Extl hard drive and new o/s

[almannon]

Just purchased a new system with Windows XP (NTFS). I am currently using
win98SE (FAT32) system with a Western Digital 80 gig external hard drive. I
assume that when the new system arrives the external drive will have to be
reformatted to the NTFS system. If I back up the files on the external drive
to the old win98 system, can I then copy the files back to the new NTFS
formated drive or do these files have to be converted?

 

[kony]

Just purchased a new system with Windows XP (NTFS). I am currently using
win98SE (FAT32) system with a Western Digital 80 gig external hard drive. I
assume that when the new system arrives the external drive will have to be
reformatted to the NTFS system.

No, it definitely does not need reformatted.
In fact you don't have to run NTFS for ANY drives, including
the OS. Frankly I wouldn't use NTFS for the external drive
since you do have the other Win98SE system still... and if
you didn't, and there was a problem getting WinXP running
again, it could be useful to have more versatility in access
to the drive with FAT32 outside of windows.

If I back up the files on the external drive
to the old win98 system, can I then copy the files back to the new NTFS
formated drive or do these files have to be converted?

it's not that the files have to be converted but rather that
win98 doesn't recognize NTFS. So you could copy the files
off onto (either system, wherever there is room to store
them) then use the new system to format the drive as NTFS,
then if files are on new system just copy them back to the
drive. If files are on old system, network the two to copy
them back.

I'd do neither of the above, rather leaving it as FAT32.

 

[Grinder]

Just purchased a new system with Windows XP (NTFS). I am currently using
win98SE (FAT32) system with a Western Digital 80 gig external hard drive. I
assume that when the new system arrives the external drive will have to be
reformatted to the NTFS system.

I don't think that's a good assumption.

If I back up the files on the external drive
to the old win98 system, can I then copy the files back to the new NTFS
formated drive or do these files have to be converted?

The file system format and a given file's format are independent -- the
files don't have to be converted.