
I am excited about using the two systems in this way
this is really cool so I don't have to have duplicate a set of iTunes files on each of the "OS's" or in two places of the same machine's internal drives! (OSX/W7 BootDrive SSD/Storage/Slave SSD )(as "iTunes Server" sees it as "two different computers"
and each has to be authorized as such
Now
"Two iTunes PC's", > with "One iTunes Library"
This was a little tricky to get it to work at first, but seems to work great, will let you know more later)!!!
Will add more later about OSX HFS+ formatting and its limitations
.
Chippy99 has a Great Point
CIO
it might be the best thing to get that laser printer working for you, and ease of access to both OS's
I have talked to others that love that setup! I might give it a try myself!
"Absorb what's useful, discard the superfluous" Bruce Lee
Macbook Pro 17'' 8,3 (Late 2011) − Intel 2.5 GHz i7-2860QM / 1920x1200 LED / AMD Radeon HD 6770M 1024MB GDDR5 / 16GB 1600 MHz DDR3L / 480GB SSD (OS X/Win7U)(Bay1) + 960GB SSD (Master/Storage)(Optical/Bay2) / Mac SuperDrive in an External Enclosure + Pioneer BDR-XD04 BDXL-RW BD Drive / Wintec 48GB SSD, 64GB SSD, & 128GB SSD ExpressCards / Sonnet & OWC eSATA ExpressCards & Multi-Card Reader-Writer ExpressCards
(3) 27" Thunderbolt Displays
Mac Pro 5,1 (Mid 2010) − (2) Intel 2.93 GHz Xeon X5670 / (2) NVIDIA Quatro 4GB GDDR5 / 96GB 1333MHz DDR3 / 960GB PCI Express SSD (OS X/Win 7U 64bit) + (4) 3TB Enterprise HDD's (Bay1-4) + 300TB External RAID Storage / Mac SuperDrive + Pioneer BDR-206MBK BDXL-RW BD Drive / Wintec 48GB SSD, 64GB SSD, & 128GB SSD ExpressCards / Sonnet Echo ExpressCard Thunderbolt Adaptor / Sonnet & OWC eSATA ExpressCards & Sonnet CF/CFP/SDXC/SD/MMC/XD/Sony SxS
Multi-Card Memory Reader-Writer ExpressCards
(3) 27" Cinema Displays
iPhone 4S 64GB iPhone 4 32GB iPhone 3 16GB (2) iPad 3 64GB (New iPad) iPad 2 64GB
** Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit always runs Best on Mac Hardware **
