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

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

Thank you for posting the screenshot.  It is really strange that the drive is showing up as multiple partitions.  I am wondering if there was a bug introduced in the FAT32 device driver for Build 14393.  Do you have access to any other computers running the Windows 10 Anniversary Update that you can connect the drive to and see if it is fully recognized as one ~500GB FAT32 disk volume?

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

[aberg]

On 2016-08-05 at 9:05 PM, 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.

I have the same problem with a Kobo Glo HD. I have AU update on all my computers and it doesn't work on anyone.

That probably means that factory reset on the Kobo doesn't help.

I'll reinstall Windows 8.1 on my oldest laptop and try again.

[aberg]

1 hour ago, aberg said:

I have the same problem with a Kobo Glo HD. I have AU update on all my computers and it doesn't work on anyone.

That probably means that factory reset on the Kobo doesn't help.

I'll reinstall Windows 8.1 on my oldest laptop and try again.

There is definitely something wrong with some USB flash drives in Windows 10 Anniversary Update.
Went back to Windows 10 10586.51 on a computer and then I had no problem connecting my Kobo.

[dragontology]

19 hours ago, goretsky said:

Hello,

 

Thank you for posting the screenshot.  It is really strange that the drive is showing up as multiple partitions.  I am wondering if there was a bug introduced in the FAT32 device driver for Build 14393.  Do you have access to any other computers running the Windows 10 Anniversary Update that you can connect the drive to and see if it is fully recognized as one ~500GB FAT32 disk volume?

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

I only have one other computer running the Anniversary Update. My desktop. It shows the same values in Device Manager. Same three partitions.

 

18 hours ago, aberg said:

I have the same problem with a Kobo Glo HD. I have AU update on all my computers and it doesn't work on anyone.

That probably means that factory reset on the Kobo doesn't help.

I'll reinstall Windows 8.1 on my oldest laptop and try again.

Check out the Reddit posts I linked to. In one of them, there's a guy with Microsoft looking for people with this problem. If you're comfortable using Reddit, the Windows command line, and uploading ~25MB of logs that might contain personal data, they might still be looking for different use cases to review.

[LaP]

I see some unallocated space in the screenshot which is probably some deleted partitions by the AU. I got this problem and resolved it by recovering the partition with MiniTool.

 

try this :

 

https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmanager/partition-disappears-in-win-10-anniversary-update.html

[LaP]

On 2016-08-11 at 5:41 AM, goretsky said:

Hello,

 

Thank you for posting the screenshot.  It is really strange that the drive is showing up as multiple partitions.  I am wondering if there was a bug introduced in the FAT32 device driver for Build 14393.  Do you have access to any other computers running the Windows 10 Anniversary Update that you can connect the drive to and see if it is fully recognized as one ~500GB FAT32 disk volume?

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

Probably not

 

Windows 10 Anniversary Update delete partitions (it's a feature ).

 

Search on Google for "Windows 10 Anniversary update deleted partitions". It's a widespread problem.

 

Windows 10 AU deleted the partition of my external HD. The HD showed as four partitions. Two unallocated space "partitions" and two ***** unusable NTFS partitions. The cool thing is the external HD was my backup and i needed to recover something ...

 

I tried to save it with EaseUS Partition Master, AOMEI Partition Assistant and Paragon Partition Manager but they all failed to recover the deleted partitions. MiniTool Partition Wizard worked.

Edited August 15, 2016 by LaP

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

So, it seems like Microsoft is investigating the issue.  In the meantime, one workaround is to use the Convert program (filename: CONVERT.EXE) from a computer that correctly recognizes the 500GB Western Digital external hard disk drive to change the filesystem from FAT32 to NTFS.  One thing to keep in mind, though, is that this is a one-way operation.  Microsoft does not provide a utility to convert in the other direction (e.g., from NTFS to FAT32).

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

[+Matthew S. Subscriber²]

Anyone think that it could be the partition table? GUID vs MBR?

[Hum]

On 8/7/2016 at 3:16 PM, dragontology said:

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

Odd -- my Windows 10 machine reads FAT21 thumb drives and my older external case drives.

 

I would Save files off of the WD drive with a Win 7 computer, then wipe the drive with Digital Lifeguard tools [free download].

 

Then Reformat the drive to FAT 32 or whatever format you like -- maybe NTFS.

