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Topic: How to save in FAT 32. not FAT 16 (Read 3943 times) previous topic - next topic

How to save in FAT 32. not FAT 16

Hi

Could anyone point me in the right









Can anyone point me in the right direction to save as a midi in FAT 32.  not FAT 16 please ?

thanks

Mel












Re: How to save in FAT 32. not FAT 16

Reply #1 –
Choose a FAT32 device as the file destination.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table
has more details. As I read it, FAT32 is no longer used by any currently supported version of Windows.
Registered user since 1996

Re: How to save in FAT 32. not FAT 16

Reply #2 –
G'day Mell,
to expand on Rick's reply, FAT16/32 relates to the format of a "disk" device - it has nothing, directly, to do with how you save a file, but rather where.

So, as Rick said, to save a MIDI in FAT32 you need to save it to a FAT32 device.  It is extremely unlikely you will even find a FAT16 device these days, unless it is a 2GB or smaller solid state device like a "thumb drive" or the like.  Floppy disks are FAT12.  If you're interested, FAT stands for File Allocation Table.

===============
Some waffle for those that are interested:

The other main drive format is NTFS (New Technology File System).  First introduced in Windows NT, it is the default format for Win NT, Win2k, WinXP and now Vista - including the server versions.  WinNT, Win2k and XP could all be installed on FAT32 instead of NTFS if you wanted to.  Vista has controls in the installer to prevent installation to a FAT32 partition though this is an arbitrary decision on the part of microsoft - AFAIK there's no real reason vista couldn't run on a FAT32 partition.

OK, that said, FAT32 has a maximum volume size of 2 Terabytes, but microsoft have deliberately crippled their formatting software to prevent creating FAT32 partitions larger than 32 Gigabytes.  This effectively makes it a poor choice for installing Windows to modern drives.  Added to that, in the windows environment NTFS has some advantages in security and performance over FAT32.

For compatibility, you NEED FAT32.  Most OS's will read and write FAT32 with no problem, but NTFS is effectively a closed shop unless you have specific drivers that are not always easy to obtain and are not always reliable - many will not let you write to NTFS partitions, only read.
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: How to save in FAT 32. not FAT 16

Reply #3 –
Looking at Mell's question from the other direction - Mell. why do you think you need to save as FAT32 not FAT16. Has someone told you that they need your midi as FAT32?  Have you had some sort of error message that indicates something to do with FAT 16/32 ?

The only reason for asking this is that it is unusual for anyone to have difficulty saving a file where the issue is directly to do with the format type of the disk/device  they are saving to. OK there can be save problems particularly with NTFS because of authorisation problems, but not usually with FAT 32/16.

Can you explain Mell.
Rich.

Re: How to save in FAT 32. not FAT 16

Reply #4 –
Quote
AFAIK there's no real reason vista couldn't run on a FAT32 partition.

Perhaps because file permissions data is missing?

Re: How to save in FAT 32. not FAT 16

Reply #5 –
There is only one scenario that I can imagine where device storage format might pertain in some way to MIDI files. Some player type pianos and MIDI sequencers have diskette and/or card readers which can be used to load and save MIDI performances. If a MIDI sequencing device supports a removable media card reader (such as thumb drives, Compact Flash, SD cards, etc.), there could be technical issues about how the card should be formatted. This would not be directly related to the MIDI files, though. Without further info from Mel, there is no good way to answer this further.