Does Labview RT 8.5 impose a limit on FAT32 partition / hard disk size?

[reevem]

We will be using a PXI RT system (spec below) to collect, analyse and store a large amount of data (~30 to 40GB per experiment).

We don't want to keep the Windows host PXI attached and so the RT PXI must be able to store all the data from an experiment.

It would be desirable to keep data from all experiments on the H/D, so a capacity of ~300GB would be useful.

• Q: Is there a limit on the hard disk size imposed by the Labview RT 8.5 Operating System and if so what is it?

• An older post (~2005) suggests that the partitioning tool limited FAT32 partitions to 32GB. Thus the question I'm asking that if I created a large FAT32 partition with a third party tool could I install and run Labview RT 8.5?

• Q: Is there any other way of connecting a large capacity H/D to the RT System?  For example using H/D partitions, slave H/D. Other ideas?

Thanks,

Michael

• NI-1000B with NI-8176 embedded controller
  • PIII 1.266MHz
  • 128MB RAM
• Labview RT 8.5

[smercurio_fc]

The size limitation has nothing to do with the LabVIEW RT OS. FAT32 limits you to 32GB. This cannot be changed since it's a limitation of the file system format.

[reevem]

> The size limitation has nothing to do with the LabVIEW RT OS. FAT32 limits you to 32GB. This cannot be changed since it's a limitation of the file system format.

Thanks for reply.

I have, however, gained the impression from a number of web sites that there isn't a 32GB partition limit on FAT32 -- see [**] below -- but the limit is with the partitioning tool.  It looks like the partitioning tool that comes with RT has a 32GB limit (Is that correct?). Hence my question if you were able to create a large FAT32 partition could you install and run RT?

Regards,

Michael

[**] The following was copied from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#FAT32

Windows 2000 and Windows XP can read and write to FAT32 file systems of any size, but the format program included in Windows 2000 and higher can only create FAT32 file systems of 32 GiB or less. ... This limitation can be bypassed by using third-party formatting utilities.

[smercurio_fc]

You are correct about the issue being the limitation imposed by the Windows format program. I was responding from memory, and given that I haven't used FAT32 for over 10 years now, it's clearly faulty. Sorry for the confusion.

[Andrew McL · Accepted solution]

Hi Reevem,

I have done some research into this problem and I believe Real Time 8.5 will not have an issue with larger hard drives. You will however need to use a 3rd party format utlity as both our disk formatter and Microsoft's, will limit the size of partition to 32 GB.

It is also mentioned here that Real Time will not work with a Hard Disk that is larger than 128GB. I would therefore, recommend a smaller drive than 128GB.

I hope this helps,

Many thanks,