Help understanding OS versions

[Fran]

Sorry to ask such a simple question here.
I am trying to buy a cheap Windows 95 full version B on eBay.
Would someone help me understand what the "full version with USB" mean?
And "with FAT32"?
How can I find out if an old computer is using FAT32?
Thanks a lot.

[Prof I. M. Boring]

Hi Fran. Full version means its a complete disc (loading win95 on an empty hard drive - no other OS on it) versus an update disc (installing Win95 over a previous version of Windows, such as Win 3.11).

USB is a newer, faster way to connect peripherals (printers, scanners, zipdrives) to your computer. This Win95 would support it (your Bios needs to support it as well, so don't assume you can use it, plus you might need an USB card installed).

Fat32 is how Windows structures your harddrive. The alternative is Fat16.
Fat32 is better than Fat16. To find out what type you have, go to "Start" at the bottom left, select "Run", type "msinfo32". A new window will pop up, on the last line in the right hand panel, there should be a number, either Fat32 or Fat16. If you get an error message after typing "msinfo32" at the "Run" command, then you don't have the "msinfo32" program, and, odds are, probably using Fat16.

Hope this helps.

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[Paleo Pete]

Hard Disk Logical Structures and File Systems (http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/index.htm) might help, check the OS/File System Cross Reference, it might be useful too.

FAT32 means the hard drive is partitioned with a 32 bit file system, FAT16 is 16 bit. FAT16 is limited to 2GB hard drive size, and was used with win3.x and 95A. 95B and later 98, used either FAT16 or 32.

You can also find out what file system is being usec currently by running fdisk, you'll have to boot with a win95 or win98 start up disk, at the A:\> prompt type fdisk and it will run. If you have a hard drive larger than 512MB it will ask if you want to enable Large Disk Support, that's FAT32, say Yes, you won't be making any changes. Choose option 4, View Partition Information, it will tell you what the drive size is, file system used, and what type partition it is, usually Primary DOS.

Use the [Esc] key to exit fdisk and DO NOT MAKE ANY CHANGES. Just looking won't hurt a thing, but if you do anything else, it will remove all data from the drive.

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