fat-32/ntfs switch with dual hard drives

[Guest]

Hello , group!

My first question(s) may be a doozy. I have a home-built Athlon-based (non RAID) system running XP Pro. It has two 40 GB drives that are now formatted Fat-32, each partitioned identically with two partitions, one 10 GB "System" partition and a 2nd 30GB "Data" partition. I set the drives up this way when I was running ME and have kept the Fat-32 format (I recall reading that there may been some downsides to converting.) I have been manually "mirroring" these drives using Norton Ghost to keep a complete system backup in case drive 1 fails. It's worked well, though it is admittedly an antiquated way to go. Next system will have a RAID MB (and bigger disk drives.)

My problem is this. Now that I've upgraded to XP Pro, the 10GB system partition, which once seemed more than ample, is getting increasingly tight for space. I'd like to add at least another 5GB (swiped from the data partition.) My idea to fix this problem and convert to NTFS at the same time by re-formatting drive 2 in NTFS with a bigger main partition and then copying over the contents of drive 1's system partition (i.e., Windows and Programs.) Then I could repeat the NTFS reformatting process on drive one, clone it from drive 2 and be back in the saddle.

I know this is a naive and/or outmoded approach and no doubt there may be better way to go. There are two things I am most unsure of. One is whether I should convert drive 1 to NTFS before copying the contents over to the newly formatted drive 2. Closely related to this question is the additional question about what means I can use to copy the system and all my progam files from one (Fat-32) drive to another (NTFS.)

Any help or guidance would be most appreciated! 8^)

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Your task would become much easier if you were
to use Partition Magic 8. With it, you can resize
existing partitions and also easily convert from
FAT32 to NTFS.
http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| Hello , group!
|
| My first question(s) may be a doozy. I have a home-built Athlon-based (non RAID) system running XP Pro. It
has two 40 GB drives that are now formatted Fat-32, each partitioned identically with two partitions, one 10
GB "System" partition and a 2nd 30GB "Data" partition. I set the drives up this way when I was running ME and
have kept the Fat-32 format (I recall reading that there may been some downsides to converting.) I have been
manually "mirroring" these drives using Norton Ghost to keep a complete system backup in case drive 1 fails.
It's worked well, though it is admittedly an antiquated way to go. Next system will have a RAID MB (and
bigger disk drives.)
|
| My problem is this. Now that I've upgraded to XP Pro, the 10GB system partition, which once seemed more
than ample, is getting increasingly tight for space. I'd like to add at least another 5GB (swiped from the
data partition.) My idea to fix this problem and convert to NTFS at the same time by re-formatting drive 2 in
NTFS with a bigger main partition and then copying over the contents of drive 1's system partition (i.e.,
Windows and Programs.) Then I could repeat the NTFS reformatting process on drive one, clone it from drive 2
and be back in the saddle.
|
| I know this is a naive and/or outmoded approach and no doubt there may be better way to go. There are two
things I am most unsure of. One is whether I should convert drive 1 to NTFS before copying the contents over
to the newly formatted drive 2. Closely related to this question is the additional question about what means
I can use to copy the system and all my progam files from one (Fat-32) drive to another (NTFS.)
|
| Any help or guidance would be most appreciated! 8^)
|
| --
| Michelle

 

[Paul Bobrowski]

It sounds like you may have upgraded your WinME system to WinXP? If so the
approch I'd take is as follows.

Remove power and the IDE cable from one of the drives. This will make sure
you don't accidently lose any of your data.

Using a Windows 98/ME bootdisk, run fdisk and delete all of the partitions
on the hard drive.

Start Windows XP setup and install a fresh copy of they system onto your
hard drive. Be sure to partition only 15GB during the setup, also have the
system format it as NTFS.

Once setup is complete go into the disk manager and create a new NTFS data
partition out of the remaining space on your hard drive.

Now download all patches, and install all of the programs you want onto the
hard drive.

Finally, reconnect the hard drive you original disconnected and copy the
data from the data drive over, plus any data you want to keep from the
system drive.


This procedure will give you a clean install of XP without the bloat that is
left when upgrading from a previous verison. You'll also still have all of
your data safe in the disconnect hard drive incase anything goes wrong, you
can always just get back to where you started from with Ghost. And best of
all, while it can take a little more time it's free unlike buying parition
magic, and your system will be leaner.

Hello , group!

My first question(s) may be a doozy. I have a home-built Athlon-based

(non RAID) system running XP Pro. It has two 40 GB drives that are now
formatted Fat-32, each partitioned identically with two partitions, one 10
GB "System" partition and a 2nd 30GB "Data" partition. I set the drives up
this way when I was running ME and have kept the Fat-32 format (I recall
reading that there may been some downsides to converting.) I have been
manually "mirroring" these drives using Norton Ghost to keep a complete
system backup in case drive 1 fails. It's worked well, though it is
admittedly an antiquated way to go. Next system will have a RAID MB (and
bigger disk drives.)

My problem is this. Now that I've upgraded to XP Pro, the 10GB system

partition, which once seemed more than ample, is getting increasingly tight
for space. I'd like to add at least another 5GB (swiped from the data
partition.) My idea to fix this problem and convert to NTFS at the same
time by re-formatting drive 2 in NTFS with a bigger main partition and then
copying over the contents of drive 1's system partition (i.e., Windows and
Programs.) Then I could repeat the NTFS reformatting process on drive one,
clone it from drive 2 and be back in the saddle.

I know this is a naive and/or outmoded approach and no doubt there may be

better way to go. There are two things I am most unsure of. One is whether
I should convert drive 1 to NTFS before copying the contents over to the
newly formatted drive 2. Closely related to this question is the additional
question about what means I can use to copy the system and all my progam
files from one (Fat-32) drive to another (NTFS.)

 

[guzarva]

Your task would become much easier if you were
to use Partition Magic 8. With it, you can resize
existing partitions and also easily convert from
FAT32 to NTFS.
http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| Hello , group!
|
| My first question(s) may be a doozy. I have a home-built Athlon-based (non RAID) system running XP Pro. It
has two 40 GB drives that are now formatted Fat-32, each partitioned identically with two partitions, one 10
GB "System" partition and a 2nd 30GB "Data" partition. I set the drives up this way when I was running ME and
have kept the Fat-32 format (I recall reading that there may been some downsides to converting.) I have been
manually "mirroring" these drives using Norton Ghost to keep a complete system backup in case drive 1 fails.
It's worked well, though it is admittedly an antiquated way to go. Next system will have a RAID MB (and
bigger disk drives.)
|
| My problem is this. Now that I've upgraded to XP Pro, the 10GB system partition, which once seemed more
than ample, is getting increasingly tight for space. I'd like to add at least another 5GB (swiped from the
data partition.) My idea to fix this problem and convert to NTFS at the same time by re-formatting drive 2 in
NTFS with a bigger main partition and then copying over the contents of drive 1's system partition (i.e.,
Windows and Programs.) Then I could repeat the NTFS reformatting process on drive one, clone it from drive 2
and be back in the saddle.
|
| I know this is a naive and/or outmoded approach and no doubt there may be better way to go. There are two
things I am most unsure of. One is whether I should convert drive 1 to NTFS before copying the contents over
to the newly formatted drive 2. Closely related to this question is the additional question about what means
I can use to copy the system and all my progam files from one (Fat-32) drive to another (NTFS.)
|
| Any help or guidance would be most appreciated! 8^)
|
| --
| Michelle