OK to have FAT32 boot drive with NTFS second HD?

[JClark]

Hello Group:

I installed a second hard drive on my friend's WinXP computer and from
habit formatted the new drive as NTFS. Later I find that the boot
drive is formatted with the FAT32 file system. These drives are not in
a RAID array. I'm just using the second HD to back up data files etc.

Is there a problem keeping different file systems for the two drives?
Would there be any problem copying files back from the NTFS drive to
the FAT32 volume?

Why did the original builder of the system format the 80G drive for
the FAT32 file system?

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

Jack

 

[Ken Blake]

In

I installed a second hard drive on my friend's WinXP computer
and from
habit formatted the new drive as NTFS. Later I find that the
boot
drive is formatted with the FAT32 file system. These drives are
not in
a RAID array. I'm just using the second HD to back up data
files etc.

Is there a problem keeping different file systems for the two
drives?

None at all.

Would there be any problem copying files back from the NTFS
drive to
the FAT32 volume?

None at all. Windows XP can handle any and all combinations of
NTFS, FAT32, FAT16, and FAT12, regardless of what file system it
itself is installed on.

Realize, for example, that when you use a floppy disk with an
NTFS hard drive, you're essentially doing just that--copying
files back and forth between your NTFS drive and a FAT one (in
the case of a floppy, it's FAT12).

You *might* want to convert the drive to NTFS (see
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.htm), and take advantage of
NTFS's improvements, but that's entirely up to you. THere's no
requirement to do so.

Why did the original builder of the system format the 80G drive
for
the FAT32 file system?

Sorry, you'll have to ask him that. I have no idea.

 

[Vagabond Software]

Hello Group:

I installed a second hard drive on my friend's WinXP computer and from
habit formatted the new drive as NTFS. Later I find that the boot
drive is formatted with the FAT32 file system. These drives are not in
a RAID array. I'm just using the second HD to back up data files etc.

Is there a problem keeping different file systems for the two drives?
Would there be any problem copying files back from the NTFS drive to
the FAT32 volume?

Why did the original builder of the system format the 80G drive for
the FAT32 file system?

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

Jack

There may have been some wierd compatibility issue, or perhaps this was an upgrade from a Windows 9X. I cannot answer that. What I can suggest is that you convert the FAT32 volume to an NTFS volume.

Use the 'convert' command to convert the drive in-place. Of course, this advice comes with all the disclaimers about backing up data before the conversion and not calling me when you suffer a complete catastrophic system meltdown., but I have never seen a conversion go badly and have probably performed more than twenty myself.

carl

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hello Group:

I installed a second hard drive on my friend's WinXP computer and from
habit formatted the new drive as NTFS. Later I find that the boot
drive is formatted with the FAT32 file system. These drives are not in
a RAID array. I'm just using the second HD to back up data files etc.

Is there a problem keeping different file systems for the two drives?
Would there be any problem copying files back from the NTFS drive to
the FAT32 volume?

No, there'll be no problem. WinXP can read FAT12 (the file system
used on 3.5" diskettes), FAT16, FAT32, CDFS (the file system used on
most CDs), and NTFS with equal facility. Further, the file system on
any one disk/partition or diskette has absolutely no affect upon the
operating system's ability to read other compatible file systems on
other disks/partitions.

Why did the original builder of the system format the 80G drive for
the FAT32 file system?

That, you'd have to ask him. Perhaps he had no need for NTFS's
security features, wasn't interested in greater stability or
fault-tolerance, and didn't mind unnecessarily wasting hard drive space.
Or perhaps he was expecting to have to access the drive from within a
computer running Win9x.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[Mike Kolitz]

Nope - shouldn't be any issues at all.

 

[JClark]

Many thanks to all for the replies!

Jack