Multiple Hard Drives, various Partitions?

[bassplayer]

Hello All.

This is me first post. I have something probably controversial bu
important all the same to ask all of you.

I have Windows XP Professional, and besides my normal C drive which i
formatted in NTFS, I also have 2 other Hard Drives along with a DV
Burner installed.

Nevermind the "C" drive, MY QUESTION IS:

Should I format the other 2 separate Hard Drives in Fat32 or should
just keep everything NTFS on the pc?

The other 2 drives are currently formatted in Fat32, but only becaus
they came from a different pc and are used for storage of all of m
MP3's and Video files, and also storage of program files, backups o
other things. They both are Not just for backups, but more for storag
and are used constantly.

The current drives are small by todays standards, but I plan o
upgrading ALL of the hard drives to very generously sized ones soon
probably each of them being 80-200 Gigs, or whatevah.

Just wanted some opinions on what everyone might think is the best t
do with my configuration, which currently is:

Drive C: 40 Gig - NTFS - (Windows is Installed)
Drive D: 20 Gig - Fat32 - (Used for my MP3 Collection)
Drive F: 15 Gig - Fat32 - (Used for Videos and Backups/Storage, Misc
Etc.)

Additional PC Info:
*Intel P4, 2.4 GHz, 1 Gig of Memory
*Asus Motherboard, P4B533-E
*Asus Dvd Burner (Drive E)
*Windows XP Professional
*NVIDIA GeFORCE 4 Ti 4200 Video Card - 1 Regular Monitor (Primary), Bi
Screen TV as Secondary connected at the same time with a DS
Connection.

((((((THANKS FOR YOUR HELP AND OPINIONS EVERYONE))))))

Peace

 

[DL]

A user choice I believe
ntfs is supposedly more robust, efficient space wise, and has security
options
Winxp is designed for ntfs
fat32 'may' be easier to recover files in the case of a none booting sys.

 

[Richard In Va.]

Hello BassPlayer,

My opinion... for what it's worth....

Do the other two (2) drives still contain the files that you plan to keep?
If they do, then maybe leave the drives FAT32. When you get around to
buying/installing new (bigger) drives, then format those NTFS before
transferring your stuff.

If the drives are currently empty, you might consider removing (deleting)
the partitions on them now, applying a new partition (even if they will be
identical) and then formatting NTFS.

Sounds like these drives have been around for awhile, A fresh
partition/format might be good for them. But I probably would not go
through the trouble if your going to by new drives soon anyway.

Now on the other hand, If you have an easy way to copy your files to a
offline storage media (DVD) and want the experience working on your
drives... go for it. If the two (2) drives are less than half full, maybe
you can move files from one drive to the other and partition/format them one
at a time. (You probably have some room on C:\ for temp storage too! ).

A fresh partition/format might help locate and isolate bad or unusable areas
on those older disks.
(Maybe someone could add to this thought)

Best regards,

Richard In Va.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

[Anna]

Hello BassPlayer,

My opinion... for what it's worth....

Do the other two (2) drives still contain the files that you plan to keep?
If they do, then maybe leave the drives FAT32. When you get around to
buying/installing new (bigger) drives, then format those NTFS before
transferring your stuff.

If the drives are currently empty, you might consider removing (deleting)
the partitions on them now, applying a new partition (even if they will be
identical) and then formatting NTFS.

Sounds like these drives have been around for awhile, A fresh
partition/format might be good for them. But I probably would not go
through the trouble if your going to by new drives soon anyway.

Now on the other hand, If you have an easy way to copy your files to a
offline storage media (DVD) and want the experience working on your
drives... go for it. If the two (2) drives are less than half full, maybe
you can move files from one drive to the other and partition/format them
one at a time. (You probably have some room on C:\ for temp storage
too! ).

A fresh partition/format might help locate and isolate bad or unusable
areas on those older disks.
(Maybe someone could add to this thought)

Best regards,

Richard In Va.

bassplayer:
I would tend to agree with Richard, at least with respect to his advice of
not converting your two secondary HDs to NTFS at this point. (I'm not sure
why he asks if the drives are currently empty and if so, to delete the
partition(s) and reformat them NTFS. You've indicated the drives are
currently being used for storage purposes for your audio-video files and
perhaps some backup use. Do I correctly understand you?)

Anyway, assuming those drives are being currently used for storage and some
backup, I really don't think there's any pressing need to convert their file
systems from FAT32 to NTFS. Under the current circumstances there really
would be no significant performance enhancement and really not much, if
anything (as a practical matter) to gain from such a conversion.

