You Can't Play The Witcher 2 On a Non-NTFS HDD

[Sprong]

Who the FUCK uses FAT32 anyway?!

You'd have to be using like... a pre-windows NT PC! Or something that couldn't actually play the Witcher 2!

Omfg. How did this even become a story?

A Joystiq reader contacted the site after he found his hard drive didn't work with the game: "My only hard drive with any storage space left on it is FAT32, and has resisted attempts to reformat.

The OP leads me to believe that the issue is with people installing TW2 on (possibly old) external drives which have FAT32 formatting, rather than trying to play it on a computer booting from FAT32. Still, if it's an external you'd think it could quite easily be reformatted to NTFS (assuming the user has space to back up all the existing data on it, and it isn't a Mac/PC swap-drive).

...and has resisted attempts to reformat...

Resisted? Really? Is this the passive Rosa Parks/won't give up the seat type of resist or are we talking something like guerrilla warfare/fly a paper airplane into your PC tower resist?

I too am curious as to the nature of this mysterious resistance ...

 

[Rad Party God]

Who uses Fat32 for formatting HDDs these days?, for an USB pendrive it's ok, but for an HDD?, not even my external HDD uses Fat32.

 

[Treblaine]

Am I the only one to read every post in the thread before contributing? Feel very deja vu times eighty!

the only tricky part is power and I guess also airflow.

Really, I thought the tricky part was matching Memory frequency to CPU multiplier to motherboard clock to allow them to run at a 1:1 ratio and therefore get the best performance out of them.

De ja vu? You should see my inbox! I've had like 25 people give me each almost the same response. First post question, bad mistake.

As to CPU multiplier and motherboard clock? Never even considered that and I've head great performance. Maybe I got lucky.

I just looked at all the performance benchmarks I could find, noted the specs of the benchmarks that gave the performance level I wanted, ordered the same components and fitted them all together. Voila!

I probably overkilled on PSU power just because I know if you overload the PSU you could KILL every component. Bricking is what worries me more than maximum performance.

 

[Sampler]

I know, I was being factitious

Computer systems are relatively easy to put together - but doing it properly is another kettle of fish and personally I like to think of myself as somewhat of an artist when I build - but then I've been building them for over a decade and couldn't say how many hundred I've put together, taken apart then put back together!

But go you - you've made a start!

 

[RA92]

When are companies going to stop trying to screw people over? List these damn things.

This is... screwing people over? Aren't you being a little dramatic? It was simply an over-sight.

Who's being dramatic? Have you ever bought a game and because of an 'oversight' you're stuck with a drink coaster for 6 months? Hell I have a few games that don't work on my pc because of 'oversights' which is me wasting money that a multimillion dollar company doesn't care about.

How's that applicable here? You're not being asked to buy new hardware or anything - just change your drive's file system to NTFS - which has been the default HDD format for the last decade. It's a minor inconvenience at worst. Bundling this with terribly optimized/ported games and calling it 'screwing people over' is overtly dramatic.

 

[AceAngel]

I thought that they pretty much took out FAT32 during installation procedure (save for USB portable HDD's) because the cons outweighed the benefits of having one since Win Vista and XP.

I'm more curios as to how people end up with FAT32 in the first place...

 

[Snotnarok]

When are companies going to stop trying to screw people over? List these damn things.

This is... screwing people over? Aren't you being a little dramatic? It was simply an over-sight.

Who's being dramatic? Have you ever bought a game and because of an 'oversight' you're stuck with a drink coaster for 6 months? Hell I have a few games that don't work on my pc because of 'oversights' which is me wasting money that a multimillion dollar company doesn't care about.

How's that applicable here? You're not being asked to buy new hardware or anything - just change your drive's file system to NTFS - which has been the default HDD format for the last decade. It's a minor inconvenience at worst. Bundling this with terribly optimized/ported games and calling it 'screwing people over' is overtly dramatic.

A oversight is you labeled run Q when it's shift. Never the less, it should be listed, and you saying this is overdramatic is your opinion. Because again, I have games I can't play because of 'over-dramatic oversights' that I cannot return because they're PC games. I fix peoples computers often and this kind of thing is what lands them at my house with their computer in their arms going "OMG I CANT PLAY HELP".

Edit: All I'm saying is, it'd be nice that while they're writing the marketing on the back they could just, you know include these small oversights on the back. Deal breaking? No, annoy? Certainly if you know people who look to you for every, single, problem.

 

[EGtodd09]

I have a 32GB flash drive that was FAT32 but I reformatted it to NTFS because its better. Seriously, who has FAT32 anymore? It can't hold 4GB files, that's crap.

 

[YawningAngel]

So what? It requires Windows XP, and XP uses NTFS. Everything after XP uses NTFS. This problem can't arise on a non-stupid install of a supported OS.

 

[Krion_Vark]

Why oh why would anyone in their right mind install a FAT32 partition? Why? OK, I read the thing about Mac's and the same is true for Linux, but why? Really?

