New HDD - should I convert file system?

[Guest]

I've recently upgraded W98SE to XP Pro, but my 20GB HDD has only 5GB free.
I've got a new Seagate 80GB to install as Master and keep the old as Slave.
What is this about FAT32 only coping with 32GB, and should I convert to NTFS
to overcome this limitation? I've read that the Seagate Discwizard will allow
the system to "see" all of the 80GB within the FAT32 system. What are the
pro's and con's of doing the conversion, and can a System Restore go back to
the old file sytem?

 

[John John]

Windows XP Disk Administrator cannot format FAT32 partitions larger than
32GB. Windows XP can however mount FAT32 volumes larger than 32GB that
were created by other operating systems. In other words, if you had an
80GB FAT32 drive in a Windows 98 box and if you were to install that
drive in the Windows XP box, Windows XP would see and read/write to it
without any problems. System Restore cannot change the file system, for
all intents and purposes unless you use third party tools the NTFS
conversion is irreversible. If you don't intend to multi-boot with
Windows 9x you should probably format the drive to NTFS. NTFS is the
file system of choice for Windows XP, it offers greater security than
FAT32 and it is less wasteful on storage space. It would be preferable
to format to NTFS from scratch then copy the old drive to it, rather
than converting it from FAT32 after the imaging/cloning operation. See
here for more information:

http://aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/games/expert/durham_fs.mspx

Or simply search on Microsoft.com for "ntfs fat32", you will find much
in depth information and recommendations.

John

 

[Guest]

John John, Many thanks for your response to my posting. I have done the
file conversion, and everything appears to be working ok. An immediate
benefit is that I have instantly gained 1Gb of free space. All I have to do
now is install my new hard drive, but I'll wait a few days to make sure
everything settles down ok.

Thanks again, Francododds

 

[John John]

You're welcome.

John

John John, Many thanks for your response to my posting. I have done the
file conversion, and everything appears to be working ok. An immediate
benefit is that I have instantly gained 1Gb of free space. All I have to do
now is install my new hard drive, but I'll wait a few days to make sure
everything settles down ok.

Thanks again, Francododds

:

 

[Guest]

John, Just to wrap up things, I've installed the new 80Gb HDD, and
everything is running smoothly. Boot-up now only takes 62 secs now, against
97 secs beforehand. Feel like I've got a new machine!

Good wishes, Adrian (Francododds)

 

[John John]

Great! Happy to hear that things went well. Thanks for the follow-up.

John