Hello all, I have a Windows XP 32bit with SP3 with up to date patches. When I try to access data from a Western Digital 250G external USB HD (which is formatted as exFAT) it says that it is not formatted and asks me to format it now. This same drive works fine when I attach it to a Win7 64bit workstation. On the XP machine, I chose to format the drive using exFAT. I get the message 'windows was unable to complete the format'.

Latest bug fixes for Microsoft Windows, including fixes for some possible DoS attacks. Mar 06, 2016 Well tittle says it all - I am looking for the MS drivers to add support for exFAT in Windows XP. As you are all aware MS has stopped support and as such.

Now if I format the drive using NTFS I am OK. I even formatted the HD using exFAT on a Win7 64bit machine.

When I place the HD back to the XP machine it sees the drive and the drive letter but keeps saying that it needs to be formatted. In conclusion, the drive works on my Win7 both no matter what filesystem I use but in XP it only works as NTFS.

I have no trouble seeing the drive or any drive letters. I even changed around the drive letters around from F to Z and I tried disabling the firewire connection (I read this on another site). Normally I would just use NTFS and be done with it. However I wanted to use this drive to backup some things on my XBOX360 which does not recognize NTFS.

Also (if im not mistaken) I wanted to attach this to a MAC and MAC won't recognize NTFS either but I believe it does recognize exFAT. The HD is a little old but it does work fine. Hah, the strangest thing.

I just worked around it. I no longer have a workstation that would allow me to format it to a FAT32 so that is one test I could not do.

I decided to take my exFAT HD and backup some things from the xbox360 and lo and behold the 360 formatted the HD to Fat32. I can now access the data across all the machines I am using this drive for. For poops and giggles I have a state of the art 512mb USB flash drive (sarcasm) and I formatted it exfat. It seems my XP won't recognize anything exFAT.

This isn't too much of a big deal since I worked around my issue but if anyone knows how to get exFAT working on an XP box, I would gladly like to know for troubleshooting sake. If you don't have any files over 4Gb, I would use FAT32. I've actually had this exact same issue - what I did was partition the drive (160Gb) into 2 FAT32 partitions both formatted at 31Gb, then the rest of the disk space as NTFS. All three drives were recognized by both systems. Of course, the best way would be to purchase separate drives for each different file system you wish to use. I posted my reply without seeing yours.

The problem is I cant format to Fat32. It isn't even an option for me on any of my workstations (XP and 7). I believe since I am up to date the option isn't there. Luckily my 360 did the job for me.

It is a strange workaround but it did work.

SDXC Memory Cards and 256GB CompactFlash cards are formatted natively in the exFAT file system. Flash Drives may also be formatted in exFAT. The operating system must support the exFAT file system in order for these devices to function properly. ExFAT Supported Operating Systems Operating System exFAT support Patch download Windows 10 Supported natively Windows 8 Supported natively Windows 7 Supported natively Windows Vista Requires update to Service Pack 1 or 2 (both supports exFAT) (with exFAT support) (with exFAT support) Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or 3) No longer supported by Microsoft exFAT patch is no longer available for Windows XP systems Mac OS X Requires Mac OS X version 10.6.6 and above NOTE: Some Host devices may NOT support SDXC cards.

I respect the exFAT file system so much that I personnaly nicknamed it 'DA Extremely Fast File System' In the Honorable, Long Lasting and Reliable Windows XP, exFAT is available for update download and instalation! I have formatted all of my USB Flash cards into the exFAT file system cause I know that all the operating systems from XP and above will understand it!

One of my friends has XP and when I plugged in my USB (exFAT formatted) it poped up and it said that I should format my USB! In order to use exFAT for Windows XP all I had to do was download an exFAT update(KB955704) from microsoft! Although exFAT is designed for USB(removable disks), I risk using it on my second internal Hard Disk for all my web browsing(Temporary Internet Files) and downloads!

Install the following update in order to add support for the exFAT file system format on your computer using Windows XP! Autocad Block Contains Proxy Objects In Java on this page. If you are using Microsoft Windows XP Home, Proffesional and/or Media Center and if you like to take advantage of the latest less fragmenting and faster files system exFAT you'll need to download a specific This file system is mainly designed for usb flash drives,digital camera memory cards and other external devices in order to transfer files between computers and the devices.

And it's even mainly designed to support over 32GB drives since the old FAT or FAT32 file systems couldn't! But I tried as personal technical experiment and formated some of my partitions on my computer since they are over 80GB drives as an exFAT file system rather then FAT32 or NTFS using the Command Prompt! Example Command Prompt: FORMAT D: /FS:exFAT /Q and press ENTER And all I have to tell you is that When the drives used be formated as an NTFS File System my downloads would slow down tremendusly even after the 80GB partitions get to be only 10% full! And they would very quickly be fragmented!

But When I formated them as an exFAT file System, then even when I made the drives over 80% full my downloads still continue to download at a very fast speed as if my drives are still empty at the speed of 1mbps rather the the old and slow 90-230kbps when it was formated as an NTFS!