Re: Format question? FAT or NTFS

[Squire]

Fat32 does have limits on partition size.
You might consider creating other partitions to keep your special programs
on, so if the Windows partition does crash, you will not lose them.

--
Jerry

Have a nice day!

"Michel Savard" > wrote in message
.. .
> I have just purchased a new system with a 120Gigs harddrive and I tried to
> format it with a Win98 boot disk with Fdisk and format but for soem reason
> it can only fdisk to 60 gigs?
> Is this because of FAT32 restrictions?
> Would I be better to format NTFS?
> Wouldn't it be easier to maintain with FAT32 format?
>
> Thank you for your help in this mattter.
>
>
>

[Steve C. Ray]

Yes
Yes
No

--
Steve C. Ray
Replace "mail" with "36db"
"Michel Savard" > wrote in message
.. .
> I have just purchased a new system with a 120Gigs harddrive and I tried to
> format it with a Win98 boot disk with Fdisk and format but for soem reason
> it can only fdisk to 60 gigs?
> Is this because of FAT32 restrictions?
> Would I be better to format NTFS?
> Wouldn't it be easier to maintain with FAT32 format?
>
> Thank you for your help in this mattter.
>
>
>

[cimex]

NTFS is bot more stable and more secure.



"Michel Savard" > wrote in message
.. .
> I have just purchased a new system with a 120Gigs harddrive and I tried to
> format it with a Win98 boot disk with Fdisk and format but for soem reason
> it can only fdisk to 60 gigs?
> Is this because of FAT32 restrictions?
> Would I be better to format NTFS?
> Wouldn't it be easier to maintain with FAT32 format?
>
> Thank you for your help in this mattter.
>
>
>

[Tod]

I know at one time Win98 fdisk would work with Western Digital harddrives
bigger then 64GBs.
You had to download a patch from Microsoft to fix the problem.
I had to use the Western Digital utility floppy disk to partition my WD 80GB
I'm assuming your going to be using Win XP on this new system.
Boot off the CD-ROM/ or DVD drive with the Win XP CD, let it setup the
partition (s).

"Michel Savard" > wrote in message
.. .
> I have just purchased a new system with a 120Gigs harddrive and I tried to
> format it with a Win98 boot disk with Fdisk and format but for soem reason
> it can only fdisk to 60 gigs?
> Is this because of FAT32 restrictions?
> Would I be better to format NTFS?
> Wouldn't it be easier to maintain with FAT32 format?
>
> Thank you for your help in this mattter.
>
>
>

[John E. Carty]

The older version of fdisk does not properly report the drive size if larger
then 64GB's but can still be used if you're making just one large partition
or if you use percentages instead of MB's when dividing the drive into
multiple partitions. Afterwards, Windows will correct show/use the full
amount of the partitions. This was fixed in the later version of fdisk
(which properly reports the sizes of drives greater then 64GB's) that can be
found in the Windows Me boot disk which you can download here:

http://www.bootdisk.com

"Tod" > wrote in message
news:obLib.765968$uu5.133860@sccrnsc04...
> I know at one time Win98 fdisk would work with Western Digital harddrives
> bigger then 64GBs.
> You had to download a patch from Microsoft to fix the problem.
> I had to use the Western Digital utility floppy disk to partition my WD
80GB
> I'm assuming your going to be using Win XP on this new system.
> Boot off the CD-ROM/ or DVD drive with the Win XP CD, let it setup the
> partition (s).
>
> "Michel Savard" > wrote in message
> .. .
> > I have just purchased a new system with a 120Gigs harddrive and I tried
to
> > format it with a Win98 boot disk with Fdisk and format but for soem
reason
> > it can only fdisk to 60 gigs?
> > Is this because of FAT32 restrictions?
> > Would I be better to format NTFS?
> > Wouldn't it be easier to maintain with FAT32 format?
> >
> > Thank you for your help in this mattter.
> >
> >
> >
>
>

[Mike Brannigan [MSFT]]

Michel,

There is no need to use a boot disk etc to format your drive, you can do
this during he install of Windows XP after booting form the CD ROM.
You can then create a partition for install format it (NTFS recommended) and
then once operational use the built in tools to manage your disks.