 

Then reinstall your files.

 

Wouldn't hurt to run a hard drive test [DLGT] on the drive, before reinstalling files.

[BajiRav]

So I found this is a problem on one of my NTFS formatted external drive. It shows up and works just fine in Linux but somehow Windows 10 sees it as "Unallocated space".

[adrynalyne]

23 minutes ago, BajiRav said:

So I found this is a problem on one of my NTFS formatted external drive. It shows up and works just fine in Linux but somehow Windows 10 sees it as "Unallocated space".

Now that one I can test. My NTFS external drive reads perfectly. I am using usb3, what is yours? There has to be some common factor here that is being missed. 

[Mando]

On 05/08/2016 at 5:46 AM, 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

Erm i use fat32 external drives without issue on all 3 W10 pro x64 machines here, heck i even built a 32Gb recovery FAT32 usb HDD to create recovery media for my surface pro 4, mastered it all on my W10 desktop.

 

W10 supports Fat, Fat32, ExFat, NTFS...you know like every other version of windows

 

 

[LaP]

4 hours ago, BajiRav said:

So I found this is a problem on one of my NTFS formatted external drive. It shows up and works just fine in Linux but somehow Windows 10 sees it as "Unallocated space".

Did anyone here tried this?

 

 

It resolved the issue for me.

[BajiRav]

4 hours ago, adrynalyne said:

Now that one I can test. My NTFS external drive reads perfectly. I am using usb3, what is yours? There has to be some common factor here that is being missed. 

That's...umm..err...difficult to answer  It's a 2009 5400 RPM hdd that came with an old laptop. I found out that it works with the SSD adapter that replaced it and since then I use it as a redundant backup. I really don't know the speeds I get with it but it's not horrible and does the job.

My USB3/NTFS external drive on the other has no problems.

 

19 minutes ago, LaP said:

Did anyone here tried this?

 

 

It resolved the issue for me.

Yes, that's what I did. Simple 2min process.

[dragontology]

Well, the Xbox360 folder didn't matter. I didn't think it would. Deleted it, still no dice. I deleted the three partitions Windows 10 saw, and made a new simple volume on it. Formatted it NTFS. Works fine on both the Win7 desktop and the Win10AU laptop. Though, at this point, I haven't got a use for it. I was using it as a PortableApps drive. Replaced it with a 64GB USB 3.0 flash drive. It's a tad bit slower but for the most part performance is equal for what I do. And that is, hook it up to computers that aren't mine and use my own private Chrome browser. And sometimes watch videos. So the flash drive will hold a couple seasons of whatever I'm watching, some video clips. Obviously the 500GB drive held more, but the Win10AU laptop holds even more. 2TB in fact. So I can cycle in and out what I want from the laptop to the flash to the other two computers.

 

So, that seems to be the solution, for now. Back up the drive on a non-Win10AU machine, format it on the Win10AU machine, and then replace the files. I'm sure Microsoft is working on it. Until then, we just have to hope someone with the problem can get up with someone who doesn't have the problem, and they're both smart enough to figure out what's missing. There's a number of things it could be that I can think of, and I'm not as bright as some here, who can probably think of more.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

just plug it in, dude....if you've got the wrong drivers, update your chipsets. FAT32 has worked tremendously since at LEAST windows 95. there's no way to get it wrong. unless your MBR got buffered up because safely eject wasn't used. That's why it's there. Eject properly.....shouldn't have any problems.

[dragontology]

4 hours ago, Obi-Wan Kenobi said:

just plug it in, dude....if you've got the wrong drivers, update your chipsets. FAT32 has worked tremendously since at LEAST windows 95. there's no way to get it wrong. unless your MBR got buffered up because safely eject wasn't used. That's why it's there. Eject properly.....shouldn't have any problems.

Funny you mention safe ejecting. The Windows 7 PC doesn't support it on hard drives. Flash drive, no problem. But a hard drive? It will always say that the drive cannot be stopped, even when nothing's accessing it. (Unless some hidden program is indexing it or something, but Windows' indexing service is disabled on this machine.) So when I go to remove it, I reboot the PC. When the BIOS logo comes up, that's when I pull the drive. And it's never been a problem on my Win10 PC at home running 1511. It was only when I updated the home PC to 1607, and got the laptop running 1607, that the hard drive could not be read.

