Windows see resized FAT32 as RAW

I used gparted 0.24.0 parted 3.2 (on Arch Linux) to resize & move a FAT32 partition.

After rebooted to Windows 10, the partition was detected as RAW. chkdsk refuse to check the partition, multiple reboots has no effect.

On Arch Linux on the same machine though, the partition can be mounted and used just fine with no warnings.

Here's what fsck told me.

$ sudo fsck.vfat -fv /dev/sdb3
fsck.fat 3.0.28 (2015-05-16)
Checking we can access the last sector of the filesystem
Boot sector contents:
System ID "MSWIN4.1"
Media byte 0xf8 (hard disk)
       512 bytes per logical sector
     32768 bytes per cluster
       100 reserved sectors
First FAT starts at byte 51200 (sector 100)
         2 FATs, 32 bit entries
  51361792 bytes per FAT (= 100316 sectors)
Root directory start at cluster 3219 (arbitrary size)
Data area starts at byte 102774784 (sector 200732)
  12838879 data clusters (420704387072 bytes)
63 sectors/track, 255 heads
1131634688 hidden sectors
 821889024 sectors total
Reclaiming unconnected clusters.
Checking free cluster summary.
/dev/sdb3: 38517 files, 3787046/12838879 clusters

I tried using gparted to check the filesystem, but it has no effect.

Is there any way I could make Windows detect it correctly? Moving data and formatting seems to be out of question, as I don't have another disk to backup the data inside.

Solution 1:

Gparted & Windows handle partition data differently. What passes in Linux as valid sometimes doesn't in Windows. It's frustrating. You should be able to modify the RAW partition using TestDisk such that Windows once again sees it as FAT32. Extra details are provided step-by-step here.

Relevant excerpts:

• Select the disk type (Intel or EFI GPT depending on size)
• Select Analyze
• Select Quick search
• Answer questions for how original partition was created
• After Quick search completes, look at the reported partitions found and list the files inside each by pressing p
• If your files are not shown as expected, repeat above with deep search
• Select q and then write to repair the partition. Confirm dialogues as necessary
• Reboot.

But, first, since you still have access to the data via Linux, consider backing up your sensitive data before repairing the partition file just in case something goes wrong.