Re: New Acer Laptop FAT32?

Quaoar wrote:
|
| Fat32 has incrmentally faster access than NTFS, but NTFS is
| far more robust in terms of security and reliability. This link
| provides comparison information and suggests that NTFS
| should be selected for Win2k/XP unless there is a very good
| reason for selecting FAT32.
| http://www.theeldergeek.com/ntfs_or_fat32_file_system.htm
|
| Q
|
|


Paul -

To build on Quaoar's advice, you can convert from FAT32 to NTFS without
doing a reinstall. Click on Start | Run and type CMD and press Enter.
Then, in the CMD window, type the following command:

Convert x: /FS:NTFS

... where x: is the drive letter you wish to convert (such as C:)

See Microsoft Knowledge Base for much additional instruction:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/convertfat.mspx

One thing that Microsoft doesn't tell you in the above article is that the
resulting cluster size will be less than optimal (512 bytes, as opposed to
the usual recommendation of 4K). The only way to optimize cluster size
would be a clean install or use of a 3rd-party utility, such as Partition
Magic.

If you have only a restore set (or a hidden partition), it's unlikely that
you'll be able to choose NTFS as part of a restore (these restore CD's
generally give you only the option of restoring the computer to the state it
was in when it left the manufacturer). If your computer came with a regular
Windows CD (OEM, Full install or Upgrade), you will be able to choose NTFS
as part of a clean install.

If the second partition has only data areas (and this information is
unimportant to use .. or the partition contains nothing), you can use Disk
Management (right-click My Computer, select Manage then scroll down to
Storage and Disk Management). Within Disk Management, you can right-click
your data partition and select Format. This will permit you to select NTFS
and provide an optimal cluster size. You cannot do this with the primary
partition, where Windows resides (the Convert utility is your only
Microsoft-provided option here).

It is strongly recommended that you do a complete backup before performing
this operation, just in case something should go horribly wrong.

This is a one way conversion. Microsoft provides no way to convert back
from NTFS to FAT32. There are, however, 3rd-party utilities that can be
used to accomplish this.

Jef


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Want to start from scratch but problems when I reboot
    ... aware that NTFS partitions will not display as such when using FDisk. ... All partitions you create will be FAT or FAT32 ... and XP will install on such a partition. ... running Windows XP: NTFS, FAT, and FAT32. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment)
  • Re: Cant boot XP NTFS HDD cloned from FAT32 HDD
    ... usually does not offer to change the partition type. ... FAT32 was not offered probably because I clicked on XP as my OS. ... This is because disk ... is it possible that the partition you formatted as NTFS was ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
  • Re: hard drive bad?? FAT32 on Xp
    ... As for FAT32, ... with NTFS, since there are DOS drivers for NTFS and some LINUX distributions ... run form the XP CDROM to do this partition work. ... > On restarts, it runs error checking. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Cant boot XP NTFS HDD cloned from FAT32 HDD
    ... Usually cloning software preserves the partition type (FAT32 or NTFS). ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
  • Re: partition&page file
    ... large USB hard drives being commonly available. ... NTFS can be more secure and it has some additional ... need to get data off of the drive, or do some manual repairs to files, FAT32 ... the partition from another operating system, like 98, or LINUX. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)