Types of DOS that support FAT32
There are mainly three types of FAT drives: FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32. Some people used to think DOS only support FAT12 and FAT16 drives, not FAT32 drives. However, this is totally wrong. The fact is: only very old versions of DOS don't support FAT32 drives, while most newer versions of DOS support FAT32 as well as FAT12 and FAT16 drives. Below are lists of the typical types and versions of DOS that do or do not support FAT32 drives:
Part I: Typical types and versions of DOS that support FAT32 drives:
| MS-DOS 7.10 | This is the most useful and up-to-date version of DOS with FAT32 and LFN (Long File Names) support, and has the best compatibility and usability. It fully supports Win3.x/9x GUI running on top. |
| PC-DOS 7.10 | With FAT32 support, however only a boot disk is available, and has problems with some drives and programs. |
| DR-DOS 7.01.x WIP/7.05/8.0 | With FAT32 support, however only a boot disk and few files are available, and has less compatibility than MS-DOS 7.10. Also, DR-DOS 8.0 is not available for download. |
| ROM-DOS 7.10 | With FAT32 and LFN support, however has less compatibility than MS-DOS 7.10. And only DEMO version is available for download. |
| PTS-DOS 32 [7.10] | With FAT32 support, however only DEMO version is available for download, with very limited utilities and less compatibility. |
| FreeDOS Kernel 2035 [7.10] | The most promising open-source DOS with FAT32 support, however has many limitations and bugs for the time being. |
| RxDOS 6.2 | With FAT32 and LFN support, however very buggy and unstable, and not complete. |
| Real/32 DOS 7.94 | With FAT32 and multi-tasking support, however it's not for download at all, and has much less compatibility than MS-DOS 7.10. |
So, from the above table, we can know that MS-DOS 7.10 is the best DOS of all different types/versions of DOS in the world. You can install MS-DOS 7.10 from its own installer. MS-DOS 7.10 boot disks/CD and MS-DOS 7.10 Full Installation Set are available from:
Part II: Typical types and versions of DOS that do NOT support FAT32 drives:
| MS-DOS 6.22 | This is a classic yet very outdated and ancient version of MS-DOS. |
| PC-DOS 7.0/2000 | The old and classic PC-DOS 2000 is still used by some people. |
| DR-DOS 7.0/7.03 | No official versions of DR-DOS support FAT32 drives. |
| PTS-DOS 2000 | Not used by many people, and no FAT32 support. |
There is NOT any stable and usable separate FAT32 driver for these old versions of DOS (BTW: DRFAT32 is very unstable and unusable, and has no LFN support). Even if all drives are in FAT16 format, older versions of DOS will NOT be able to see or access larger hard disks, because these older DOSes don't know about LBA and Int13x calls at all. So, in order to support FAT32, LFN, large hard disks, and more useful stuff natively and stably, users should upgrade their DOS, from MS-DOS 6.22 to MS-DOS 7.10, for example. More information about MS-DOS 7.10 is available from:
Any questions, problems, or suggestions, please feel free to mail me!