"=?Utf-8?B?S2VuIEdhcmRuZXI=?=" <
[email protected]>
Well, I figured I give the conversion a try. Worst that can happen is I
have to reformat. So far so good, no problems to report.
There are two downsides to converting from FAT32 to NTFS, as opposed
to installing XP on NTFS:
1) Appropriate security attributes are not set
NTFS extends the usual file attributes to include fine-grained access
control, as part of the OS's depth of security. When the OS is
installed on NTFS, the installation process can set these
appropriately. When it is installed on FATxx, the settings cannot be
applied, so a subsequent conversion cannot apply them either.
2) Possible 512-byte clusters
This may or may not be a problem. It won't be a problem if the
original partitioning and formatting was aware of NTFS's alignment
needs; it may or may not be a problem otherwise. If the existing
FATxx partition is not aligned the way NTFS would like, you would get
tiny 512-byte clusters instead of the more desirable 4k clusters, and
while this may be more space-efficient, it is s-l-o-w.
http://cquirke.mvps.org/ntfs.htm covers the bigger picture of whether
FATxx or NTFS is likely to suit your needs. What may be as important
is whether you divide your HD into multiple volumes, and how these are
sized; this also lets you choose NTFS for some and FATxx for others.
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