Root displays vfat partition directories <= 8 chars

After reading some of these postings I've managed to get my win98
partition mounted when I boot. However, when I log in as root the
directory names are altered to display at most 8 chars. When I log in
as a user even the directories are displayed with the appropriate long
names. Can I fix this or is this how it should be for some reason?

What  I did to mount win98 partition onto "/MP3":
    1.    I logged in as root.
    2.    I edited "/etc/fstab" by inserting the line "/dev/hdd1
/mnt/MP3    vfat    defaults"
    3.    Reboot

Thanks,
Mark