Running Fat32 and NTFS on two HD's on the same computer?

[Henry]

Hello,

My main hard drive (with XP Pro) uses the Fat32 file
system. However, as we know, Fat32 doesn't support file
sizes larger than 4 Gigabytes. I have recently purchased a
HD which I hope to use in addition to the Fat32 with the
OS, but I want to format it and use it as NTFS.

So, can Win XP support two hard drives with two different
file systems? If so, should I expect any problems
regarding file transfers from one to the other or any
other issues? And if not, what options do I have?

Thanks in advance,

Henry

 

[Guest]

yes, as a matter of fact you can have two partitions on
the same drive formated diffrent.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Henry,

It'll work fine. WinXP will handle either simultaneously. You can even use
the two different file systems on different partitions of the same drive if
you want.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[Mark]

-----Original Message-----
Hello,

My main hard drive (with XP Pro) uses the Fat32 file
system. However, as we know, Fat32 doesn't support file
sizes larger than 4 Gigabytes. I have recently purchased a
HD which I hope to use in addition to the Fat32 with the
OS, but I want to format it and use it as NTFS.

So, can Win XP support two hard drives with two different
file systems? If so, should I expect any problems
regarding file transfers from one to the other or any
other issues? And if not, what options do I have?

Thanks in advance,

Henry
.
Just change the old drive to NTFS ...

 

[Rich Barry]

Mark, you should convert your Fat32 to NTFS. Reason being that it can't
read NTFS. NTFS though can read FAT32.
check here http://tinyurl.com/scel

 

[Alex Nichol]

My main hard drive (with XP Pro) uses the Fat32 file
system. However, as we know, Fat32 doesn't support file
sizes larger than 4 Gigabytes. I have recently purchased a
HD which I hope to use in addition to the Fat32 with the
OS, but I want to format it and use it as NTFS.

So, can Win XP support two hard drives with two different
file systems? If so, should I expect any problems
regarding file transfers from one to the other or any
other issues?

XP will happily handle any mix of FAT 16/FAT 32 and NTFS hard disk
partitions (not to mention FAT 12 floppies), and move files from one to
another (provided they are not bigger than the destination file system
will handle - you can't move a 5GB from NTFS to anything else). The
files are not changed

 

[Alex Nichol]

Mark, you should convert your Fat32 to NTFS. Reason being that it can't
read NTFS. NTFS though can read FAT32.

WRONG. It is not the FAT 32 disk that does the reading. It is the XP
system, which can be installed equally happily on a FAT 32 or on an NTFS
disk, and handle any mixture. Go read up. eg at
www.aumha.org/win5/a/ntfs.htm