Beware! WIN TEN and FAT 32

ecc83

Well-known member
There is overwhelming evidence (see Sound on Sound forum) that plugging a USB stick formatted for FAT32 into a PC with W10 OS corrupts .wav files.

This has only been seen in a very few cases but the files DO NOT it seems even need to be copied into the drive for corruption to occur.

Microsoft are apparently aware of the issue and a fix is eagerly awaited!

Dave.
 
Being curious, I tried it out.

I saved a folder containing WAV files to a FAT32 USB stick.

I then booted down my PC, swapped the system drive over to Windows 10, and booted up.

I'll say again that W10 boots up seriously quickly!!

I popped the USB stick in, then attempted to open it. I got a message saying disk needed to be formatted, and did I want to do so?

No way!

I loaded Reaper and tried to import directly from the USB stick, and again, I could not.

When I swapped system drives back to XP, the USB had no problem in being recognised, and the WAV files were intact.

I'll say again, how can Microsoft, with the resources to command the best programmers, miss out on such a basic thing?
 
I agree Gekks' that it seems extraordinary if at all common. I would not have given the story any credence at all had it not started in SoS AND been introduced by Hugh Robjohns himself.

It is entirely possible of course that it is just one MOBO or one chipset that is doing this but I thought it best to bring the matter up?

I have asked for W10 and I guess it is downloading as I type but I am in no rush to install it and since I have a FAT32 NAS drive, no bloody way until I can be sure it won't FTsUp!

Dave.
 
I have asked for W10 and I guess it is downloading as I type but I am in no rush to install it and since I have a FAT32 NAS drive, no bloody way until I can be sure it won't FTsUp!

Dave.

A NAS drive wouldn't be affected - it is its own computer that provides services over a network. Do you mean a USB drive?
 
A NAS drive wouldn't be affected - it is its own computer that provides services over a network. Do you mean a USB drive?

I have both JD but the USB 3.0 drive is a caddy and houses a conventional HDD formatted to NTFS. I agree the NAS should be immune but I know it is FAT32!

Dave.
 
Doesn't surprise me - FAT32 is a relic of older Win OS systems. MS doesn't give a flying f*ck about you if you don't want to upgrade to the newest/best/suckiest they have to offer. Notice they had to release a Service Pack 2 weeks after offical release? Shouldn't Beta testing found most of the intial system bugs?

I didn't like a lot about Win7 when I first got it, but Win8 on my wife's computer really sux. Win10? No way until I've got no choice.
 
Lol. I never want to leave XP. All of this new shit is terrifying.

I feel your pain brother! About 6 months ago I had a perfectly good XP computer in my living room that ran my printer/scanner and I could watch BBC iPlayer thru it and my 32" Sony FST. Then the hard drive crashed (it seemed) .

I bought a new HDD and loaded XP up but had various problems, especially with the internet...Cut a long short, it transpired that BBC Radio would no longer work on IE8 and so the move to Win7 was inevitable.

I have to say Greg that it all went swimmingly! Far more stable than XP (well, bombproof really) . Had a bit of a song and dance with the ESI 1010e soundcard but that is always a bit of a bugger to get driver'ed up. Solid now.

So don't fear seven Greg it is a pussy cat and a very secure one. Mind you I still don't like it! I don't seem to be able to set files in the order I want (by when modified, not A2Z) and downloads go WTF they want it seems? Don't know about anyone else but when set to search for new hardware W7 has NEVER FEKKING found it! In XP you could set "Search at boot up" and it generally worked. I also miss the Network Wizard.

Dave.
 
So don't fear seven Greg it is a pussy cat and a very secure one. Mind you I still don't like it! I don't seem to be able to set files in the order I want (by when modified, not A2Z) and downloads go WTF they want it seems? Don't know about anyone else but when set to search for new hardware W7 has NEVER FEKKING found it! In XP you could set "Search at boot up" and it generally worked. I also miss the Network Wizard.

Dave.

That kinda summarises my gripes with windows, superficial as they may seem.
It was pure fluke that I got put on to OS X around the time that vista was common but if that hadn't happened I'd probably be sticking with XP too.

I never understood the point of changing the whole layout, unless it's a monumental and necessary one off.
OS X pretty much looks exactly the same as it did at the start. Sure, there are bucketloads of new features and it's a different beast under the hood, but 99% of the 'buttons' are in the same place.
I genuinely get the feeling it's the exact opposite with Windows.
We've moved all the buttons and all the old annoyances you used to hate are still there. lol

I'll still 'search the internet' for your network drivers....for example.
I presume there's a licensing issue or something, but even shipping with the basic broadcom/intel/atheros wifi drivers would seem like a pretty obvous improvement.

