Converting from FAT32 to NTFS

[me]

I installed XP home on a 120 gig drive that I once used for 98se. I
reformatted it and installed XP home then converted to NTFS. Does XP save
anything from the FAT32? When I defrag I notice I have a very large green
"unmovable" block of data. Is this normal? Should I have formatted the
drive with XP instead of 98se to prevent this? Thank you.

 

[Harry Ohrn]

Alex Nichol has a page on NTFS here http://aumha.org/win5/a/ntfs.htm

Scot Finnie has info on NTFS here
http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/19.htm#filesys

 

[Ken Blake]

In

XP uses fat32 too, you can still convert all the rest
of the files now to NFTS now that you are running XP.

No, you can't convert *files* to NTFS, you can only convert
drives and partitions. He says that he converted the drive to
NTFS, so there's presumably nothing left over to convert.

but it is very hard to go back to Fat 32.

It can't be done at all with Windows, and requires the use of a
third-party program such as Partition Magic.

not all files
can be converted also

Again, conversion is not selective regarding files. It's drives
and partitions that are converted. If a drive or partition is
converted, *everything* on it is converted.




Formatting to NTFS rather than converting it is normally better
because it avoids a problem with small cluster size, which you
probably have after converting. For more information on this, go
to http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.htm

 

[Tim Slattery]

I installed XP home on a 120 gig drive that I once used for 98se. I
reformatted it and installed XP home then converted to NTFS. Does XP save
anything from the FAT32? When I defrag I notice I have a very large green
"unmovable" block of data. Is this normal? Should I have formatted the
drive with XP instead of 98se to prevent this? Thank you.

Not to worry, the unmovable data is legitimate. I'm not sure exactly
what it is, but the OS is, and that's what counts. Nothing is "saved"
from FAT32 except the contents of the files and directories. The way
they are stored on the disk is completely changed. NTFS is a *far*
better choice for your 120GB partition than FAT32.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I installed XP home on a 120 gig drive that I once used for 98se. I
reformatted it and installed XP home then converted to NTFS. Does XP save
anything from the FAT32? When I defrag I notice I have a very large green
"unmovable" block of data. Is this normal? Should I have formatted the
drive with XP instead of 98se to prevent this?

The large unmovable block is the MFT (Master File table) and related
'metadata'. It is the basic information in an NTFS system, and may also
include the actual data for small files.

Converting to NTFS is liable to land you up with 512 byte clusters - not
at all a good thing, especially on a really large drive. So I would
check the point. In a command prompt, run
CHKDSK /I /C C:
It will run in Read only mode (fine) and at the end tell you the
'allocation unit'. If this is not 4096 I would start over format the
disk again, from the XP setup as part of the install ; booting the XP
CD direct. Enter Setup, and after the license agreement take New
Install. When it asks you to confirm where, hit ESC; select and delete
the current partition and make a new RAW one to be formatted (as NTFS)
at the next stage

I would also make the base partition for the system fairly small - 16GB
would be plenty for the system and programs, and have a separate one for
data. Make that after - in XP Control Panel - Admin Tools - Computer
Management, select Disk Management and look lower right for the graphic
of the drive. R-click in Unallocated space and Create partition. Then
r-click My Documents and point it away to the second partition - you can
also do this with TweakUI ,Use TweakUI - one of the XP Powertoys from
(if you have installed XP SP1)
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp

If you have not installed SP1, the earlier version can be found at
http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe
at its My Computer - Special Folders, also pointing away My Pictures and
so on.

Additional advice. Once setup, before connecting to the net, go into
Network Connections and r-click the connection you will use. In
Advanced, check the Enable Firewall (you *may* have had the chance to do
this while setting up the connection, but make sure. If you don't, as
sure as anything you will be hit by the BLAST worm in the first minute,
even before you can get the patch for it. ANd make that patch, from
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;824146
a top priority