Switching fat32 to NTFS and Back Again

  • Thread starter Thread starter darkrats
  • Start date Start date
Today Ken Blake, MVP commented courteously on the subject at
hand
How large were these partitions? How much was "immensely"?
How did you measure the speed increase?
Click to expand...

My Maxtor is a 300 gig, so I needed to partition it as two
FAT32. The 2 HD partitions were about 85 gig each.

The performance problem I had was /not/ file transfer rate -
that was fine, over 6 MB/sec. It was that my Win XP Pro SP2
would take a powder for several minutes just trying to access
the contents of a folder! I never did figure out why that was,
but the fuller my drives got, the slower the access was. Once
I got control, it was OK, but SP2 acted as if it rolled out
the folder tree from it's internal "cache" and had to re-load
it.

A friend told me it was some bullshit in SP2 trying to do a
prefetch on folders containing multi-media files. Maybe, maybe
not. I couldn't find anything in the MS KB or Googling.
Suffice to say that one HD partition was 85% MP3 and the other
was 95% JPG.

After killing the partitions on the HD and external and
rebuilding them as FAT32, access is now instantaneous as I had
experienced on my old SP1 box. The only "problem", which was
very minor to me, is that FAT32 has a max partition size
limit, I think 198 gig, so I needed to partition my 300 gig
external into two logical drives.

I'm sorry for using non-technical nomenclature but I don't at
all understand what was happening with NTFS, just that
converting to FAT32 "fixed" it, albeit at a loss of some
security. If you have more questions, I'll try to clarify what
I experienced and what I tried to speed things up, but failed
miserably at.
 
Today Ken Blake, MVP commented courteously on the subject at
hand
You don't have to convince me. I'm with you on this.
Click to expand...

See my reply in this thread. You don't have to convince me, but
seeing is believing. Again, I thought the NTFS transfer rate was
fine, I just couldn't get the contents of a folder most of the
time in under a couple of minutes!

If, after reading my other post, anybody can explain what
might've gone wrong for me, I'd appreciate it. For now, I'll
just say that my current PC is running an AMD 3700 with 4 gig of
memory, Win XP Pro SP2 with all updates installed. Other than
some simeple customization, no changes were made to Windows.
And, since it was a new PC, the guy who built it for me did a
clean native install of Windows.
 
Richard said:
Even using Partition Magic, converting from NTFS to fat32 is very
problematical. I have done it 3-4 time, with great difficulty (error after
error). One time I lost the whole partition.
Click to expand...

Did you look for it under your sofa cushions :)
 
All said:
Today Ken Blake, MVP commented courteously on the subject at
hand


See my reply in this thread. You don't have to convince me, but
seeing is believing. Again, I thought the NTFS transfer rate was
fine, I just couldn't get the contents of a folder most of the
time in under a couple of minutes!
Click to expand...


Then something was seriously wrong. I can't tell you what your problem was,
but I can tell that it was *not* the difference between NTFS and FAT32.
 
Today Ken Blake, MVP commented courteously on the subject at
hand
Then something was seriously wrong. I can't tell you what
your problem was, but I can tell that it was *not* the
difference between NTFS and FAT32.
Click to expand...

That's really useful, Ken. Care to expand on that? I /know/
something was wrong, but couldn't find out anything about it.

I've got another SP2 problem that I personally know others have,
namely that it crashes immediately trying to read a CD-R or DVD-
R burned with UDF. Again, there is no-thing in the MS KB, and no
real help Googling, except that I can find pleas of help from
other UDF sufferers.

I don't want to go excessively over-the-top here, but whenever
somebody says there's a problem with SP2, the MVPs and plenty of
others come out of the woodwork with "your system is screwed up
or you don't know what you're doing". That's fine. My system may
well be messed up and I admit to being no expert. But, it
doesn't help me one iota for people to make sweeping
generalities, as you did. So, I just suck it up and keep looking
for help on my own rather than subject myself to flames on the
MS NGs.
 
ATM

We do that because our systems work with SP2 installed, evidence enough that
it can be done.. I have a good few clients, not one of them close to
computer literate that have SP2 installed and no problems.. now you have
evidence from both sides of the court..

The major cause of failure is the component between the chair and the
keyboard.. it has always been this way..

Do you use Nero, or something else to burn CDs?.. how old is it?.. might it
be an issue with the burning program, and not Windows, hence the complete
lack of anything in MS KB's?.. can we assume that you have contacted the
program originator's website?.. does it happen with ALL makes of CD-R?..
 
All said:
Today Ken Blake, MVP commented courteously on the subject at
hand


That's really useful, Ken. Care to expand on that? I /know/
something was wrong, but couldn't find out anything about it.
Click to expand...


If you don't find my comment useful, I'm sorry, but you've given us no
information to help you with. Based on what you've told us so far, all I can
say is that your problem is *not * NTFS. Provide more specific info, and
perhaps I, or someone else here, can provide a better answer.

I've got another SP2 problem that I personally know others have,
namely that it crashes immediately trying to read a CD-R or DVD-
R burned with UDF. Again, there is no-thing in the MS KB, and no
real help Googling, except that I can find pleas of help from
other UDF sufferers.

I don't want to go excessively over-the-top here, but whenever
somebody says there's a problem with SP2, the MVPs and plenty of
others come out of the woodwork with "your system is screwed up
or you don't know what you're doing". That's fine. My system may
well be messed up and I admit to being no expert. But, it
doesn't help me one iota for people to make sweeping
generalities, as you did.
Click to expand...


