[ale] I hate FAT32/Winblows.

[Brandon Hall (remove .xyz)]

Can anyone recommend a tool (preferably Linux-based, preferably gratis)
for investigating/repairing FAT32 partitions/filesystems?


The details of my situation are these: I've been transitioning gradually
from using Win98 to Debian potato (2.2.17).  My only hard drive is ide
27 GB Maxtor, and using cfdisk I created two new 2GB FAT32 partitions at
the end of the disk (to store mp3's).  Two new 'drives' appeared under
Win98, but in reality they were pointing to the same partition (I assume
the first one).  Unfortunately, Linux was unable to read the new
filesystem so I was stuck with Windows for accessing the first partition
(I left the 2d untouched for the time being).

I lived with that situation for about two weeks, then last night decided
to create a new partition to backup the stupid ones so I could blow them
away.  I prepended a 1.5GB partition to the two 2GB's.  Went back into
Windows, and -- "Unable to read device F:".  Went back to cfdisk,
removed the new partition (never formatted) which ostensibly restored
the partition table to its previous state.  But now Windows still can't
read the FAT32 partitions.

Also, lilo will no longer boot my 1.5GB NT system (at the very front).

Honestly, I'd love to backup the whole mess and repartition/reformat the
drive, since I initially partitioned it with pre-2.2.17 kernels that
couldn't see past the first 8 gigs.  (.?fdisk has always warned about
c/h/s boundary problems ever since.)  But that's not an option for the
forseeable future.

Peace,
Brandon

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