Been thinking of doing that on my external so I can hook it into my Xbox or PS3 and watch Kamen Rider that I have on it. Yeah apparently THOSE don't read NFST yet.

I'd imagine they originally had the PS3 as FAT32 so it would be more compatible with the "Install Other OS" option that has now infamously been removed. As for 360, I have no clue as to why it isn't in an NTFS format.

So... why the hell do you have a video file that's bigger than 4GB, anyway? Especially one whose "special effects" are as bad as an old Japanese TV show, anyway? You really need it in a quality that high?

Finally, I was talking about Windows PC's. There's no real reason to have anything other than an NTFS file system on a Windows computer, at least not one that I can think of anyway.

I know and no the largest one I have is 3 gigs and thats a 2 hour movie so yeah.

But what is the point of having a file bigger than like a 2 or 2.5 gigs? what is this file that is 9 gigs is the world an open world that it renders EVERYTHING at once or is it just a needlessly large file.

If the PS3 can't read a movie file that is 3 gigs large then it's not a problem of file size, as the PS3's HDD is FAT32

BUT MY EXTERNAL IS NFTS. And THAT is the problem. Flash drives that aren't usually formatted or are formatted towards Fat32 because of their small size i can play the videos off of that onto my xbox or PS3 but not from my HD it says its there but will not show ANY files.

 

[zeonz]

A oversight is you labeled run Q when it's shift. Never the less, it should be listed, and you saying this is overdramatic is your opinion. Because again, I have games I can't play because of 'over-dramatic oversights' that I cannot return because they're PC games. I fix peoples computers often and this kind of thing is what lands them at my house with their computer in their arms going "OMG I CANT PLAY HELP".

Edit: All I'm saying is, it'd be nice that while they're writing the marketing on the back they could just, you know include these small oversights on the back. Deal breaking? No, annoy? Certainly if you know people who look to you for every, single, problem.

so in case you haven't read all of the before comments which clearly , obviousely and often explain the situation.

1) FAT32 is outdated, those that use it on purpose will understand the problem or be abel to google the answer easily.
2) so maybe it is an oversight, but they'd have to print out an impossible long list of oversights in order to ensure every posiblity is covered. or just keep it the way it is, giving a tiny, almost insignificant amount of players problems.
3) some things are just generaly assumed, this is 1 of those. if you buy an icecream and it doesen't say that you can get a brainfreeze from it, is it an oversight? yes, is it worth mentioning becaus either almost everyone knows, or has no serious consequences? no. same applies here.
4)A 9 gigabyte file doesen't handle mutch different for a computer then 9 gigabyte stored over 60000 files. the computer can read and load only that which it needs. it doesen't load 9 gig, it extracts the information from it. think of it like a big phonebook. the first letters of the name are albabethised so you know where to look. except your computer holds a list of where everything is stored within that 9 gigabyte file. Now you don't read an entire phonebook before you find the name your looking for, you simply skip to where it almost is, a computer reads where it exactly is. in fact, putting it in 1 big file has a whole front of other advantages for your PC, including it being faster!

 

[zeonz]

So what? It requires Windows XP, and XP uses NTFS. Everything after XP uses NTFS. This problem can't arise on a non-stupid install of a supported OS.

Windows XP can use both FAT32 and NTFS ( even a few others i believe ). however not all file security and storage options will work or be availabel.

nevertheless, ive never seen a normal ( assuming no dualbooth or specialised equipment and sutch ) with FAT32 since windows NT.

 

[Woodsey]

*Looks it up*

"NTFS (New Technology File System)[1] is the standard file system of Windows NT, including its later versions Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows 7."

Why the hell would anyone have a hard drive that's not been the favoured model for the past 10 years, and have it installed on a PC they're wanting to game on?

 

[Worgen]

I've built my own PC and I have no idea about this distinction.

How do I know if my drive is NTFS or FAT-32?!?!

Vista enough??

really it should be ntfs, theres no reason to use fat 32 anymore, anything past windows 98 has automatically formated for ntfs by default

ntfs is universally better then fat32

Most USB-sticks and SD-cards still use FAT32, but unless your PC is ancient NTFS is pretty common.
Anyway, this is probably a moot point for 99% of gamers.

ahh, good point, I forgot about that, maybe he was trying to run it from thumb drive

 

[uc.asc]

fat32 still exists?

This news brings up all sorts of questions. Will the game run under DOS? Is my Pentium Pro fast enough?

 

[Snotnarok]

1) FAT32 is outdated, those that use it on purpose will understand the problem or be abel to google the answer easily.

That's the hole of your argument right there, I have people who ask me how to connect controllers and system requirements for things. People don't google things, they go right to the people they know and then they ask them, or email the company.

But nevermind, I don't really care since A-not getting the game and B- I don't use FAT-32, I'm just waiting for an IM from a friend who somehow, for some reason, does.

 

[uc.asc]

linux

Minor point -- linux reads and writes NTFS out of the box these days. Has done for a couple of years now.