Again, if you're looking for help, you need to provide information. Telling
us " I just couldn't get the contents of a folder most of the time in under
a couple of minutes!" is not sufficent infprmation to give you a better
answer than "It's not NTFS causing your problem," which is what you said the
problem was.


So, I just suck it up and keep looking
for help on my own rather than subject myself to flames on the
MS NGs.
Click to expand...


Flames? If you think my message was a flame, you have a very thin skin.
 
Today Mike Hall (MS-MVP) commented courteously on the subject
at hand
ATM

We do that because our systems work with SP2 installed,
evidence enough that it can be done.. I have a good few
clients, not one of them close to computer literate that
have SP2 installed and no problems.. now you have evidence
from both sides of the court..

The major cause of failure is the component between the
chair and the keyboard.. it has always been this way..

Do you use Nero, or something else to burn CDs?.. how old
is it?.. might it be an issue with the burning program, and
not Windows, hence the complete lack of anything in MS
KB's?.. can we assume that you have contacted the program
originator's website?.. does it happen with ALL makes of
CD-R?..
Click to expand...

I'm not going to debate this, Mike. If you have to ask that,
then you don't possibly know what I'm talking about. I take
that back, I will debate it.

I have /hundreds/ of UDF CD-Rs I burned with multiple programs
that work on my old Win 98 PC, and my older SP1 box. They all
read correctly, and /none/ crash. They /all/ crash my SP2 box.
And, they /all/ crash my best friends SP2 box. And, they /all/
crash my nephews SP2 box. He's the guy who built my current
PC. Now, how can 3 people, with 3 completely different PCs
with no-thing in common except that they all have XP Pro SP2
possibly all be simultaneously screwed up in the head? And,
how is it that a problem this common isn't anyplace to be
found in the MS KB? Go look, it ain't there.

Once I discovered the problem last October, I created several
dozen test cases of different kinds of files and different
numbers of files on both CD-R and DVD-R using Nero, Roxio EZ
CD Creator 5, and Roxio Easy Media Creator 8. They /all/ crash
SP2. And, no, you cannot burn a UDF CD with Windoze built-in
burner utility, you have to buy it from somebody.

To answer you other question, no I didn't contact anyone about
my problem, as it is /not/ anyone's problem /except/
Microsoft! It is /their/ GD CD/DVD device driver that crashes,
and not my Lite On drives - yes, I checked, Lite On uses the
Win XP default driver.

Now, if you want to discuss this intelligently and factually,
I will cooperate. But, I will not listen to "your system is
hosed, nuke the HD and reinstall Windows". Incidently, when
you're bored, Google for "udf crashes sp2" and see what you
get...

And, thank you Mike, for keeping the reputation of the MVPs
intact - you all claim that it is user error and not Windoze
that is at fault, yet /you/ have no facts.
 
In
darkrats said:
I'm a little confused by the replies.
One says you cannot go back to FAT32 without something like Partition
Magic. Your suggestion is to reformat the partition to FAT32.
What, exactly do you mean when your say this? How would you do it?

Continued thanks!


Richard Urban said:
Even using Partition Magic, converting from NTFS to fat32 is very
problematical. I have done it 3-4 time, with great difficulty (error
after error). One time I lost the whole partition.

My suggestion is to copy what you need and then reformat the
partition to fat32. Then copy everything back.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

Wesley Vogel said:
2. If I reinstall XP again over my new NTFS c partition, will I
get an option, during install, to convert NTFS to FAT32?

No.

[[You cannot convert back, except possibly by use of Partition
Magic, and that is not always successful. Windows XP has no tool
for converting from
NTFS to FAT32.]]

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In darkrats <[email protected]> hunted and pecked:
I've always used FAT32 whether installing Win9X or WinXP.
I currently have 4 partitions, all FAT32. WinXP on C partition, the
others
for storage of data.

I want to reinstall WinXP to c partition and choose the option to
change to NTFS.

1. How long during the install does it take to convert from FAT32
to NTFS?

2. If I reinstall XP again over my new NTFS c partition, will I
get an option, during install, to convert NTFS to FAT32?


Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...


What you are asking is to do is virtually asking for data loss. When you
make any change in a hard drive that changes the file system, that means the
file system is in jeopardy of being completely lost if any unforeseen event
happens.
1. Power outage
2. Hard drive failure. Either drive being copied or drive being copied to.
3. Unintended access by user with administrative access.
4. Who knows what?
Basically what you proposed is possible, but must be executed under idea
conditions and should always be preceded by making a complete image of the
drives affected by the process to external media.
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm
 
Jerry

Presumably, you do have packet writing software installed on all of the
computers that exhibit problems..

UDF (packet writing) has always been problematic.. I tried it out when it
first appeared, and found it to be less than reliable.. a great idea but it
needs work..

I did also find articles on it.. maybe Google Canada is better.. you should
try it sometime..

http://www.google.ca

Re. computer user error, in this case, you have persisted in using a CD
writing format that has yet to be perfected and IS known to be problematic..

In the meantime, some reading for you..

http://photography.about.com/library/weekly/aa011303b.htm

http://www.samspublishing.com/articles/article.asp?p=418013&seqNum=11&rl=1

http://pages.prodigy.net/jdjd/cdr/packet.htm

http://www.roxio.com/en/support/dcdwin/dcdread.html

http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpcd.htm
 
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