changing FAT32 to NTFS

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i've win xp installed in FAT32 file system on my home PC which i use mainly
for internet, Office applications and games. will it be worthwhile to change
over to NTFS; if so, how's it to be done. i want to avoid formatting my hard
drive for that. thanks. arvind
 
arvind said:
i've win xp installed in FAT32 file system on my home PC which i use mainly
for internet, Office applications and games. will it be worthwhile to change
over to NTFS; if so, how's it to be done. i want to avoid formatting my hard
drive for that. thanks. arvind
Click to expand...


Personally, I wouldn't even consider using FAT32 when NTFS is an
option. FAT32 has no security capabilities, no compression
capabilities, no fault tolerance, so support for files larger than 4 Gb
(videos, anyone?), and a lot of wasted hard drive space on volumes
larger than 8 Gb in size. (Just try finding a hard drive that small,
nowadays.) But your computing needs may vary, and there is no hard and
fast answer.

To answer your questions without getting too technical is
difficult, but has been handled quite well by the late Alex Nichol in
the article here:

FAT & NTFS File Systems in Windows XP
http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfs.htm

Somewhat more technical information is here:

Limitations of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=kb;en-us;Q314463

Choosing Between File Systems
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr...prodtechnol/winntas/tips/techrep/filesyst.asp

NTFS file system
http://www.digit-life.com/articles/ntfs/

You can safely convert your current hard drive to NTFS whenever
desired, without having to format the partition and reinstall
everything. As always when performing any serious changes, back up any
important data before proceeding, just in case. A little advance
preparation is also strongly recommended, so you can avoid any
performance hits caused by the default cluster size:

Converting FAT32 to NTFS in Windows
http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfscvt.htm


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell
 
XP comes with a utility called convert that can do this (convert a FAT32
partition to NTFS). I'm not sold on the benefits of doing this unless
the partition is large (more than about 16 to 32 gigabytes) and/or you
need individual files larger than 4GB. It's true that NTFS has a lot of
added security features, but in a private residential environment I've
actually seen those cause more problems than they solve. Once you
convert, XP can't convert back although some 3rd party products
(Partition Magic among them) can. I've also been told that an NTFS
partition converted from FAT32 is less efficient than one formatted as
NTFS to begin with, due to fragmentation of the master file table that
the conversion process usually can't deal with.
 
I've done this with no problems using Partition Magic.

Although, I have no idea what is "more efficient" and this
"fragmentation" error is quite a possibility.
 
arvind said:
i've win xp installed in FAT32 file system on my home PC which i use mainly
for internet, Office applications and games. will it be worthwhile to change
over to NTFS; if so, how's it to be done. i want to avoid formatting my hard
drive for that. thanks. arvind
Click to expand...

Make sure you have a full and complete backup before doing the
conversion. Things can go wrong as a recent poster found out. After he
did the conversion, though I don't know how he did it, the system would
not boot. So always, always have a full backup and be prepared to
reinstall if things go wrong. Usually it works fine but things do happen.
 
Best to start afresh if possible- Don't forget that convert yields 512 byte
clusters- Not very inspiring as far as disk fragmentation is concerned (very
low wastage though :-) A clean format that will yield 4k clusters. Also,
anything more than 4k shouldn't be used if NTFS compression is to work with
the drive. 4k is the sweet spot.
 
PowerUser said:
Best to start afresh if possible- Don't forget that convert yields 512 byte
clusters- Not very inspiring as far as disk fragmentation is concerned (very
low wastage though :-) A clean format that will yield 4k clusters. Also,
anything more than 4k shouldn't be used if NTFS compression is to work with
the drive. 4k is the sweet spot.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily so. The conversion often works fine and there is a way
around the cluster issue. See this link.

http://aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.htm
 
PowerUser said:
Best to start afresh if possible-
Click to expand...


Not at all true.

Don't forget that convert yields
512 byte clusters-
Click to expand...


Uusally, not always.

Not very inspiring as far as disk fragmentation is
concerned
Click to expand...


The issue has litttle to do with fragmentation. It has to do primarily with
the samll clusters having an adverse effect on performance. However the
512-byte clusters *can* be avoided when doing a conversion. Reda here:
http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfscvt.htm
 
As with any low level disk modification such as this, there exists a small,
but significant chance of data loss and corruption. (Consider a power
outage) Which is also why I suggest a full backup of data and a clean
format in NTFS.

The workaround is fine but the only issue with that is that BING isn't the
easiest software for normal users, who can cause serious damage with one
wrong click.

My post served to provide information I thought relevant to the discussion-
Since invariably 512 byte clusters are what result with the convert command.
 
Ken Blake said:
Not at all true.




Uusally, not always.
Click to expand...

Yes, but I haven't come across a time when it yields 4KB clusters yet.
The issue has litttle to do with fragmentation. It has to do primarily
with the samll clusters having an adverse effect on performance. However
the 512-byte clusters *can* be avoided when doing a conversion. Reda here:
http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfscvt.htm
Click to expand...

The way I see it is that the smaller the cluster size, the more fragments of
a file. Which means they could be far more widespread 'scattering' of file
fragments as the disk gets fragmented. Maybe we need another opinion?
As for the rest please refer to my reply to Rock. Thanks.
 
PowerUser said:
As with any low level disk modification such as this, there exists a small,
but significant chance of data loss and corruption. (Consider a power
outage) Which is also why I suggest a full backup of data and a clean
format in NTFS.

The workaround is fine but the only issue with that is that BING isn't the
easiest software for normal users, who can cause serious damage with one
wrong click.

My post served to provide information I thought relevant to the discussion-
Since invariably 512 byte clusters are what result with the convert command.
Click to expand...

It's your the statement that it's best to start afresh that I disagree
with. The conversation often works fine. There is a work around to
deal with the cluster issue. A backup is always a must in these cases.
If it doesn't work then you are no worse off then you started, and can
then do it "afresh", but if it works then so much the better.
 
Rock said:
It's your the statement that it's best to start afresh that I disagree
with. The conversation often works fine.
Click to expand...


Agreed, although "often" seems a bit of an understatement. I'd say
"usually, based on my experience. In the ten years that NTFS has been
available with WinNT, Win2K and WinXP, I've only seen the conversion
from FAT (16 or 32) fail once.

There is a work around to
deal with the cluster issue.
Click to expand...

Which definitely saves a lot of time, compared to a full format and
re-installation of everything.

A backup is always a must in these cases.
Click to expand...


... Goes without saying.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell
 
Actually, it was more the cluster issue that I was trying to highlight,
rather than convert.exe failing. I didn't mention anything other than the
cluster issue in my first post. And, like I said earlier, that workaround
is not exactly the easiest thing for a novice to do.
 
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