Later on when you obtain larger HDs, as you plan to do, then you can go
ahead and format those drives NTFS before transferring the files from your
current secondary HDs. All things considered, that would be desirable.

Just one more important thing - and take this seriously...

If you *do* decide, for one reason or another, to convert your current
secondary drives to NTFS -- *before* doing so copy whatever files are
important to you - whatever files you cannot afford to lose. Use CDs, DVDs,
whatever. But do this.

The conversion process nearly always goes without incident. It's a rare
situation where files will become corrupted during the process. BUT IT HAS
HAPPENED.
Anna

 

[JS]

Like Richard said I'd stay with Fat32 on the two (D: & F small drives for
now as there is nothing or very little to be gained by converting to NTFS at
this point.
Make the new larger drives NTFS and use the Utility software that come with
the new drive(s) to copy your file from the old to the new.

JS

 

[bassplayer]

Hey, that's great everyone. Thanks so much for the reply's. It will be a
little while before I obtain the newer, bigger drives and I have backups
of everything already to cd's as well as some on other smaller hard
drives.

The overall idea is for me to have multiple hard drives on one pc, and
even for now, changing or reformatting the drives is absolutley no
problem at all.

What I really need to know is, would it be better to have all of the
drives, besides the "C" drive of course formatted in the NTFS format,
and most of all, why?

Or, should I make 1 or even both of them Fat32, and again, why?

I am just trying to understand what would be better for overall system
performance as well as anything else you could think of. But again,
why???

Why would I want one, 2 or all of them NTFS, or even one, 2 or none of
them NTFS, or even just one Fat32, but again, ......... WHY ?????


Hate too sound so anal or cocky, that's not the idea, but I need to
understand why I WOULD want to mix formats, or keep them all of the
same. I want to do the best thing possible that would better relate to
using the system for ANY situation.

Thanks again everyone !!

 

[JS]

Boy did you just open up a can of worms, there was a post on the
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general group on May 17 that had over 30 posts on
this subject.

JS

 

[Richard In Va.]

Aaaa... Why? In other words... Where's the beef?

I suppose a quick answer based on one's opinion, knowledge and experience is
always easy. Even if somewhat limited.
Explaining why and being technically accurate is where the work comes in.

I have a fundamental understanding of the differences between the FAT, FAT32
and NTFS file systems. All of which might be enough to fill a nut-shell.
But I'm personally comfortable with what I do know to guide me in making
decisions for my own PC as well as the ones at work that I manage.

Therefore, allow me to point you in the direction of some good information
for you to read through and maybe be of help to you.

Goto... Start>Help and Support and do a search on "FAT32" and/or "NTFS".

You'll find a good article called "Choosing between NTFS, FAT, and FAT32".
This article shows a table of comparison for the different file systems. (A
good read, probably for all of us! )

Look within the results window, you'll find other articles that may be of
interest as well.
If your on-line when you do the search, you'll find additional search
results from the MS server.

You could also do a Google search... maybe starting with "file system" or
"FAT32" or "NTFS".
Multiple searches using different words and phrases will provide a variety
search results.

But just for the fun of it, I'm happy to share with you alittle more of
what's in my nut-shell...

FAT or FAT16: (same thing)
I won't go here except to say that it was the file system used by DOS and
maybe the earliest versions of Windows.
Has very limited constraints on file size as well as partition size.

FAT32:
Newer and alittle better than FAT16.
Used by (or native to) windows operating systems PRIOR to Windows NT or NT
based operating systems.
(Windows XP is NT based)
Extended capabilities so far as file and partition size.
4GB max file size.
32GB max partition size.
Alittle more efficient when it comes to how much data will fit per MB of
disk space.

NTFS:
Newer and more better than FAT32.
Native (default) file system used by Windows NT as well as Windows XP
operating systems.
Alittle more efficient when it comes to how much data will fit per MB of
disk space. (cluster size)
Attaches alittle more information to each file. Such as who owns the file
and who has the right or privilege to open/read and edit/save a file. Alot
of other stuff, such as file security and/or file sharing weather it be
between different (logon) users or between PC's on a corporate network.

The XP "System Restore" utility requires the NTFS file system to function as
intended.
Windows XP needs to be installed on a partition that is formatted NTFS.

Windows ME or Win98 or earlier versions can not read/write to a NTFS
partition.
(I don't think they will even see the partition)

Therefore, to elaborate on my opinion or advice.

