Re: FAT32 minimum size 256MB?

[Richard Hirst]

On Tue, Jul 16, 2002 at 07:46:40PM +1000, Andrew Clausen wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 16, 2002 at 09:30:54AM +0100, Richard Hirst wrote:
> > Hi,
> >   For ia64, the EFI Spec says EFI partitions on fixed media should be
> > FAT32.  I want to create an EFI partition of 100MB, but it looks like
> > parted 1.6 insists on a minimum size of 256MB for FAT32.
> 
> Yep, Windows doesn't like FAT32 partitions <256Mb.
> FAT16 doesn't work?

FAT16 does work, but the EFI Spec v1.02 says

"EFI encompasses the use of FAT-32 for a system partition, and FAT-12 or
FAT-16 for removable media."

Later it says

"The EFI firmware must support the FAT-32, FAT-16, and FAT-12 variants of
the EFI file system. What variant of EFI FAT to use is defined by the
size of the media.  The rules defining the relationship between media
size and FAT variants is defined in the specification for the EFI file
system."

So, like all good specs, it contradicts itself.  Maybe it thinks noone
creates a partition less than 256MB on a harddisk these days.

The "referenced specification for the EFI file system" is really a FAT
specification from Microsoft, which goes to great length to explain that
FAT variant is based on number of clusters in the filesystem, and
nothing else.

Experience shows that EFI firmware is quite happy with FAT32 on 100MB
partitions, so that doesn't follow the file system specification either.

Looks like time for me to have a rethink.

Thanks,
  Richard