Ghost back to FAT vs NTFS

[Paul Ferguson]

I want to make some backup CDs of my laptop's C partition using Ghost
from Norton Systemworks 2003.

The laptop is running W98 and using a FAT32 file system. I do not have
a CD burner on the laptop, only a reader. I have created the Ghost
backup files on my laptop's D partition.

My plan is to transfer these Ghost image files over my network to my
XP desktop system. Its file system is NTFS. I can burn the CDs from
the desktop.

Will I have a problem using the CDs in Ghost on the laptop because of
the difference in file systems (FAT32 vs NTFS) ?


Paul

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

The cd uses CDFS (CD rom File System) and neither FAT32 nor NTFS. Go for
it.

 

[Ken Blake]

In

I want to make some backup CDs of my laptop's C partition using
Ghost
from Norton Systemworks 2003.

The laptop is running W98 and using a FAT32 file system. I do
not have
a CD burner on the laptop, only a reader. I have created the
Ghost
backup files on my laptop's D partition.

My plan is to transfer these Ghost image files over my network
to my
XP desktop system. Its file system is NTFS. I can burn the CDs
from
the desktop.

Will I have a problem using the CDs in Ghost on the laptop
because of
the difference in file systems (FAT32 vs NTFS) ?

No. It's the *data* in the files which is transferred over the
network, not the file systems in which they are stored. You can
transmit files stored in *any* file system over a network without
a problem. The CD is neither NTFS nor FAT32, but even if you were
transferring files from a FAT32 HD to an NTFS one (or vice versa)
there would be no problem.

Think of downloading files over the internet (which is a
network). You have no idea what file system is used at the other
end, but you nevertheless have no problems with the files you
download.

 

[Bob Harris]

Although FAT32 vs NTFS is not an issue, since CD format is neither of those,
there may be a problem. Specifically, a GHOST image sent directly to CD may
be different than an image saved on a hard drive then copied to CD. This
difference will only be apparent when you try to perform the restore. Check
the GHOST manual and the Symantec support web site for more info on support
for CD images.

Personally, I have found it very efficient to restore GHOST images directly
form an internal hard drive, or with GHOST 2003, from some external hard
drives.

 

[Harry Ohrn]

Any problems you may encounter later will not be due to the concern you
asked about here. However Ghost can be flaky sometimes. Make certain you
verify the image files using the Check Image option in Ghost to ensure their
integrity before and after you burn the files to disk.

 

[Test User]

I want to make some backup CDs of my laptop's C partition using Ghost
from Norton Systemworks 2003.

The laptop is running W98 and using a FAT32 file system. I do not have
a CD burner on the laptop, only a reader. I have created the Ghost
backup files on my laptop's D partition.

My plan is to transfer these Ghost image files over my network to my
XP desktop system. Its file system is NTFS. I can burn the CDs from
the desktop.

Will I have a problem using the CDs in Ghost on the laptop because of
the difference in file systems (FAT32 vs NTFS) ?


Paul

No. The OS's take care of the file system structures, and talk to each
other - not directly to the disks. They neither know or care about the
filesystem type.

HTH
s-pk

 

[MSN]

Very good example you said. Can I put in this way:
You have different size containers A (NTFS) and B (FAT32). So no matter
WHERE the water (data) from or WHAT kind of water (data), it will goes
according to different shade of container; yet the quality of water (data)
still the same. Can I interpret in this way?

I have another worry: Between NTFS and FAT32 format in my Disk C and D.
Meaning my XP is running in NTFS, my data is saved in FAT32 Disk D.

Is safe to maintain in this way? Base to your concept, that should be fine.
Then how if I have a data file which saved in both C and D disks. Is there
any problem for editing and save afterward? Will the file (data) will be
saved to different format to C and D in NTFS and FAT32 again?

The extra question is: further more if I save it in a floppy disk (consider
as C container). In all cases, will there any problem later I open this data
file in my system? How if I take the floppy disk to someone who runs W98?

Thank you for sharing your experience.

Chong

 

[Test User]

Very good example you said. Can I put in this way:
You have different size containers A (NTFS) and B (FAT32). So no matter
WHERE the water (data) from or WHAT kind of water (data), it will goes
according to different shade of container; yet the quality of water (data)
still the same. Can I interpret in this way?

I have another worry: Between NTFS and FAT32 format in my Disk C and D.
Meaning my XP is running in NTFS, my data is saved in FAT32 Disk D.

Is safe to maintain in this way?

Yes, though there are limited reasons to do this. One of the few is so that
a Win9x machine can use the disk directly, eitehr by physically moving the
drive or using a boot diskette.


Base to your concept, that should be fine.

Then how if I have a data file which saved in both C and D disks. Is there
any problem for editing and save afterward? Will the file (data) will be
saved to different format to C and D in NTFS and FAT32 again?

The file format does not change. The file system format does not affect the
file format. It only affects how the operating system reads and writes to
disk.

The extra question is: further more if I save it in a floppy disk (consider
as C container). In all cases, will there any problem later I open this data
file in my system? How if I take the floppy disk to someone who runs W98?

NTFS is not supported on floppy disks, so this will not be an issue.

That said, however, there *can be* a caveat for using diskettes created on
older machines on XP. This caveat apparently involves not file or file
system formats but disk access modes. Some XP systems will report that
some diskettes originating from older machines are not formatted or are
damaged, when this is not true. Disks going from XP machines to older
machines don't have this problem.
http://www.jufsoft.com/badcopy/

apparently has the ability to bypass this problem and allow you to get the
data from such diskettes to the XP machines.

HTH
-pk

 

[Ken Blake]

In

Very good example you said. Can I put in this way:
You have different size containers A (NTFS) and B (FAT32). So
no
matter WHERE the water (data) from or WHAT kind of water
(data), it
will goes according to different shade of container; yet the
quality
of water (data) still the same. Can I interpret in this way?

Yes.


I have another worry: Between NTFS and FAT32 format in my Disk
C and
D. Meaning my XP is running in NTFS, my data is saved in FAT32
Disk D.

Is safe to maintain in this way?

Yes.


Base to your concept, that should be
fine. Then how if I have a data file which saved in both C and
D
disks. Is there any problem for editing and save afterward?

No.


Will the
file (data) will be saved to different format to C and D in
NTFS and
FAT32 again?

Yes.


The extra question is: further more if I save it in a floppy
disk
(consider as C container). In all cases, will there any problem
later
I open this data file in my system?

No.


How if I take the floppy disk to
someone who runs W98?

Not a problem. The floppy will be FAT12, and that's readable by
all versions of DOS or Windows.

Thank you for sharing your experience.

You're welcome. Glad to help.