Formatting the Partition where you install the XP operating system will
allow you to utilize ALL the benefits you gain by upgrading from Win98 to
WinXP. At least so far as file and system security and recovery. I'm not
even sure if XP will install on a FAT32 partition, maybe someone else can
input here.

For ALL the other partitions regardless of which physical hard drive their
on. The Windows XP operating system might like you more for using NTFS.
The file ownership, file security and file recovery will not work (at least
as intended) if NOT using NTFS. The XP "System Restore" feature (I don't
think) will even work for partitions that are not NTFS. When setting up or
configuring System Restore, you can use different settings and even disable
the feature for individual partitions. I have customized my settings to
enable System Restore for my OS Partition, Application Partition and
Documents Partition, all of which reside on my 1st HD and are formatted
NTFS. Out-of-the-box, XP will enable the feature for each drive as you
install them. All of my internal drives are NTFS, so I'm not sure how XP
auto configures system restore for a FAT32 drive that you add.

As for your (2) older and smaller drives in question. If your going to
format them anyway? Maybe format them NTFS for the reason that the NTFS file
format is "newer" therefore "better" than FAT32. XP might like you more.
And the files you store on them will benefit from the features that NTFS has
to offer. If the files you store on these (2) drives are mostly multi-media
and other personal files and there is a chance you might move the drive to a
PC running Win98, you had better stick with FAT32. Remember, Win98/ME can't
read/write to a NTFS partition. Better yet, if you later purchase a
external USB HD case to put one of these drive in and you'll want to carry
the USB drive to your Aunt's house to share some family pictures and her PC
is running Win98 or WinME, then you better stick with FAT32.

So far as mixing and matching partitions that are formatted FAT32 or NTFS on
your PC. I really don't think the XP operating system is going to get
excited and present you with problems if it finds partitions formatted using
different file systems. XP is designed to except a hard drive that was
pulled from a Win98 (FAT32) system. It's all in how you plan to use the
partitions and what your preference's are. Now I'm sure Big Bill would
rather you use NTFS on all your drives tho.

Yea... I know, more opinions and advice. And not much "beef". But maybe
you can develop your own reasons "why" after reading the "Choosing between
NTFS, FAT, and FAT32" article that I mentioned earlier.

Your question "why?" is a perfectly good and deserving question to ask. My
only problem is that my reasons why are only based on my opinion and that
nut-shell worth of knowledge I claim.

And you know what they say about opinions...

Hope this helps in some way...

Richard In Va.

PS: Knowing the reasons "why" can sometimes be more important than the
answer...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

[bassplayer]

Hey Rich, it did help very much. Thanks man. It gives me a better idea
of why to use it, and maybe for what reasons. Dats kinda what I'm
looking for.

I do actually a lot of pc work for multiple clients, so having
transportable Fat32 systems intact would be good since XP can read it,
as well as older systems.

My own pc, I think I will make the smaller less important, program-file
storage and less important drive in the fat32 and the other NTFS, unless
I can put even more HD's in one pc, but then again they are all IDE.

So maybe I will keep doing what I do now, keep another computer on all
the time on the network and use that for nothing but file storage. Hmm,
I dont know. Fat 32 since the other pc's are win98se. Don't have to
register each of them os's. Unlike chock-full-of-msspyware-xp. I paid
over $300 for a brand spankin new win xp pro cd, I did not know any
better, wanted to keep it legal anyway, but of course cant afford to
buy 7 separate cd's for all of my pc's on my network.

I know that XP will install on a Fat32 format, it just loses it's
security measures, a bunch of other things, and in my own exp., simply
crashes. It allows you to choose the format when your at the beginning
stage of doing a fresh install. But on a fat32 format it runs like
poopy.

Bull Gates is a spy and I think he, they know what we do on our pc's
all of the time.

And Christ, whats the deal with calling the PRODUCT-ACTIVATION people
everythime I have serious issues and must re-install windows xp???

Every single time these India Empoyees or where ever they are from cant
understand english, always give me the wrong numbers to enter, have very
thick accents and I cannot understand them (or oversit), or/AND they
give me a hard time about why I am re-installing it and ask way too
many questions.

I mean, damn, I paid a lot of money for thos OS, I expect no problems.
Ok, Ok, it's windows which equals problems, but please, not with the
Tech Support as well. !!!!!!!!!!!!!

*Boy, did I get off topic, Sorry, .... lol*


Anyway, It all helped very much, thankyou.

Peace out.

 

[Richard in Va.]

Your most welcome...!

Richard In Va.
++++++++++++++++++