Why new XP notebook with FAT32?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Neil Harrington
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Neil Harrington

1. I just bought a new Acer Aspire 3100 notebook with Windows XP Home. Like
other buyers of this model, I'm wondering why it comes with its 60GB hard
drive split into two FAT32 partitions. Anyone have any ideas about this?
There must be some reason for it but I can't imagine what. The Acer manual
says nothing about it.

2. Is there any reason I shouldn't use Partition Magic 8.0 to change the
partitions to NTFS and resize them to suit, do you think? At least some
other owners have done this and say it improves hard disk performance.

Other users say there's a third, hidden partition with recovery files. I
suppose this must be so, as the computer does not come with a recovery disc
but explains how to make your own with its DVD burner. And when first
started, the machine isn't ready to go but takes quite a while to set itself
up -- it's getting the files to do this from somewhere, must be from the
hidden partition.

Neil
 
1. I just bought a new Acer Aspire 3100 notebook with Windows XP Home. Like
other buyers of this model, I'm wondering why it comes with its 60GB hard
drive split into two FAT32 partitions. Anyone have any ideas about this?
There must be some reason for it but I can't imagine what. The Acer manual
says nothing about it.

2. Is there any reason I shouldn't use Partition Magic 8.0 to change the
partitions to NTFS and resize them to suit, do you think? At least some
other owners have done this and say it improves hard disk performance.

Other users say there's a third, hidden partition with recovery files. I
suppose this must be so, as the computer does not come with a recovery disc
but explains how to make your own with its DVD burner. And when first
started, the machine isn't ready to go but takes quite a while to set itself
up -- it's getting the files to do this from somewhere, must be from the
hidden partition.
Click to expand...

Windows XP has a built-in utility to convert FAT volumes to NTFS without
data loss. I have used it, but don't remember the exact syntax. Try
"windows xp convert ntfs" in Google.
 
Neil Harrington said:
1. I just bought a new Acer Aspire 3100 notebook with Windows XP Home.
Like other buyers of this model, I'm wondering why it comes with its 60GB
hard drive split into two FAT32 partitions. Anyone have any ideas about
this? There must be some reason for it but I can't imagine what. The Acer
manual says nothing about it.

2. Is there any reason I shouldn't use Partition Magic 8.0 to change the
partitions to NTFS and resize them to suit, do you think? At least some
other owners have done this and say it improves hard disk performance.

Other users say there's a third, hidden partition with recovery files. I
suppose this must be so, as the computer does not come with a recovery
disc but explains how to make your own with its DVD burner. And when first
started, the machine isn't ready to go but takes quite a while to set
itself up -- it's getting the files to do this from somewhere, must be
from the hidden partition.

Neil
Click to expand...

It's all to do with Acer's system recovery setup, it only works in a
Dos environment.
Consider this, if you convert to NTFS and destroy the hidden FAT32
partition you will loose the ability to do a recovery using Acer's
methodology, will need to purchase an XP CD to rebuild in the event of a
catastropic crash.
BTW make sure you do make those recovery DVDs with the Acer utility before
something happens.....

rgds
Roberto
 
Neil said:
1. I just bought a new Acer Aspire 3100 notebook with Windows XP Home. Like
other buyers of this model, I'm wondering why it comes with its 60GB hard
drive split into two FAT32 partitions. Anyone have any ideas about this?
There must be some reason for it but I can't imagine what. The Acer manual
says nothing about it.

2. Is there any reason I shouldn't use Partition Magic 8.0 to change the
partitions to NTFS and resize them to suit, do you think? At least some
other owners have done this and say it improves hard disk performance.

Other users say there's a third, hidden partition with recovery files. I
suppose this must be so, as the computer does not come with a recovery disc
but explains how to make your own with its DVD burner. And when first
started, the machine isn't ready to go but takes quite a while to set itself
up -- it's getting the files to do this from somewhere, must be from the
hidden partition.

Neil
Click to expand...

You might want to call Acer tech support to get some answers before you
make any changes.
 
