Mixing FAT32 with NTFS on same drive

[Chiles4]

I just picked up an 250GB PATA drive and have formatted it into 3 partitions:

~60GB, ~120GB, and ~60GB

I formatted all three as NTFS. I guessed that my 120GB partition would not be supported by FAT32...?

I then realized that I had a ghost image of my "system" with a TON of the install work already done but it was a FAT32 image. I laid that down on the first partition and it worked great - booted right up and all partitions are there.

But if I go with one FAT32 partition ( C: ) and two NTFS partitions, my friend told me that I will have problems because the NTFS partition will not recogize the FAT32 partion. Does this make sense?

I'll be installing games on both the C: (FAT32) and D: (NTFS) partitions and use the E: (NTFS) partition just for storage. Will this work?

And can someone tell me what the maximum partition size for FAT32 is? I might be able to go with 3 FAT32 partitions instead - even though I know most of you will poo-poo me on that!

[themortarman]

But if I go with one FAT32 partition ( C: ) and two NTFS partitions, my friend told me that I will have problems because the NTFS partition will not recogize the FAT32 partion. Does this make sense?

This is not so. It is the OS that will be the deciding factor here. The operating systems that supports NTFS also supports Fat32.

OH, Fat32 can support a huge partition, the thing is the Windows partition tool can only create a Fat32 partition of 32GB. There ways around this though. A third party partitioning tool, if I recall FDISK can create a large partition.

[Chiles4]

I spoke to the Network-Admin/HelpDesk-Guy/PC-Fixer at my job and he said the same thing - it'd be no problem whatsoever.

Looks like I'll use my FAT32 XP System image on my primary partition and keep my two NTFS partitions as well.

[srea]

..mby the best way is 2-3 partitions on f32 for win&apps,games&backup,cca-31gb
and some big part for storage on ntfs.,(default),if xp on fat must
defrag offten, and do not poot here eny than os&apps meeans on C,offten meeans
daily.only defrag f32 is fast.