Ghost program

[Hai Pham]

Hi all:

I am sorry it may be not be the right place. I have a hard drive with window
XP and FAT32, is there anyway I can use Ghost program to copy it to a new
hard drive with NTFS format and I would like to keep the NTFS format.

Thanks

Hai

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

When you create a Ghost, you are creating an exact image of the drive. When
you restore the image, it replaces whatever is on the drive. You can
restore your image and then convert it to NTFS but regardless of anything
that was previously on the drive, the image you are restoring will replace
it along with the file system.

 

[Hai Pham]

Michael,

Would you please explain it more details. You mean I can go ahead to format
the new drive in NTFS format then just copy the old drive over with Ghost?
or do I need to create the image from old drive then convert to NTFS (how?)
then copy over the new one.

Thanks

Hai

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Note: I haven't worked with Ghost for quite awhile, I'm currently using
PowerQuest's Drive Image.

Nonetheless, the new drive can be a completely virgin drive, nothing on it,
no need to format unless Ghost requires that for the purposes of recognizing
a drive is there but I tend to doubt it. It doesn't matter what is on that
drive before restoring your Ghost image because that image will replace
anything on that drive with an exact duplicate of the original drive that
Ghost imaged. It should see a raw drive if it's seen by your system.

Hence, start by restoring your Ghost image to that drive. Once restored,
you then convert the file system to NTFS as follows in these instructions
from MVP Doug Knox:

Click Start, Run and enter CMD

Once the command window is open, type

CONVERT X: /FS:NTFS /V where X is the drive letter you wish to convert.
If this is the system or boot drive, or the drive has files in use, you will
be told that the drive cannot be unmounted, and asked if you would like to
convert at the next reboot. Answer yes.

As with any disk operation, you can lose data, so its a safe bet to back up
anything you must have. But my experience has been that there will be no
problems.

 

[Hai Pham]

Michael,

Thanks. Actually my main goal is to convert from FAT32 to NTFS and
your second answer is what I want.
should I convert from Fat32 to NTFS? any disadvantage?

Hai

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

NTFS offers a lot of security feature you don't have with FAT32, especially
if you have XP Pro. If you are running XP Home Edition, while NTFS for the
most part seems more stable than FAT32, NTFS on Home Edition can be a bit
confining. There's no group policy editor on Home Edition and making
changes using the machine's hidden administrator account is cumbersome
because it requires going into Safe Mode each time you wish to do so. This
is crucial if you have ownership issues with regard to files.

By default, Home Edition is set to Simple File Sharing and its hardwired
into the system so you have to go to Safe Mode to turn it off and take
ownership if the necessity comes up...it will come up if you ever format and
then restore your backup; well, copy files you've held on a disk or use a
backup program that backs up NTFS permissions unless you turn it off during
restore.

In XP Pro, you only need to go into a user account that is designated
Administrator, open Explorer, go to Tools\Folder Options\Advanced and
deselect Simple File Sharing.

So the question is really, which version of XP do you have and if you have
Home Edition and you are the only user, do you still want that security. It
does have advantages as it makes the system less vulnerable to attack but it
does add some extra tasks as a result.