I've used the driver utility that came with the laptop. No updates found. I wouldn't expect there to be any, since it's so new.

Curious, both PCs are Asus. The laptop is an Asus laptop, and the desktop uses an Asus motherboard. Fairly safe to say they use the same chipset? They're both Intel. Desktop has a Xeon and the laptop has an i7. But Intel mobos have Intel chipsets. I wonder if those for whom FAT32 hard drives work in 1607 have AMD or non-Asus computers. It might be a stretch but then it might not. I mean, if it's a drivers issue, a common brand or chipset could be to blame.

 

So it's an interesting point, but irrelevant. Much more so now that the drive has been formatted NTFS and now the Win10AU laptop can now read it. And I'm betting the desktop can as well. I wonder if formatting it FAT32 would change that. Should be interesting to test for at a later date.

[PGHammer]

On 8/16/2016 at 1:28 AM, Matthew S. said:

Anyone think that it could be the partition table? GUID vs MBR?

Impossible - even the Anniversary Update is partition-type neutral that way (my notebooks are all MBR, while my desktop is GPT; further, FAT32 partitions are MBR-only).

 

Don't assume that the notebook and desktop use the same chipset (though both are ASUS and Intel-driven - for that reason alone, the chipsets are likely to be different).  My two primary notebooks are HP and feature AMD CPUs; however, they have difference GPUs than each other and different base chipsets as well; the most recent notebook added to the test pool is different from the other two in terms of chipset (and is also AMD-driven).

[adrynalyne]

8 hours ago, dragontology said:

Funny you mention safe ejecting. The Windows 7 PC doesn't support it on hard drives. Flash drive, no problem. But a hard drive? It will always say that the drive cannot be stopped, even when nothing's accessing it. (Unless some hidden program is indexing it or something, but Windows' indexing service is disabled on this machine.) So when I go to remove it, I reboot the PC. When the BIOS logo comes up, that's when I pull the drive. And it's never been a problem on my Win10 PC at home running 1511. It was only when I updated the home PC to 1607, and got the laptop running 1607, that the hard drive could not be read.

I've used the driver utility that came with the laptop. No updates found. I wouldn't expect there to be any, since it's so new.

Curious, both PCs are Asus. The laptop is an Asus laptop, and the desktop uses an Asus motherboard. Fairly safe to say they use the same chipset? They're both Intel. Desktop has a Xeon and the laptop has an i7. But Intel mobos have Intel chipsets. I wonder if those for whom FAT32 hard drives work in 1607 have AMD or non-Asus computers. It might be a stretch but then it might not. I mean, if it's a drivers issue, a common brand or chipset could be to blame.

 

So it's an interesting point, but irrelevant. Much more so now that the drive has been formatted NTFS and now the Win10AU laptop can now read it. And I'm betting the desktop can as well. I wonder if formatting it FAT32 would change that. Should be interesting to test for at a later date.

I've ejected external hard drives on Windows 7 before. It's definitely supported. Also the machine I tested on previously was an ASUS ux015vw. 

[dragontology]

13 hours ago, adrynalyne said:

I've ejected external hard drives on Windows 7 before. It's definitely supported. Also the machine I tested on previously was an ASUS ux015vw. 

Never said it wasn't. But when that prompt comes up saying the drive is still in use, you just pull it anyway? I've done that before. Windows always wants to scan the drive the next day. Never finds anything wrong, but it's an annoyance. It'll keep asking until I do it. Hence, the reboot and pull. Or, you've never seen that prompt?

 

You seem to be very lucky with your computers. Either you are just plain lucky... or you lack the experience necessary to run into such problems... or you are so good with the tools that you use that you employ various safeguards and techniques, perhaps often subconsciously, that keep you out of trouble. I only mention the second one to cover all possibilities. My experience with you here suggests the first, but your post count and reputation suggest the third.

 

My desktop now recognizes the, now NTFS formatted hard drive. It's of no use to my work flow, so it's now semi-permanently docked at home. It's hiding under my desk's CD rack, plugged in on the side of the USB hub, an extra 465GB I don't know what to do with. The world we live in... I'd take offers, but for $60 you can get the 1TB model brand new, and for about $150 you can get the 4TB model. 2.5" bus powered, USB3... Four terabytes. Insane. So for the $15-20 it's probably worth (if that), I'd just hold onto it...