File Systems

FAT16 works the same in Windows 2000 as it does in MS-DOS, Windows 3. x , Windows 95, and Windows 98. FAT32 works the same in Windows 2000 as it does in Windows 95 OSR2 and Windows 98. You can install Windows 2000 on an existing FAT primary volume or logical volume. When running Windows 2000, you can move or copy files between FAT and NTFS volumes.

Note

If you copy a file from an NTFS volume to a FAT volume, any NTFS-specific properties associated with that file, such as permissions, compression, encryption, and sparse file support, are permanently lost.

You cannot use Windows 2000 with any compression or partitioning software that requires disk drivers to be loaded by MS-DOS, Windows 95, or Windows 98. Therefore, you cannot use DoubleSpace®, DriveSpace®, or DriveSpace® 3 on a FAT16 primary volume or logical volume that you want to access when running Windows 2000.