Win10 AU can't read external FAT32 HDD; Win7 can

[dragontology]

I have a portable Western Digital hard drive, 500GB model, USB 3.0 bus-powered. And three computers. Work computer is an i5-3570 with 4GB of RAM and Windows 7 SP1. Home desktop is a Xeon 1231v3 with 16GB of RAM and Windows 10 Pro AU. Laptop is an i7 6500U with 12GB of RAM and Windows 10 Home AU. All Windows are x64.

 

Last night I used the portable drive at work. Basically just use it to run PortableApps stuff. Chrome, VLC, etc. Can't install things so we use flash drives or hard drives to load our own software. Anyway, the drive worked fine. Hooked it up to the desktop to copy some stuff to the (new) laptop, and all of a sudden it couldn't read it. Laptop couldn't, either. Both agree it has an 80GB unallocated partition and then a 180GB unallocated partition, followed by a healthy 260GB primary partition, but I can't give it a drive letter or see what it thinks is there.

 

The hard drive works just fine on the Windows 7 machine, and after verifying it does, the laptop still won't read it. Still says the same thing.

 

Picture time. Here's a picture of Disk Management on the laptop (home desktop says the same). Here's a screenshot from the Windows 7 PC on the disk.

 

I thought maybe the work computer somehow took ownership of the hard drive, but that can't be done in FAT32, can it? And even if so, I should still be able to grant myself access. I do not think it's a permissions thing.

 

It's weird that both the laptop and the desktop see the same partitions. As for the difference in volume size, the only thing I can think of is, the hard drive contains a hidden folder created by my wife's Xbox 360. It's 32GB of junk data, some of which is Rockband songs. When the Xbox 360 uses a flash drive or a portable hard drive, it creates a sort of virtual disk volume. It isn't a partition. It's just a hidden folder. I could delete it, but I've never felt I needed to recover the space.

 

I should also note that the portable hard drive worked just fine on my desktop PC prior to the AU update. (I know, I know, redundant acronym is redundant.) Also, there is enough space on the C drive of the Windows drive for files, and then I could have the laptop format the external drive, and then move the files back...

[chrisj1968]

FAT32? maybe Windows 10 doesn't read FAT32 anymore. that's just a guess. stick it with the Win 7 machine for security sake of having access to it. I wonder if you would keep it connected to Win 7 if you could access the files through the 7 machine?

 

a hunch on windows 10 and FAT32

 

Here found this: http://superuser.com/questions/1027547/windows-10-can-not-read-a-perfectly-fine-fat32-partition

[chrisj1968]

Problem confirmed on a Win10 Pro x64. An 8GB Fat32 USB drive was not recognized. Connecting the drive to a Linux OS based CPU had no problem reading the FAT32 USB drive. But, FAT, FAT32, and exFAT are supported by Win10. The USB was formatted using Win7 in FAT32. The problem is also confirmed on a Win10 Pro x86 (32 bit) machine.

Formatting of the USB drive can not be done on the Win10 machine. It will not recognize the volume, only the physical drive.

This leads to the conclusion that the firmware based drivers on the drive (that are installed when a new USB drive type is inserted) are not Win10 compatible. We'll have to wait while vendors and Microsoft accuse each other of stupidity (publicly) before deciding (privately) to leave this in the huge unsupported legacy trash heap and force consumers to replace perfectly good HW.

Aside from copying the files on an older machine or downloading Linux and running it off of the DVD or creating a new boot partition I have found no solutions.

Considering the technical problems, the change in interface to a much more Android look, the costs, and the fact Win10 is a full personal surveillance system unless all of the beacons are turned off - I am advising some clients, both private and corporate, to switch to Linux.

 

A: Driver. and it seems you shouldn't expect a fix by the vendor or MSFT, by this persons answer

[Circaflex]

14 minutes ago, chrisj1968 said:

FAT32? maybe Windows 10 doesn't read FAT32 anymore. that's just a guess. stick it with the Win 7 machine for security sake of having access to it. I wonder if you would keep it connected to Win 7 if you could access the files through the 7 machine?

