Access exFAT partitions from Windows XP

Microsoft have created the exFAT filesystem to better support flash drives. It is a proprietary file system that was introduced with Vista SP1. More Info Filesystem Comparison

The exFAT/FAT64 filesystem is only supported for Windows Vista/2008/CE 6.0, and it is not possible by default to access exFAT partitions from other versions of Windows.

Microsoft have now released an official driver update for Windows XP, that allows one to access exFAT partitions. More Info MS KB955704

Unofficial way of installing exFAT support

Before Microsoft released the official update for Windows XP, then one had to apply a few hacks to make it possible to use the Vista exFAT file system driver on Windows XP (and maybe other versions of Windows):

  1. Download the exFAT File System Driver
  2. Copy exfat.sys and uexfat.dll into these directories:
    • %windir%\System32\Drivers
    • %windir%\System32
  3. Copy the Reg code, given below into Notepad and Save as exFAT.reg:

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\exfat]
    “Description”=”exFAT File System Driver”
    “DisplayName”=”exFAT File System Driver”
    “ErrorControl”=dword:00000001
    “Group”=”Boot File System”
    “Start”=dword:00000002
    “Type”=dword:00000002

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog\System\exfat]
    “EventMessageFile”=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,\
    00,6f,00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,\
    5c,00,49,00,6f,00,4c,00,6f,00,67,00,4d,00,73,00,67,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,\
    00,00,00
    “TypesSupported”=dword:00000007

  4. Double click the newly created reg-file exFAT.reg to activate the driver
  5. Restart the computer

Note make sure to create a system restore point before starting this procedure. It should be possible to use Last Known Good Configuration to restore the system if the operation goes bad.

Credits ItsMyWindows.com