John said:
After it gets done buildig indiexes (indices?) things will get a lot
better.
Not if the cluster size is only 512 bytes. There's a huge performance
hit on the drive using clusters smaller than the default 4k size for
NTFS.
If you have 512 byte (0.5k) clusters (1 sector per cluster), then there
will be a big speed loss.
What you need to do is format the drive as NTFS, not just convert it.
Of course that means backing up your data and re-formating the drive.
That will give you the default 4k cluster size which is very fast
compared to 0.5k clusters. Or you could use a utility like Partition
Magic to re-align the clusters on the default 4k boundaries, but I think
it needs to be done prior to conversion.
If you have re-writable CD's, I suggest you backup your needed data and
then do a clean install of Windows XP. Format the drive to NTFS and
you'll get the 4k clusters and a speedy drive.