 

a hunch on windows 10 and FAT32

 

Here found this: http://superuser.com/questions/1027547/windows-10-can-not-read-a-perfectly-fine-fat32-partition

Windows 10 absolutely supports FAT32, not sure why you would "guess" that. Also that link is from January. 

 

I would backup everything from the drive to the computer it can be read on, then format that drive using Windows 10 computer, once completed migrate your data. It could be the XBOX 360 causing issues on the drive, I experience this probably twice a week where drives get nuked or stop working in various systems (running the same OS's) and I have to nuke the drive.

 

One thing is for sure, Windows 10 SUPPORTS fat32, so that is out of the equation.

 

12 minutes ago, chrisj1968 said:

A: Driver. and it seems you shouldn't expect a fix by the vendor or MSFT, by this persons answer

That guys issue was probably fixed, again that link was from January. We are now in August, with many updates and fixes in-between.

[adrynalyne]

47 minutes ago, Circaflex said:

Windows 10 absolutely supports FAT32, not sure why you would "guess" that. Also that link is from January. 

 

I would backup everything from the drive to the computer it can be read on, then format that drive using Windows 10 computer, once completed migrate your data. It could be the XBOX 360 causing issues on the drive, I experience this probably twice a week where drives get nuked or stop working in various systems (running the same OS's) and I have to nuke the drive.

 

One thing is for sure, Windows 10 SUPPORTS fat32, so that is out of the equation.

 

That guys issue was probably fixed, again that link was from January. We are now in August, with many updates and fixes in-between.

I bet there are some people here who need to reinstall their usb3 controllers or install drivers if they are non standard. 

[BBking]

I can confirm this issue. I have Kobo Glo reader which, when connected to PC, presents itself as an external FAT 32 drive. I have two laptops at home, one with Win 10 build 10586 and another Win 10 build 14393 (just updated to AU). Laptop with "new" Win 10 AU can't read this drive (asks to format it), laptop with "old" Win 10 can read it. A bug, I would say.

[PGHammer]

5 hours ago, BBking said:

I can confirm this issue. I have Kobo Glo reader which, when connected to PC, presents itself as an external FAT 32 drive. I have two laptops at home, one with Win 10 build 10586 and another Win 10 build 14393 (just updated to AU). Laptop with "new" Win 10 AU can't read this drive (asks to format it), laptop with "old" Win 10 can read it. A bug, I would say.

And what are the USB controllers on each portable?

 

I have a desktop and two notebooks; only the desktop has USB 3.0 controllers (Intel USB3 controllers at that) - not only do the notebooks lack USB3 support, they have different-branded USB controllers (from the desktop, and from each other) - both have different AMD chipset drivers the older from nVidia - the newer from AMD post-ATI acquisition).  I have absolutely zero problems with USB reading (but then, I don't use FAT32 on any of them, either).  Rather amusingly, I don't have any issues with NTFS-formatted USB readers on any PC - back to XP.  Is there a specific reason that NTFS is not usable?

[adrynalyne]

[Danielx64]

While that is off topic - I remember having issues when windows 8 was out and I had a 3TB drive and windows 8 would just screw up the partition table and made it a pain in the ### to get it going again. It was just fine on windows 7. Now I'm using that very same drive on windows 10 and everything been great, no issues with data loss.

[nekrosoft13]

23 hours ago, chrisj1968 said:

Problem confirmed on a Win10 Pro x64. An 8GB Fat32 USB drive was not recognized. Connecting the drive to a Linux OS based CPU had no problem reading the FAT32 USB drive. But, FAT, FAT32, and exFAT are supported by Win10. The USB was formatted using Win7 in FAT32. The problem is also confirmed on a Win10 Pro x86 (32 bit) machine.

Formatting of the USB drive can not be done on the Win10 machine. It will not recognize the volume, only the physical drive.

This leads to the conclusion that the firmware based drivers on the drive (that are installed when a new USB drive type is inserted) are not Win10 compatible. We'll have to wait while vendors and Microsoft accuse each other of stupidity (publicly) before deciding (privately) to leave this in the huge unsupported legacy trash heap and force consumers to replace perfectly good HW.

