Mixing FAT32 and NTFS file systems

[HM]

I am just about to add a 2nd Hard Drive (ATA-100) to my brother's PC.

He currently has a single 40Gb ATA-100 drive using FAT32 for its file
system.
His motherboard is an Asus A7v using the VIA KT133 (I think) chipset, and he
uses XP Home with Service pack 1a.

I intend to fit an 80 Gb ATA-100 drive but am unsure about whether or not I
can
set up the 2nd drive with NTFS. He will be using the drive for video
capture/editing
so it would be very useful to be able to exceed the 4Gb file size limitation
of FAT32.

Am I likely to run into any problems if I attempt to configure the drive in
this way?

Thanks,

Harry

 

[philo]

I am just about to add a 2nd Hard Drive (ATA-100) to my brother's PC.

He currently has a single 40Gb ATA-100 drive using FAT32 for its file
system.
His motherboard is an Asus A7v using the VIA KT133 (I think) chipset, and he
uses XP Home with Service pack 1a.

I intend to fit an 80 Gb ATA-100 drive but am unsure about whether or not I
can
set up the 2nd drive with NTFS. He will be using the drive for video
capture/editing
so it would be very useful to be able to exceed the 4Gb file size limitation
of FAT32.

Am I likely to run into any problems if I attempt to configure the drive in
this way?

Thanks,

Harry

You can set up the drive as NTFS. XP recognizes both file systems
NTFS is definately the way to go...
as you know it will support large files over 4gigs plus
have a smaller cluster size so less wasted space

 

[JT]

I am just about to add a 2nd Hard Drive (ATA-100) to my brother's PC.

He currently has a single 40Gb ATA-100 drive using FAT32 for its file
system.
His motherboard is an Asus A7v using the VIA KT133 (I think) chipset, and he
uses XP Home with Service pack 1a.

I intend to fit an 80 Gb ATA-100 drive but am unsure about whether or not I
can
set up the 2nd drive with NTFS. He will be using the drive for video
capture/editing
so it would be very useful to be able to exceed the 4Gb file size limitation
of FAT32.

Am I likely to run into any problems if I attempt to configure the drive in
this way?

Thanks,

Harry

Having the second drive as NTFS will not cause any problems. Why is his XP
system set up on FAT32 still anyway?

JT

 

[HM]

Having the second drive as NTFS will not cause any problems. Why is his XP
system set up on FAT32 still anyway?

JT

Thanks for the replies. I don't know why his original drive is on FAT32. It
may be
because it was originaly a Win 98 set-up. I may convert this from FAT32 to
NTFS.

Anyone experienced any problems doing this?

 

[JT]

Thanks for the replies. I don't know why his original drive is on FAT32. It
may be
because it was originaly a Win 98 set-up. I may convert this from FAT32 to
NTFS.

Anyone experienced any problems doing this?

Normally goes with no problems, but I would still back up any important
data before the conversion. Also make sure there is plenty of room on the
drive before conversion.

JT

 

[)-()-(]

You can set up the drive as NTFS. XP recognizes both file systems
NTFS is definately the way to go...
as you know it will support large files over 4gigs plus
have a smaller cluster size so less wasted space

I'd consider making the cluster size as large as possible for
video files.

 

[the gnome]

Thanks for the replies. I don't know why his original drive is on FAT32. It
may be
because it was originaly a Win 98 set-up. I may convert this from FAT32 to
NTFS.

Anyone experienced any problems doing this?

Personally I would leave the boot drive as FAT32 because if you have a
serious screw up there are more utility programs around that can get you
into a FAT32 disk to rescue data etc than there are for NTFS.

Or maybe that is because all my recovery stuff is from the Win98 era.

the_gnome

 

[philo]

Thanks for the replies. I don't know why his original drive is on FAT32. It
may be
because it was originaly a Win 98 set-up. I may convert this from FAT32 to
NTFS.

Anyone experienced any problems doing this?

I don't think it would be worth it really.

