I have two hard drives installed one has WinXPHome with FAT32 file system and the other will have Fedora Core 1 installed.

I want to install the Fedora using a VFAT file system (I am assuming that VFAT will be seen by both Windows and Fedora, I am a newbie on Linux)

When I get to the Automatic or Manual Druid Partition screen I have the following partition information show up:

/dev/hdb1 /boot ext3 size mb102 start1 end13
/dev/hdb2 / ext3 size mb 4259 start4259 end556
/dev/hdb3 swap size mb 1788 start557 end784

When I try to change everything to VFAT by either editing or deleting the above partition the installation will not allow me to continue. It comes up with the prompt “Must be on a Linux file system”

Can someone one help me. What is the correct partition procedure to get the Fedora to install with VFAT file system.

Thanks for you help in advance.
Richard

Linux can read/write from/to VFAT, but it can't run on top of it. What you could do is use a separate VFAT partition as a "transfer area" between Linux and Windows, but you will have to install Linux on its own filesystem (in your case, ext3).

Thank you bluser for the information, now I see why that th VFAT did not install. I will make an new additional partition?

Is this the way it should be listed in the partition table screen?
/dev/hdb4 VFAT size mb.........start...........end..........

Thank you again

Since your XP is already using FAT32 (this is odd, I thought XP filesystem was NTFS or something similar), IMHO you shoudln't need yet another VFAT partition only for file transfers between Linux and Windows, you could use a directory on the existing XP partition instead.

But, if you do decide to go for a separate VFAT partition then, yes, you should see that sort of information on your screen. Beware, though: Linux installer will make room for the partition, but I am not sure it will format it, you might need to do it either from Windows or using mkfs.vfat ('man mkfs').

(WARNING: if you're not too familiar with Linux yet, be extremely careful with mkfs or you might screw your existing installations. Don't say you haven't been warned, and don't blame me if you screw up )

FYI my setup here is: a NTFS partition with Win2k (which Linux can access in read-only mode), another one with VFAT used by both as "auxiliar storage" and an ext3 partition with Linux.