Aside from copying the files on an older machine or downloading Linux and running it off of the DVD or creating a new boot partition I have found no solutions.

Considering the technical problems, the change in interface to a much more Android look, the costs, and the fact Win10 is a full personal surveillance system unless all of the beacons are turned off - I am advising some clients, both private and corporate, to switch to Linux.

 

A: Driver. and it seems you shouldn't expect a fix by the vendor or MSFT, by this persons answer

nothing confirmed

 

fat32 works fine

[dragontology]

So... for those who say it does work... how do you make it work?

[dragontology]

(That is to say, anecdotes aren't helpful. I mean they don't even begin to address the issue.)

 

(If only Neowin allowed post editing.)

[adrynalyne]

Just now, dragontology said:

(That is to say, anecdotes aren't helpful. I mean they don't even begin to address the issue.)

 

(If only Neowin allowed post editing.)

It does, just not hours, days, and weeks later. 

7 minutes ago, dragontology said:

So... for those who say it does work... how do you make it work?

I grab my flash drive, I plug it in, and I use it. 

[dragontology]

6 hours ago, adrynalyne said:

It does, just not hours, days, and weeks later. 

I grab my flash drive, I plug it in, and I use it. 

What do you mean by "not hours, days, and weeks later"? The thread wasn't even started a week ago. You can see the time stamps by hovering over the "6 hours later" or whatever it is when you see it next. Six minutes after the post I couldn't edit it... not even one hour.

 

It seems to be affecting some people and not others, but it's definitely not just me. Here are two Reddit threads, in the tech support sub and the Windows 10 sub.

[DKAngel]

windows 10 reads my fat32 flash drives just fine

[adrynalyne]

1 hour ago, dragontology said:

What do you mean by "not hours, days, and weeks later"? The thread wasn't even started a week ago. You can see the time stamps by hovering over the "6 hours later" or whatever it is when you see it next. Six minutes after the post I couldn't edit it... not even one hour.

 

It seems to be affecting some people and not others, but it's definitely not just me. Here are two Reddit threads, in the tech support sub and the Windows 10 sub.

Don't be obtuse, you know what I meant regarding edits.

 

As for it only affecting some, that is obvious

 

That said, it doesn't affect any of my three laptops, nor my workstation.

 

 

[dragontology]

Well, if you can't explain how you got it working, how does that help those for whom it doesn't work? If you can't help, that's fine. If you must say something, don't be afraid to say you don't know. Smug superiority helps no one but perhaps yourself, if you really need the ego boost, and it only clutters the thread. But thanks for the bump — there is that, I suppose.

 

Someone with Microsoft got on one of the Reddit threads and is distributing some sort of diagnosis tools set. So, we're working on it with them.

[adrynalyne]

4 minutes ago, dragontology said:

Well, if you can't explain how you got it working, how does that help those for whom it doesn't work? If you can't help, that's fine. If you must say something, don't be afraid to say you don't know. Smug superiority helps no one but perhaps yourself, if you really need the ego boost, and it only clutters the thread. But thanks for the bump — there is that, I suppose.

 

Someone with Microsoft got on one of the Reddit threads and is distributing some sort of diagnosis tools set. So, we're working on it with them.

What do you want from me? I did nothing to make it work. You are assuming your problem is the norm when clearly it is not. I literally plug in my thumb drive and read and write fine. What else am I supposed to do, make up some fantastic fix that I didn't need? I mentioned what I did to show you that this is not typical behavior and should not be assumed as such. 

 

The only smug superiority you are observing is imagined by you and you alone. 

[Ian W]

For what it may or may not be worth, I am also able to read and write to a flash drive formatted with FAT32.

[dragontology]

On 8/8/2016 at 11:54 PM, adrynalyne said:

What do you want from me? I did nothing to make it work. You are assuming your problem is the norm when clearly it is not. I literally plug in my thumb drive and read and write fine. What else am I supposed to do, make up some fantastic fix that I didn't need? I mentioned what I did to show you that this is not typical behavior and should not be assumed as such. 

