Sundance SMT387-FS - Manual (Page 8)

• File system type: FAT32
• Cluster size: 32KB
If the partition is larger than about 32GB, you will not be given the option of a FAT32 file
system, but only an NTFS file system. An NTFS file system can not be accessed by the
SMT387 File System Package, and in this case you must use the smt387fmt application to
format the partition.
If you format the partition under Windows XP, it is also important to note that you must select
a 32KB cluster size, as this is not the default. For performance reasons, the SMT387 File
System Package only processes FAT32 file systems with a 32KB cluster size.
You may also partition and in some cases format a drive for use with the SMT387 File
System Package under Windows 2000. Note, however, that a bug in Windows 2000 means
that you may be presented with the option of formatting a FAT32 file system larger than
32GB. Although this option is presented, accepting it does not result in a correctly formatted
file system, and in most cases the format operation will fail after a delay of up to an hour.
For a file system larger than 32GB, you must request an unformatted partition under
Windows XP and format the partition later using smt387fmt. You may also follow this course
for smaller partitions, and we suggest that smt387fmt is used for all partitions for use with the
SMT387 File System Package.
To format a partition using smt387fmt, attach the drive to either connector on the SMT387
module and run the smt387fmt application using the Diamond Windows Server.
Once loaded, the application will describe the drives attached to the SMT387 along with their
partitions, and indicate which partitions may be formatted. To ensure that other user data on
the drive is not damaged by this operation, it will only permit formatting on an unformatted
partition, or on a partition already formatted as FAT32.
The latter option is useful to clear out a damaged FAT32 partition, or to reformat one that
was formatted with the wrong cluster size. Note that all data in the selected partition will be
deleted during a reformat operation of this type.
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