Converting only one drive?

[Guest]

I have two small Hard drives in my computer. I would like to know if I can
convert one Hd "C" to NTFS from Fat 32 and leave the other HD "D" with Fat
32, as it is only a 8G. I am trying to avoid screwing my computer again but
I would like to be able to use the feature of "Sharring Folder"

I ask this question as I would like to use the function of "Sharring
Folders" but understand that it is only available with NTFS and not Fat 32.

I have had so many problems with my computer "something I made" with WinXP
Home Editon up-grade. having to repeatedly reformat the HD and I have learned
"Concluded" that doing so is the reason "Eula Aggreements" as it thinks the
program OS is on a new computer but it is the very same one that I keep
re-formating and re-installing. Thanks for your patience and understanding

 

[DL]

Are you sure you have two physical hard drives and that your 8gb drive is
not in fact a partition of your single drive?
What is shown in Disk Management?; Control Panel>Administrative
Tools>Computer Management

Often the smaller partition is a recovery partition

You mention upgrade, from what? and did your origonal have this 8gb 'drive'?

 

[Guest]

I am sure DL, As I am the individual who installed it, a Fujitsu 7.85 Gb
which I had layiing around here. It is drive "D" The other , physical HD is
a Maxtor 37.2 Gb which is drive "C" The later was the original which was in
the second hand computer when I purchased it. When I purhased the computer,
it also had WinXP Professional installed on it which I did register to myself
when I got it home. As well as installing my own various purchased programs;
MS Office "Teacher & Student Edition 2003. Math Sucess, TaxWiz, and others.
Oh, I also replace the Video Card, a 64 MB NVIDIA to a Radeon 256MB card. and
added a PCI 56k telephone modem card. it had a Network card already
installed to.
Oh, It also had a 500MB ZIP drive installed which was not hooked up. I did
hook it up to see if it worked and then Windows asked me if I wanted to
Register it too but i declined and unhooked it.
It also has a Toshiba CD/DVD installed as well as a 1.44 floppy. Later,I
puchased and installed a DVD/CD RW CD rom device. I also added more Ram.
I am the individual doing all the work.

That is when the problems started, following the upgrades and installing my
programs. Oh, when I also got DSL High Speed Internet access.

So, I formated the HD and purchased a new Windows XP Professional CD which I
registered also. My daughter and my mother also use my computer and I once
agian started having problems with the operation of the computer so I again
Formatted the HD and since that is when I installed the Fujitsu HD just so I
had a drive to store the Image Files when making DVD's or CD's with the new
Burner that I metioned above that I had installed.

Oh, I then purchased the WinXP Home Edition Upgrade which is now my OS I
probably Re-formated the HD then too. All of the programs are purchased and
register to me but it is the one and only computer that I am using and
installing the programs on.

I now conclude that all of th eproblems must be from "Eula Agreements" as
they must think that the programs are on numerous machines but they are
wrong, as it is the very same computer. Just that I am a do-it-your-selfer
who is trying to learn.

Now, I use the computer to communicate with people in different locations
and it would be nice tobe able to use the "Sharring Folders" feature as I
have a Filing Cabinet of information which I would like for my friend to
access / Read

I do not wish to screw things up again so I am afraid to just Convert drive
"C" I am sure that I read somewhere that WinXP will not operate on system
that has both FAT32 & NTFS

Oh, I fogot to mention that I now purchased Norton Internet Security and
installed it as before I puchased Windows Live One Care and had numerous
problems with my computer so I again re-formatted the HD and re-installed
all of my programs again. That is when I finally concluded that when I
re-register, after installing the programs again, that it must be the "Eula
Agreements" thinking I am installing on numerous computers. I had to explain
it to Microsoft Support last time because the computer would not operate
after the last reformat, they had to give me a new "real Long" Key number

Any how, I hope your laughing at my stupidity and I do hope you that you can
give me advice and direction about whether or not I can Convert the "C" drive
and leave the other physical HD "D" FAT32 alone with-out causing my system
to mess-up again and not work because of the two different File systems on
one computer.

Thanks again for your patience and your advice & knowledge, Respectfully RBB

 

[DL]

Ok I think I get it;
1) You can convert FAT to NTFS without usually a problem, but as always a
data backup is wise.
see win help for conversion syntax
Its immaterial as to whether your second HD is, or remains, FAT.

2) When you installed win did you install the drivers for your motherboard
chipset & other devices from the manufacturers sites and NOT winupdate?
using win default drivers can cause problems.
If you didn't you need to do this. - Do NOT use winupdate for device
drivers.

Norton causes problems for many people; WinLiveOne has not, in the past,
done very well in comparison tests.

 

[Gerry]

http://aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.htm

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[peter]

No offense..but it seems that whenever you run into problems you just format
and reinstall.
There are other options......Windows Live One Care could have been
uninstalled without a format.
XP also has a Repair option...where it reinstalls without a format and you
do not lose your settings.
Then there is the Recovery Console...where you are placed in a command
environment and with DOS like commands can repair certain aspects of the OS.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

peter

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have two small Hard drives in my computer. I would like to know if I can
convert one Hd "C" to NTFS from Fat 32 and leave the other HD "D" with Fat
32,

Yes, Windows XP can use any and all combinations of FAT32, FAT16, and
FAT12, as well as NTFS. That means you can have multiple internal
drives as well as external ones with different file systems. It even
means you can have multiple partitions on a single physical drive with
different file systems.

To convert to NTFS, you use the CONVERT command. But first read
http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfscvt.htm because there's an issue regarding
cluster size that isn't obvious.

Also note that conversion is a big step, affecting everything on your
drive. When you take such a big step, no matter how unlikely, it is
always possible that something could go wrong. For that reason, it's
prudent to make sure you have a backup of anything you can't afford to
lose before beginning.

as it is only a 8G.

I don't see that that's particularly relevant, but it's your choice.

I am trying to avoid screwing my computer again but
I would like to be able to use the feature of "Sharring Folder"

I ask this question as I would like to use the function of "Sharring
Folders" but understand that it is only available with NTFS and not Fat 32.

No, you can share folders with either file system.

I have had so many problems with my computer "something I made" with WinXP
Home Editon up-grade. having to repeatedly reformat the HD and I have learned
"Concluded" that doing so is the reason "Eula Aggreements" as it thinks the
program OS is on a new computer but it is the very same one that I keep
re-formating and re-installing. Thanks for your patience and understanding

I doubt very much that you *had to* repeatedly reformat and reinstall.
It's hardly ever necessary, and there are almost always easier and
less draconian solutions to problems you may experience.

One of the many things wrong with reformatting and reinstalling is
that you never find out what the problem was and therefore are very
likely to quickly repeat the behavior that caused it, putting you
right back in the same situation. If you say you've done this
repeatedly, it sounds very much like that that's exactly what has
happened in your case.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Are you sure you have two physical hard drives and that your 8gb drive is
not in fact a partition of your single drive?

It doesn't matter. You *can* have different file systems on different
partitions on the same physical drive.