XP's NTFS copying to FAT32

[mark rouse]

At present, my company has a central PC (FAT32) used for
backing up workstation data to, and a 120GB portable
firewire HDD (FAT32) attached to it, for backing up the
central PC.

I plan to upgrade the central PC to XP with NTFS to secure
it better. Furthermore, I know that I don't have any
limitations in file sizes with XP; for example, I can
easily have a 40Gb database file, and this is another
important factor in using XP.

However, if we upgrade our central PC to XP and NTFS,
would this stop us from copying, for example, a 40Gb
datafile to our FAT32 portable HDD, even if we are copying
from the XP machine to a peripheral device on that same
machine?

Furthermore, if we had to rebuild the central PC, and want
to restore, for example, a 40Gb datafile backup to the
central PC: would the FAT32 on the portable HDD prevent us
from copying the datafile back to its original destination
on the central PC?

Would I have to reformat our portable 120GB HDD into NTFS
somehow?

Regards

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi,

The file size limitation is part of FAT32. Regarless of what file system (or
Operating System) you create your database on, you are still going to be
limited to this. You cannot copy a 40GB file to a drive formatted in FAT32
(and conversely, as it cannot exist, you cannot copy a 40GB file from a
FAT32 drive to an NTFS drive). You will need to either convert the drive to
NTFS or look at tape solutions.

--
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

 

[Ron]

I had a similar question yesterday on the 4th: Search
for "Backing up a NTFS Volume to Fat 32"

 

[Guest]

What if it is a Volume created by Norton Ghost. Can it
still be done from NTFS to FAT 32?

 

[John E. Carty]

FAT32 has a 4GB file limit, but many applications, Ghost included, have a
2GB limit. Ghost will backup 40GB's of data by breaking the backup into 2GB
files