Re: New thread, NTFC vs FAT 32

From: Sharon F (sharonfDEL_at_ETEmvps.org)
Date: 09/23/04 

Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 23:26:45 -0500

On Wed, 22 Sep 2004 15:16:33 -0700, Denzil Hathway wrote:

> I do thank Sharon for answering my questions about re-formatting a slave HDD
> under XP. There was one question unanswered though. Since the master HDD is
> structured for FAT 32 should I change it to NTFC? If so, how do I do it? ...
> and, by doing it, is there any danger to the programs and data already on
> that drive?
>
> I realize now that the drives do not have to match but since NTFC evidently
> came later than FAT 32 that there must be some advantage to it. Like what?
> Still anxious to learn, thanks, Denzil.

You can convert the master drive to NTFS is you'd like or leave it as is.
XP will work either way. To decide which file system you want to use, you
might want to open up XP's Help and Support and read about the different
formats a bit. Type NTFS into the search box and look in the results under
"Full-text Search Matches." Click on "Choosing between NTFS, FAT and
FAT32." The help topic discusses the pros and cons of each file system.

A drive that has data on it can be converted from FAT32 to NTFS. This is a
one way ticket as conversion from NTFS back to FAT32 is not possible using
the built-in XP disk tools. Existing data will be preserved but as with all
system changes, back up important files before converting just in case
something does happen to go wrong. Rare but possible.

Converting to NTFS tends to create rather small clusters for storage.
Formatting creates cluster sizes suitable for the partition size. There are
methods for getting the more optimal cluster sizes when converting. These
are discussed in the article cited before:
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/ntfs.htm 

-- 
Sharon F
MS-MVP ~ Windows XP Shell/User

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