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Install Windows Vista on a FAT32 Partition

We know that Windows Vista can be installed only on NTFS partitions by default.By a simple trick we can install Windows Vista on a FAT32 hard disk drive partition.The steps for this trick is given below:

Install Windows Vista as normal on a 20 GB or above space NTFS hard disk drive partition.After installing Vista don’t install anything like device driver’s, programs and other updates on this Windows Vista because Microsoft gives you then Machinekeynumbers, that cant be copied with the Windows Explorer.
Boot the same Windows Vista installed computer using another hard disk contains Windows XP operating system or use an USB connected external hard disk drive to boot. The hard disk with installed Windows Vista stays connected.
Copy all the files and folders from that Windows Vista installation to a folder called Vista32. Don’t paste the copied Vista32 folder on the same partition with Windows Vista, because this partition is deleted later in this tweak. Also make sure that in folder options all the system files are set visible like hiberfil.sys, pagefile.sys, System Volume Information.
When you get a message, that a file cant be copied, use the program Beyond Compare 2 to look, what has happens. You can do those copy options also by hand. When you found that file or folder cant be copied, build this file or folder by manual mode with same extension and let it empty .
Make a backup of your original Windows Vista installation.For this use Winhex and copy simple Byte by Byte of the installations hard disk including the Windows Vista bootsector to a file called vista32.dat. Remember that on a Fat32 partition no single file can be larger than 4.1GB. So, this created vista32.dat has to stay on any NTFS partition in your hard disk drive because it is about 20GB size.
Before you delete the hard disk drive partition with the original Windows Vista on it with a third party software like Partition Magic 8, notice the exact size of this partition.After this delete this particular partition and build a new Fat32 partition at the same place with the same size as before on the same hard disk. Set the newly created partition as active.
Now copy all the files and folders back from the Vista32 folder to that empty Fat32 hard disk drive partition.Also note that copy the Boot folder first and then the Windows folder last.
Disconnect your USB XP drive or any other hard disk that is connected to your system. Only the hard disk with the newly created Fat32 partition and the copied files and folders of Windows Vista on it stays.
When you try to boot your system from that hard disk you get a message like no OS found.
Put the Windows Vista installation DVD in the drive and hit any key.
Chose the option of install of Windows Vista, but at the next place choose the option System repair.
Select a keyboard layout from the prompt.
Hit CTRL+ ALT+ DEL and then choose no restart of Windows Vista.
Hit “next”, and then choose Command Prompt.
Type in cd and then the way to your DVD drive with the Vista DVD in it,say F: .
Type in there cd F:\boot .
Then type in there bootsect /nt60 C:
A message is shown, that a new bootsector for FAT32 is written.
Take the Windows Vista installation DVD out from the disk drive and shut down the computer. When you boot up your computer to the next time, don’t think that nothing happens. The hard disk seems to dead about 2 minutes.After this Windows Vista boots up and Vista Desktop with Fat32. hiberfil.sys, pagefile.sys, System Volume Information have also been build new

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Written by magakos. Read more great feeds at is source WEBSITE
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7 comments

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Israel
#1. July 26th, 2008, at 12:30 AM.

realmente não conheço a vantagem de usar o vista em fat32, ainda se fosse ext3, partição nativa de linux isso sim seria evolução, mas como o windows não suporta a tabela unix, a não ser por programas de terceiros só se criar mesmo uma emulação que engane o vista pra instalar em ext3!

Jolly Rodger
#2. September 13th, 2008, at 11:54 PM.

Leaving non-english comments on an english page = fail.

Email won’t be published…only spammed -
#3. September 17th, 2008, at 1:31 AM.

lol.. He’s just saying he doesn’t see the advantage of fat32 over ntfs,
but if somebody comes up with a way to install Windows on ext3 filesystem,
he will be impressed. I’d have to say I agree - although I don’t ever see
that really happening. Cool find to the article poster, by the way -
I can’t think of any reason to do this, but that certainly doesn’t mean
that somebody else won’t find this usefull - thanks for sharing!

Wolf
#4. October 1st, 2008, at 4:09 PM.

I don’t get it what makes people repeat this stupid statement “I don’t see the advantage of FAT32 over NTFS” over and over again like a parrot. Are they all payed by the Microsoft PR department?
The advantages of FAT32 over NTFS in many real life situations are obvious. Here are just a few of them:
1. HDD access on FAT32 partitions is significantly faster than NTFS.
2. NTFS is limited to NT based operating systems, while FAT32 works with Win9x, Linux and DOS without any unnecessary troubles.
3. FAT32 doesn’t have this annoying security overhead of NTFS which let the OS prevent you from full access to your hard disk. I prefer that I am in command of my computer and not the OS. Security is for cowards or idiots.
4. Chances to recover corrupted data are much better on FAT32 partitons than FAT32 partitions.
There are only few situations, where it makes actually sense formatting with NTFS instead of FAT32, e.g. when you have files larger than 4GB. But this is normally only the case with some DVD-ISOs.
In order to install Vista you also need an NTFS partition, but who would voluntarily install Vista on his machine as long as there is a far superior and faster OS (i.e. Windows XP) available?
Newer does not mean better.

halnovemila
#5. May 25th, 2009, at 7:17 AM.

Well, I fully agree with Wolf.
Never tried to install WinVista on a FAT32 partition coz I wasn’t aware it is possibile till now after reading this post by magakos.
And also never really interested to install Windows Vista, as far as I can still use WindowsXP.
However old FAT32 has let me for years to use DOS filebatch to swap system folders of multiple Windows OS installed on the same primary partition… so that I didn’t never have the need to use more than one partition or any boot loader (except only for the native NT one) just to have multiple “normal” installation of Windows OS (either multiple of the same or different Windows version).
Nice to see that there is a chance that I will still be able to use my switch OS trick even with Vista or Seven.
Greetings.
Alessio.

Jeremy
#6. August 21st, 2009, at 10:49 PM.

Windows 3.1 is a lot faster and uses less memory than windows xp so we should all switch to that :D

Daniel
#7. October 23rd, 2009, at 10:02 PM.

Thanks, but is it possible somehow to enable FAT32 during installation (hack, pre-hack, undocumented features) and disable NTFS with its f-ing security and total slowdown (up to 200%)???

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Install Windows Vista on a FAT32 Partition

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