[Fineus]

Hey all, another tech question.

I'll shortly be heading to Windows XP but I've a problem with hard drive space - my primary hard drive (40GB) is fine and can be formatted without a problem but the secondary (80GB) is almost full and has more data on it than the primary can hold all together. Is it possible to switch from FAT32 to NTFS without formatting a drive, or do I have to start burning stupidly large amounts of CDs to keep from loosing the data I want to save?

[J.F.K.]

Originally posted by Kalfireth
Hey all, another tech question.

I'll shortly be heading to Windows XP but I've a problem with hard drive space - my primary hard drive (40GB) is fine and can be formatted without a problem but the secondary (80GB) is almost full and has more data on it than the primary can hold all together. Is it possible to switch from FAT32 to NTFS without formatting a drive, or do I have to start burning stupidly large amounts of CDs to keep from loosing the data I want to save?

AFAIK, you need to format to convert from any file system to any file system. That said, I really don't think it's worth it to change to NTFS for a home PC if it'll cost you that much trouble. Unless you had a specific reason for it...

[FreeTerran]

Originally posted by J.F.K.
AFAIK, you need to format to convert from any file system to any file system.

NO i have win xp pro and have the drives convert to NTFS without any lost of files.

[kode]

If you're going with XP, convert to NTFS.

[kode]

Originally posted by Free Terran


NO i have win xp pro and have the drives convertet to NTFS without any lost of files.

true dat.

[J.F.K.]

Maybe I had too much data on my drives or something, but XP's setup told me to format if I wanted to convert. I turned it down...

[kode]

Originally posted by J.F.K.
Maybe I had too much data on my drives or something, but XP's setup told me to format if I wanted to convert. I turned it down...

yes, you can't have too much on it if you're to convert.

[FreeTerran]

Hmm......
I have two 120 gig drives and 30 gig are files and that have i convert.

[Fineus]

Good to know that I can do that, hopefully it won't bleat about it - if it does I can just network mine with a mates computer who should have a spare bit of space left and do it that way - cheers guys!

[Hudzy]

Originally posted by kode
If you're going with XP, convert to NTFS.

Why is that? (I'm stupid )

[IceFire]

Originally posted by Hudzy


Why is that? (I'm stupid )

Because NTFS is supposedly better...

I switched...I don't notice a performance drop or increase really.  But I do notice that the blasted scanning your hard drive for files when you're system shuts down improperly is gone (I guess NTFS is more secure that way) and its got way more security settings and is in general better when you're doing networking.

[Martinus]

[color=66ff00]Win2k has an install option that allows you to convert a fat32 partition to NTFS without any loss of data. i'm sure XP has the same feature.

The only thing I can currently criticise about NTFS is that you can't access it from DOS or a fat32 based windows OS.
[/color]

[Admiral LSD]

You can convert FAT32 drives to NTFS (but not the other way around, you'll need a program like Partition Magic, or better yet, FORMAT.COM fot that) by opening up a Command Prompt (as a user with Administrator Priveliges) and typing:

Code: [Select]

convert /fs:ntfs x:\

where x is the letter of the drive you want to convert.

[kode]

Originally posted by Maeglamor
[color=66ff00]
The only thing I can currently criticise about NTFS is that you can't access it from DOS or a fat32 based windows OS.
[/color]

there are ways to access them as in read from then, but not write to them. but if you're going to need to access stuff from other OS's, you could always make a partition and have fat32 or something on that one.

oh, and I love that new title we gets. Bakha means stupid, if I remember correctly.

[deep_eyes]

you can convery from FAT32 to NTFS, but sometimes files get lost in the process.

if u have enough room on your first HD, transfer everything over to the primary and convert the secondary. if u cant then u might be stuck with the fat32 drive for awhile...

[Martinus]

Originally posted by kode


there are ways to access them as in read from then, but not write to them. but if you're going to need to access stuff from other OS's, you could always make a partition and have fat32 or something on that one.

oh, and I love that new title we gets. Bakha means stupid, if I remember correctly.

[color=66ff00]Yeah I'm aware of that proggie that allows you to read NTFS partitions. Unfortunately as you say it only reads and as such it's not all that useful.
[/color]

[Nico]

...
Don't convert to NTFS unless you need to. It ain't better for anything, it just has that security crap that won't work. But you'll need it for HD bigger than 40gb.
That's it.

[Vertigo1]

When you get to the point where you pick a partition in WinXP Setup, you're given the following options:

Format NTFS
Convert to NTFS
Format FAT
Leave it as-is.

I highly recommend trying to convert first.  If the drive is too full, then back the data up on another drive and give it a clean sweep.

Just so you know: If your drive is hooked upto an ATA100/ATA133 controller on a PCI card, or on a controller like on the Asus A7V (4 IDE ports instead of the normal 2), then I highly recommend that you hook the drive up to an ATA66/33 controller on the board instead.  If your motherboard only has two IDE interfaces, then you won't have to worry about this.  Basically, the reason I say this is that sometimes Win2k or XP setup can go nutty (ie: refuse to detect critical dll files when it detects your devices, or flat out refused to recognize your hard drive).  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  This is just a problem I noticed when installing both 2k and XP on my A7V, because of the way the ATA100 controller is wired up.   The Linux-Mandrake installer has this same problem.  Like I said, if your board only has two then don't worry about moving cables.

The reason why I recommend that you go for NTFS is because its far more reliable, far more secure, and it will increase the overall performance of the OS.  Like Icefire said, once you go NTFS, you'll never have to see that blue chkdisk screen ever again.  (This is due to the journaling feature of the file system.)

You CAN leave it FAT32 and convert later if you want if you're not sure about it mucking up your data.

[Stryke 9]

Aww, can't we go back to the "XP sucks/rules" flamefest?

[Vertigo1]

Originally posted by Stryke 9
Aww, can't we go back to the "XP sucks/rules" flamefest?

Nah, I'm still getting skingrafts from all the scorch marks I've got.