Bundled XP insists on NTFS conversion--how to stop?

[Alan]

Greetings,

I just bought a new IBM which came bundled with XP Pro.
I have several systems on my LAN (incl. other XP) which
are all configured to use FAT32. On maiden boot of the
new machine, I get a message that the system is currently
configured FAT32 and that conversion to NTFS will take
several minutes. I am happy it is configured FAT32 and
do not wish the conversion to commence; however, after
several seconds the text "converting..." appears
onscreen.

After a lengthy (and frustrating call to IBM's support,
I was told that IBM had made a licensing agreement with
MS to bundle XP as NTFS only. This sounds odd to me. I
can't understand why MS should care if a user configures
the system FAT or NTFS. Nonetheless, I am at a loss of
how to preserve the FAT32 file system. Any suggestions
would be most welcome. [Note: I know NTFS has better
security, but I need to share files between this system
and my other *legacy* systems which use FAT32].

Thanks!

Alan

 

[David Jones]

There's nothing you can do if IBM has configured the
installation to do that.

However, you're under the (mistaken) impression that all
networked systems must use the same file system.

This is false. You can have any file system you want,
and they will all be able to share over the network. You
can use NTFS on the XP machine and share those files over
the network with (for example) Windows 98 machines.