NTFS volume or FAT32???

[Dr No.]

Norton disc doctor keeps telling me my file system is a non NTFS volume.


Running win XP on FAT32 , how or/and do I change


Regards
Dr No.

 

[Guest]

HI,
You can use Norton Partition Magic for change FAT32 to NTFS without any
problem
Enjoy

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

It's fairly easy to do, but there are some things you need to look out for.
MVP Alex Nichol covers the pitfalls here:
http://aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.htm

Keep in mind also that any partition work has some inherent dangers. Backing
up critical data before doing anything of this nature is still a good idea.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Edward W. Thompson]

There is no doubt the NTFS is an efficient system and has advantages of
FAT32 but knowing what I know now I am not sure I would have formatted my C
drive NTFS as it is pretty much impossible to work with if you have a boot
problem. You can't access it from DOS unless you purchase a program
(NTFSDOSPro) which is not cheap!

Unless you have some particular reason to switch to NTFS, if I were you, and
I'll probably suffer flack for this, I would stick with FAT32 for the C
drive purely on the basis of comparitive ease of accessiblity/repairability
if you have a problem.

 

[Ron Bogart]

In

There is no doubt the NTFS is an efficient system and has advantages
of FAT32 but knowing what I know now I am not sure I would have
formatted my C drive NTFS as it is pretty much impossible to work
with if you have a boot problem. You can't access it from DOS unless
you purchase a program (NTFSDOSPro) which is not cheap!

Unless you have some particular reason to switch to NTFS, if I were
you, and I'll probably suffer flack for this, I would stick with
FAT32 for the C drive purely on the basis of comparitive ease of
accessiblity/repairability if you have a problem.

I use a free utility called readntfs.exe which fits nicely on a boot disk
and allows you to access an NTFS drive from a boot disk. It can be found
here
http://www.bootdisk.com/utility.htm under Data and File Recovery.

 

[cquirke (MVP Win9x)]

On Sun, 12 Sep 2004 13:13:56 +0100, "Edward W. Thompson"

There is no doubt the NTFS is an efficient system and has advantages of
FAT32 but knowing what I know now I am not sure I would have formatted my C
drive NTFS as it is pretty much impossible to work with if you have a boot
problem. You can't access it from DOS unless you purchase a program
(NTFSDOSPro) which is not cheap!

Yes, the unmaintainability of NTFS is why I avoid it too. See...

http://cquirke.mvps.org/whatmos.htm

....on maintenance oprions; for NTFS, you have:
- free NTFS driver for DOS (read-only, memory hog TSR, buggy)
- free stand-alone NTFS reader for DOS (copy files/dirs, no LFNs)
- reverse-engineered or "captured" support in Linux
- Recovery Console (not an OS, limited, needs preparation)
- MS WinPE bootable CDR (rendered unavailable due to licensing)
- Bart's PE bootable CDR (3rd-party workalike for WinPE)

That page also covers what you need to do to make Recovery Console
less useless for recocovering data - i.e. the RegEdit hoops you have
to jump through in advance, so that you can copy data files off NTFS
to some other drive (one at a time; no wildcards or XCopy) or read any
drive volumes other than C:

The pros and cons of NTFS vs. FAT32 are covered here:

http://cquirke.mvps.org/ntfs.htm

Unless you have some particular reason to switch to NTFS, if I were you, and
I'll probably suffer flack for this, I would stick with FAT32 for the C
drive purely on the basis of comparitive ease of accessiblity/repairability
if you have a problem.

That's exactly my take as well.

Either way, I'd avoid "one big C:" blues, for a variety of reasons.

-------------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

Hmmm... what was the *other* idea?

 

[BradH]

You can easily convert your drive to NTFS with Window's built in Convert
utility. Open the command line interface by entering CMD in the Run command
and type "Convert /?" for a list of options. Normally you would enter
"CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS" Use the /V switch see the verbose mode. Then reboot
and the conversion process will start.

The downside to converting to NTFS, as opposed to installing on a clean NTFS
volume, is that none of the correct file permissions are set. Especially
within user profiles and system files. Converting now will give you all the
benifits of a much more stable file system but few if any of the security
benifits. A clean install of Windows, be it NT, 2000 or XP, on an NTFS
volume is the best way to go. But hey, life is full of compromises.

The normal disclaimers apply. No warranty expressed or implied. Your
mileage may vary...

BradH

 

[SlowJet]

lol

Well, I'm curious as to what the cars you guys drive looks like?

Is it a fiberglass hotrod body over a Volkswagen or a Ferrie that you pulled
that hard to work on V8 out and replaced with a Briggs and Straton?


SJ

 

[Alex Nichol]

Norton disc doctor keeps telling me my file system is a non NTFS volume.


Running win XP on FAT32 , how or/and do I change

Read up at my page www.aumha.org/win5/a/ntfs.htm on comparison of the
two systems to decide if you *do* want to. Do *not* do it just because
Norton says so. If you decide to, go on to read the linked
www.aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.htm

 

[Peter Hutchison]

Norton disc doctor keeps telling me my file system is a non NTFS volume.


Running win XP on FAT32 , how or/and do I change

Open command prompt and type:
Convert C: /fs:ntfs

Peter Hutchison