It's fine if you're doing a retail install with a discs that came from the manufacturer, but anything off the beaten track is always a PITA.
 
Apparently it is a problem with USB memory card readers, not with USB thumb drives.

Disabling the "Portable Device Enumerator Service" has reportedly fixed the problem.
Search "msconfig" and disable the service.
 
Apparently it is a problem with USB memory card readers, not with USB thumb drives.

Disabling the "Portable Device Enumerator Service" has reportedly fixed the problem.
Search "msconfig" and disable the service.

It may not be exactly the same problem with USB thumb drives, but there is certainly a problem with them, as I discovered.
 
I feel your pain brother! About 6 months ago I had a perfectly good XP computer in my living room that ran my printer/scanner and I could watch BBC iPlayer thru it and my 32" Sony FST. Then the hard drive crashed (it seemed) .

I bought a new HDD and loaded XP up but had various problems, especially with the internet...Cut a long short, it transpired that BBC Radio would no longer work on IE8 and so the move to Win7 was inevitable.

I have to say Greg that it all went swimmingly! Far more stable than XP (well, bombproof really) . Had a bit of a song and dance with the ESI 1010e soundcard but that is always a bit of a bugger to get driver'ed up. Solid now.

So don't fear seven Greg it is a pussy cat and a very secure one. Mind you I still don't like it! I don't seem to be able to set files in the order I want (by when modified, not A2Z) and downloads go WTF they want it seems? Don't know about anyone else but when set to search for new hardware W7 has NEVER FEKKING found it! In XP you could set "Search at boot up" and it generally worked. I also miss the Network Wizard.

Dave.

My biggest worry is that I finally migrate to a new machine not running XP and none of my shit works. The day is coming. I've been nursing this old thing along for a looooong time. But what's next? I have no idea about this shit. I need to just be able to turn it on and go. I'm about as tech savvy as a caveman. I know my stuff works with Windows 7. I have a laptop that runs 7 and Reaper and all my plugs work. But I hate tracking/mixing on that thing. I prefer a desktop. If Windows 8 and 10 are such bitches, WTF am I supposed to do?
 
My biggest worry is that I finally migrate to a new machine not running XP and none of my shit works. The day is coming. I've been nursing this old thing along for a looooong time. But what's next? I have no idea about this shit. I need to just be able to turn it on and go. I'm about as tech savvy as a caveman. I know my stuff works with Windows 7. I have a laptop that runs 7 and Reaper and all my plugs work. But I hate tracking/mixing on that thing. I prefer a desktop. If Windows 8 and 10 are such bitches, WTF am I supposed to do?
If it makes a difference, I bought a computer that had Windows 8.1, which is pretty stupid considering it's a desk top and 8.1 is for touch screens, like on a phone and/or a lap top. My desk top even looked like a phone with all these stupid apps on it,, etc...Anyway, I watched a few Youtube videos and managed to get it to look and feel like a regular desk top.

The point is, I'm running everything on it and everything works fine. Having said that, if I had 2 computers, I'd probably use REAPER on one of them and never update anything. I don't even know what has changed from the last 10 REAPER updates I've done. I'd have been perfectly happy to stay with Vista and REAPER 4.0 forever.
 
Windows 8 and 8.1 were pretty much unmitigated disasters. Kind of like the 2015 Les Pauls: full of features that nobody asked for. Win10 is a much more agreeable OS, if you ask me. It's not that much different than Win7, at least it's not as big of a departure as Win8 was. All of the things I did in Win7 are still there in Win10, its just that some of these features have been relocated or renamed. There will be some learning curve, but it's not like you'd all of a sudden be using something totally ass-backwards to a Windows user.
 
My biggest worry is that I finally migrate to a new machine not running XP and none of my shit works. The day is coming. I've been nursing this old thing along for a looooong time. But what's next? I have no idea about this shit. I need to just be able to turn it on and go. I'm about as tech savvy as a caveman. I know my stuff works with Windows 7. I have a laptop that runs 7 and Reaper and all my plugs work. But I hate tracking/mixing on that thing. I prefer a desktop. If Windows 8 and 10 are such bitches, WTF am I supposed to do?

The only reason you'd want to upgrade is hardware failure, right?
If that day comes just get a lightly used top spec (for its day) core2duo or core2quad machine for fuck all locally or whatever, and pick up some XP install disc on eBay.
If you can get a retail copy of SP2 you're only a few automatic updates away from being back in your comfort zone. :)
 
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