 

The only smug superiority you are observing is imagined by you and you alone. 

Class? Decency? Your little tirade to make it look like it's just me isn't helping anyone. There have been other people who have the problem. Microsoft is working on it. 

 

Read your posts as if you were looking for help and someone else wrote them and tell me you don't see that. You care more about being right than being decent. And that's a shame. If you can't help, maybe you shouldn't post. But hey, thanks again for the bump. Maybe you'll help someone see it who can.

 

On 8/9/2016 at 0:15 AM, Ian W said:

For what it may or may not be worth, I am also able to read and write to a flash drive formatted with FAT32.

Yes, I found flash drives work as well, it's just a portable hard drive I have. 

So it isn't strictly FAT32, it's something to do with certain types of hard disks. It's alarming because it worked fine in previous versions of Windows. As best we can tell, it isn't user error (happened on a brand new laptop, for one) and it seems to be affecting different drives differently. And some programs like Recuva and chkdsk can actually see the files on the drive. It's just a bug they need to figure out sooner than later.

[adrynalyne]

1 hour ago, dragontology said:

Class? Decency? Your little tirade to make it look like it's just me isn't helping anyone. There have been other people who have the problem. Microsoft is working on it. 

 

Read your posts as if you were looking for help and someone else wrote them and tell me you don't see that. You care more about being right than being decent. And that's a shame. If you can't help, maybe you shouldn't post. But hey, thanks again for the bump. Maybe you'll help someone see it who can.

 

Yes, I found flash drives work as well, it's just a portable hard drive I have. 

So it isn't strictly FAT32, it's something to do with certain types of hard disks. It's alarming because it worked fine in previous versions of Windows. As best we can tell, it isn't user error (happened on a brand new laptop, for one) and it seems to be affecting different drives differently. And some programs like Recuva and chkdsk can actually see the files on the drive. It's just a bug they need to figure out sooner than later.

You are imagining BS. I have done nothing to you. Of course after your continuous attacks towards me for something I never did, I sincerely hope you never fix your issue. 

 

There, now I have you a real reason to comment the way you are towards me. What a joke. 

 

Gotta wonder how you function in life imagining all these things that people do to you. Don't look now, that elderly woman walking down the street has it out for you!

[adrynalyne]

@dragontology I apologize for the above post. I of course don't mean it; I do hope you get it all figured out. I was just ticked about the continual onslaught against me for simply illustrating that I wasn't having issues. 

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

Does it make any difference if the computer is started in Safe Mode, or if the 500GB Western Digital external USB hard disk drive is plugged into a USB 2.0 port?

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[dragontology]

23 hours ago, adrynalyne said:

@dragontology I apologize for the above post. I of course don't mean it; I do hope you get it all figured out. I was just ticked about the continual onslaught against me for simply illustrating that I wasn't having issues. 

All good, man. I usually don't take such things personally. Not how I'm wired. LLAP

 

19 hours ago, goretsky said:

Hello,

 

Does it make any difference if the computer is started in Safe Mode, or if the 500GB Western Digital external USB hard disk drive is plugged into a USB 2.0 port?

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

Ah, troubleshooting! Awesome. And F8 doesn't work. Of course there's a roundabout way to do it on the laptop. Anyway, I got into safe mode and it's still a no go. Here's a screenshot with the build number included. Only thing redacted is the name of the user folder. Not like my real name's hard to come by, but, you know, precautions and whatnot. Screenshot

[dragontology]

Oh, and no USB 2.0 ports. Sorry, I thought to say that before I rebooted and did all that, but then I forgot, and I don't seem to have the necessary rank or whatever to edit my posts. I see adrynalyne was able to edit one above. But he also appears to have the top ranking and over 10,000 posts, so he might be in a higher user group. I don't think I've ever been able to edit. I see the edit button, but clicking it makes it go away. It's weird. Anyway, no USB 2.0 ports. I have three USB 3.0 ports and a Thunderbolt port. Or maybe it's USB Type C, but I think they said Thunderbolt. Round and long.