1. I just bought a new Acer Aspire 3100 notebook with Windows XP Home.
Like other buyers of this model, I'm wondering why it comes with its 60GB
hard drive split into two FAT32 partitions. Anyone have any ideas about
this? There must be some reason for it but I can't imagine what. The Acer
manual says nothing about it.
Click to expand...

In a 'home' situation, where local file security isn't a big deal, what are
the benefits/drawbacks of NTFS? I formatted our home computers with FAT32 to
make a potential data recovery much simpler.

-John O
 
Roberto said:
It's all to do with Acer's system recovery setup, it only works in a
Dos environment.
Consider this, if you convert to NTFS and destroy the hidden FAT32
partition you will loose the ability to do a recovery using Acer's
methodology, will need to purchase an XP CD to rebuild in the event of
a catastropic crash.
BTW make sure you do make those recovery DVDs with the Acer utility before
something happens.....

rgds
Roberto
Click to expand...

Roberto, thanks very much for the explanation.

I wasn't planning on destroying the hidden partition, but from what you say
I guess the Acer recovery system wouldn't work anyway if I converted the
other two partitions to NTFS.

I did make a recovery DVD the first thing. Would that still work if I
converted to NTFS, I wonder?

I think I'll just leave it as it is, at least for the time being.

Thanks again,

Neil
 
Rock said:
You might want to call Acer tech support to get some answers before you
make any changes.
Click to expand...

Yes, good idea. From what Roberto said I guess I'll leave it as is anyway.

Neil
 
JohnO said:
In a 'home' situation, where local file security isn't a big deal, what
are the benefits/drawbacks of NTFS? I formatted our home computers with
FAT32 to make a potential data recovery much simpler.

-John O
Click to expand...

Thanks -- I guess I'll leave it as is.

I noticed that my external hard drives came formatted with FAT32, and that
doesn't seem to have any disadvantages.

Thanks to everyone who replied. I sure am glad I asked before doing
anything.

Neil
 
Thanks -- I guess I'll leave it as is.

I noticed that my external hard drives came formatted with FAT32, and that
doesn't seem to have any disadvantages.

Thanks to everyone who replied. I sure am glad I asked before doing
anything.

Neil
Click to expand...
Think you will find the ACER recovery on D: if it like my ACER laptop.

Left mine as FAT32 since it networked with a W95 machine which cant
read NFTS.
 
Left mine as FAT32 since it networked with a W95 machine which cant
read NFTS.
Click to expand...

The partition type doesn't matter. The W95 machine doesn't read from the
other HDD directly...there's a whole pile of processing--the OSI
layers--between the partition and the cable.

-John O
 
norm said:
Left mine as FAT32 since it networked with a W95 machine which cant
read NFTS.
Click to expand...


Nope, that's no reason for using FAT32. It's files that are transferred
across a network, without their underlying file systems. Windows 95 has no
problem accessing files over a network, even if they are stored on an NTFS
drive.

Realize that whenever you download a file from the Internet, you are
accessing it over a network, and you don't even know what file system it's
stored with.
 
norm said:
Think you will find the ACER recovery on D: if it like my ACER laptop.
Click to expand...

This one came with the 60GB HDD split almost equally between two partitions.
The D partition is empty, and my understanding is that the recovery files
are on a hidden partition. The C and D partitions add up to about 51 GB, and
even with the difference in how these things are counted that leaves a few
gigs unaccounted for, so I assume there is a hidden partition.

Neil
 
JohnO said:
In a 'home' situation, where local file security isn't a big deal, what are
the benefits/drawbacks of NTFS? I formatted our home computers with FAT32 to
make a potential data recovery much simpler.
Click to expand...


With NTFS, there's a much lower chance of ever needing to do data recovery.

Personally, I wouldn't even consider using FAT32 when NTFS is an
option. FAT32 has no security capabilities, no compression
capabilities, no fault tolerance, and a lot of wasted hard drive space
on volumes larger than 8 Gb in size. But your computing needs may vary,
and there is no hard and fast answer.


--

Bruce Chambers

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