I have a mixed system here with some fat32 and some NTFS partitions
and have not run into any problems.

 

[Ralph Wade Phillips]

Howdy!

philo wrote:

I'd consider making the cluster size as large as possible for
video files.

No. Not with NTFS.

The 4K cluster comes about because that's the memory page size on an
Intel or AMD processor (both have a larger one, but they're not the same,
drats!)

NTFS also doesn't have that horrendously large FAT to look through
at the start of the drive, being as how the allocation table is threaded
through the drive.

So a 4K cluster doesn't hit you anywhere near as hard as it does on
FAT32 on a 80G drive.

(That, BTW, is why NTFS appears faster on certain files - that
threaded directory / allocation table. It's inherently SLOWER, but due to
the threading, it ends up being about the same or sometimes FASTER than
FAT32 ... )

RwP

 

[Ralph Wade Phillips]

Howdy!

Thanks for the replies. I don't know why his original drive is on FAT32. It
may be
because it was originaly a Win 98 set-up. I may convert this from FAT32 to
NTFS.

Before you do -

a) Backup ALL data on the drive.

b) Download BootItNG from http://www.bootitng.com and make the boot
disk.

c) Boot the BING diskette, do NOT install it, but DO move the FAT32
partition to "cylinder align" it. If it's not cylinder aligned, the
partition will convert to 512 byte allocation units - which ARE noticeably
slower than 4K units on a drive that size.

BING is 30USD shareware, with a 30 day free trial period. Does NOT
have to be "installed" to do the partition slide.

RwP

 

[Jay Cousins]

I don't think it would be worth it really.

I have a mixed system here with some fat32 and some NTFS partitions
and have not run into any problems.

The best thing to do is to first convert the HDD containing XP to
NTFS. Although XP can recognize both, you won't be able to move files
from one drive to another withoug losing encryption or other security
features that are offered by NTFS The next thing to do is to boot up
with second HDD as a slave and use disk manager to format it NTFS.

Why can you only use 4GB for a FAT32 partition? I have used 30GB
before with not problem. I know that the old FAT(16) partition can
only do 2GB. With manufacurer utilities you can format a 80GB hard
drive for FAT32.

-Jay

 

[JT]

The best thing to do is to first convert the HDD containing XP to
NTFS. Although XP can recognize both, you won't be able to move files
from one drive to another withoug losing encryption or other security
features that are offered by NTFS The next thing to do is to boot up
with second HDD as a slave and use disk manager to format it NTFS.

He has XP Home, where the security issues are pretty much not there
because of the security trade offs MS made in XP home (no encryption,
etc..)

Why can you only use 4GB for a FAT32 partition? I have used 30GB
before with not problem. I know that the old FAT(16) partition can
only do 2GB. With manufacurer utilities you can format a 80GB hard
drive for FAT32.

The 4GB is a FILE size limit, not a PARTITION size limit. FAT32 will not
allow a file over 4GB in size, no matter how big the partition might be.

-Jay

JT

 

[Curtis Newton]

The best thing to do is to first convert the HDD containing XP to
NTFS. Although XP can recognize both, you won't be able to move files
from one drive to another withoug losing encryption or other security
features that are offered by NTFS The next thing to do is to boot up
with second HDD as a slave and use disk manager to format it NTFS.

Why can you only use 4GB for a FAT32 partition? I have used 30GB
before with not problem. I know that the old FAT(16) partition can
only do 2GB. With manufacurer utilities you can format a 80GB hard
drive for FAT32.

-Jay

I think they were referring to the fact the maximum "file size is
4GB", not the partition information.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...oc/en/choosing_between_NTFS_FAT_and_FAT32.asp
-
--
Curtis Newton
(e-mail address removed)
http://surf.to/cnewton
<delete remove-me. to respond to email>
ICQ: 4899169

 

[zalzon]

Can someone tell me what is the difference/benefit of NTFS vs FAT32?

Also are you able to transfer files smoothly between the two formats
if they were on 2 different HDs?