fat32 to ntfs

[Richard]

I have installed a new hard drive as a slave to replace
old drive shich is going bad. I partitioned new drive into
4 partitions: d:2392mb for Win2k e:737mb for swap files
f:15406 applications g: 20662 files.
The hard drive utility (max blast) will only format in
fat32. When installing Win 2k it asks to
Format the partition to Fat 32
Format the partition to NTFS
Convert the partition to NTFS

Should all partitions be converted to NTFS?
When going to convert d partition to NTFS it tells me that
I won't be able to access other drive which is win 98.
Should just d: remain fat 32 and others converted to NTFS?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Eng. Taha Khamis A.Wahab]

My Friend
all OS's which based on 9x platform like Win94,Win98, and
ME can't handle the NTFS partitions so if you want to
access a partition thru one of these OS's you should keep
it FAT32..i wish you luck

 

[Robert Mitchell [MSFT]]

Hello Richard,

You can have a mix of NTFS, FAT, and FAT32 partitions on the same drive.
However, if you boot the system using an old DOS or Win9x diskette, you will
not be able to read the NTFS partitions. Those boot diskettes can only
access FAT and FAT32.

But since Windows 2000 has Recovery Console, the need to use boot diskettes
has been reduced.
--
Robert Mitchell
Windows NT4&2000 MCSE
Microsoft Enterprise Support

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Bill Spears [MSFT]]

Since we are talking about a clean install, I would suggest Formatting the
volumes with NTFS rather than converting from fat32. When converting from
Fat32 to NTFS, Windows will use a 512 byte cluster size due to how the Fat
structures are aligned on 512 byte boundries. If you format the volume with
NTFS, you will get the default values for a new NTFS partition.

Are you dual booting with another OS (Win9x)? Otherwise, there would be no
need to run Fat32 on your 2000 machine.

 

[Richard]

Bill, Yes I am dual booting to begin with. I am using PC
Relocator to move all programs and files. I may want to
keep old hard drive as slave (win98)if I see that some
programs won't run in Win2k. But I will probably discard
old drive since it is showing bad sectors. Is there a
problem formating all partitions NTFS before transfering
files from old win 98 system?

 

[Overlord]

I have installed a new hard drive as a slave to replace
old drive shich is going bad. I partitioned new drive into
4 partitions: d:2392mb for Win2k e:737mb for swap files
f:15406 applications g: 20662 files.
The hard drive utility (max blast) will only format in
fat32. When installing Win 2k it asks to
Format the partition to Fat 32
Format the partition to NTFS
Convert the partition to NTFS

Should all partitions be converted to NTFS?
When going to convert d partition to NTFS it tells me that
I won't be able to access other drive which is win 98.

Not true. 2K will access all the drives; NTFS, FAT32.
9x will not see the NTFS disks.

I have 8 discrete drives; 4 FAT32, 4 NTFS. Booting to 2k lets me
see/access/use all 8 drives. Booting 98 sees only 4 drives,
partitioned to FAT32. For 98 the NTFS disks don't exist.
If you will boot 98 occasionally on the old drive you won't see
anything saved on the NTFS drives. Fine for most things but if your
util is running in 98 and the data you want to crunch is on NTFS, then
you'll have nothing to crunch.

Don't know what Max Blast is. If you're moving your 98 installation
over to the new drive and then installing 2k for a dual boot, keep the
partition 98 is going on as FAT32.

Should just d: remain fat 32 and others converted to NTFS?
Thanks in advance.

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[R. C. White]

Hi, Richard.

So long as you keep Win9x/ME installed on this computer, the "system
partition" (almost always Drive C must remain FAT (16 or 32). Win9x/ME
can't even SEE an NTFS partition, much less read, write or boot from one.
And, no matter which volume (primary partition or logical drive in an
extended partition - on any HD in the computer) you install Win9x/ME on, it
must always start the boot process from Drive C:. So, Drive C: must be FAT;
Win9x/ME's boot volume must be FAT; any volume that you hope to access from
Win9x/ME must be FAT.

At least, that's the native dual-boot system MS uses in NT-style Windows
(WinNT4/2K/XP/2K3, etc.). There are third-party solutions (BootItNG, Boot
Magic, etc.) which use different boot systems, but I have no experience with
those. I'm an accountant, not a techie of any kind. But I've been
dual-booting various combinations (Win95/98 and WinNT4/2K/XP) of Windows
since about 1998, always with the native dual-boot system built into NT-type
Windows.

If you DON'T plan to install Win9x/ME on this computer, there's no need to
cling to the outdated, insecure FAT system. Format all volumes NTFS. Yes,
a FAT partition can be converted to NTFS later, but often the result is less
than satisfactory because of non-standard cluster sizes resulting from the
conversion.

Win2K will have no problems mixing and matching FAT and NTFS volumes. There
are VERY few programs that will run on Win98 but not Win2K. The few that
have a problem can usually be satisfied by setting Win2K to run them in
"Win98 compatibility mode".

RC