NTFS and FAT32 Compatibility

[Bob Burrell]

My Question is this......
Is there any problem using different storage formats on
different physical drives running on the same system
(described below).
I just purchased an External Hard Drive (7200rpm-
120GB). My intent is to make the drive a USB 2.0
supplemental drive in support of my small 20GB internal
drive. My internal drive is in a FAT32 format. From the
documentation I've read a 120GB drive must be in an NTFS
format, otherwise the full 120GB volume of the drive will
not be usable. My Operating System is XP Pro on a PIII
with 256MB memory. The Hard Drive is coming off a SIIG
Inc PCI Plug-n-Play 2.2 Model US2275 Combo Adapter
providing USB 2.0, FireWire, and 10/100.

Also, is there a simple way to copy/move/migrate (or
whatever term should be used) information off my 20GB
drive onto the new External 120GB USB 2.0 Hard
Drive....Replace the old 20GB internal drive with a new
large internal drive, then move the data back onto the
new larger internal drive. I no longer have all the
diskettes/CD's/DVD's on which some of the software was
purchased and I really can't afford to loose (Windows 95
Office Suite plus several others) the functionality of
some of the older programs. Some people with whom I
communicate have older software and normally newer
version of the same suite will accept documents created
using old software versions while old versions of
software will seldom accept documents created using the
most recent version of the same software suite. Any
assistance is appreciated.

 

[null]

My Question is this......
Is there any problem using different storage formats on
different physical drives running on the same system
(described below).
I just purchased an External Hard Drive (7200rpm-
120GB). My intent is to make the drive a USB 2.0
supplemental drive in support of my small 20GB internal
drive. My internal drive is in a FAT32 format. From the
documentation I've read a 120GB drive must be in an NTFS
format, otherwise the full 120GB volume of the drive will
not be usable.

Not true. The limitation is in the PC's BIOS.

My Operating System is XP Pro on a PIII

with 256MB memory. The Hard Drive is coming off a SIIG
Inc PCI Plug-n-Play 2.2 Model US2275 Combo Adapter
providing USB 2.0, FireWire, and 10/100.

Also, is there a simple way to copy/move/migrate (or
whatever term should be used) information off my 20GB
drive onto the new External 120GB USB 2.0 Hard
Drive....Replace the old 20GB internal drive with a new
large internal drive, then move the data back onto the
new larger internal drive.

Check this out:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314070

--
-the small one

All postings carry no guarantee or warranty, expressed or implied.
Proceed at your own risk, and perform system and data backups prior to
making changes to your system, and on a regular basis, to protect your
system.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

WinXP can read FAT12 (the file system used on 3.5" diskettes),
FAT16, FAT32, CDFS (the file system used on most CDs), and NTFS with
equal facility. Further, the file system on any one disk/partition or
diskette has absolutely no affect upon the operating system's ability
to read other compatible file systems on other disks/partitions.

To transfer your OS and application installations intact from one
hard drive to another, and then back, you will have to use some sort
of 3rd party drive/partition imaging utility, such as Symantec's
Ghost.

Bruce Chambers

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