--
Regards,

Mike
--
Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights

Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
newsgroups

"Michel Savard" > wrote in message
.. .
> I have just purchased a new system with a 120Gigs harddrive and I tried to
> format it with a Win98 boot disk with Fdisk and format but for soem reason
> it can only fdisk to 60 gigs?
> Is this because of FAT32 restrictions?
> Would I be better to format NTFS?
> Wouldn't it be easier to maintain with FAT32 format?
>
> Thank you for your help in this mattter.
>
>
>

[Mike Brannigan [MSFT]]

Michel - your PC clock appear to be set to the year 2026.
Since we do not wish to have everyone see your post for the next 23 years,
would you mind if I removed it?

--
Regards,

Mike
--
Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights

Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
newsgroups

"Michel Savard" > wrote in message
.. .
> I have just purchased a new system with a 120Gigs harddrive and I tried to
> format it with a Win98 boot disk with Fdisk and format but for soem reason
> it can only fdisk to 60 gigs?
> Is this because of FAT32 restrictions?
> Would I be better to format NTFS?
> Wouldn't it be easier to maintain with FAT32 format?
>
> Thank you for your help in this mattter.
>
>
>

[Andy]

There's an updated version of Fdisk at
<http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];263044>.
Fdisk Does Not Recognize Full Size of Hard Disks Larger than 64 GB

On Tue, 13 Oct 2026 19:15:03 -0400, "Michel Savard"
> wrote:

>I have just purchased a new system with a 120Gigs harddrive and I tried to
>format it with a Win98 boot disk with Fdisk and format but for soem reason
>it can only fdisk to 60 gigs?
>Is this because of FAT32 restrictions?
>Would I be better to format NTFS?
>Wouldn't it be easier to maintain with FAT32 format?
>
>Thank you for your help in this mattter.
>
>

[John E. Carty]

"Mike Brannigan [MSFT]" > wrote in message
...
> Michel,
>
> There is no need to use a boot disk etc to format your drive,

Unless he really wants/needs to create and format a FAT32 partition larger
then 32GB :-)

> you can do
> this during he install of Windows XP after booting form the CD ROM.
> You can then create a partition for install format it (NTFS recommended)
and
> then once operational use the built in tools to manage your disks.
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Mike
> --
> Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]
>
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
> rights
>
> Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
> newsgroups
>
> "Michel Savard" > wrote in message
> .. .
> > I have just purchased a new system with a 120Gigs harddrive and I tried
to
> > format it with a Win98 boot disk with Fdisk and format but for soem
reason
> > it can only fdisk to 60 gigs?
> > Is this because of FAT32 restrictions?
> > Would I be better to format NTFS?
> > Wouldn't it be easier to maintain with FAT32 format?
> >
> > Thank you for your help in this mattter.
> >
> >
> >
>
>

[Michel Savard]

Thank you all for your prompt reply.
I have changed my clock to show 2003 now. Not sure how it got to change?


"Michel Savard" > wrote in message
.. .
> I have just purchased a new system with a 120Gigs harddrive and I tried to
> format it with a Win98 boot disk with Fdisk and format but for soem reason
> it can only fdisk to 60 gigs?
> Is this because of FAT32 restrictions?
> Would I be better to format NTFS?
> Wouldn't it be easier to maintain with FAT32 format?
>
> Thank you for your help in this mattter.
>
>
>

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

Did you mean "not more stable and more secure" or "lot more stable
and more secure?" :-} I'll presume you meant the latter, as that's
the correct statement.


Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH


"cimex" > wrote in message
...
> NTFS is bot more stable and more secure.
>
>
>

[Sharon F]

On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 10:00:52 -0600, Bruce Chambers wrote:

> Greetings --
>
> Did you mean "not more stable and more secure" or "lot more stable
> and more secure?" :-} I'll presume you meant the latter, as that's
> the correct statement.
>
>
> Bruce Chambers

I thought he meant "both more stable and secure" but I could be wrong ;)

--
Sharon F
MS MVP - Windows Shell/User

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

Good point. That does make more sense, doesn't it? Thanks for
pointing out.

Bruce Chambers

--
Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH


"Sharon F" > wrote in message
...
> On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 10:00:52 -0600, Bruce Chambers wrote:
>
>
> I thought he meant "both more stable and secure" but I could be
wrong ;)
>
> --
> Sharon F
> MS MVP - Windows Shell/User

[Wesley VogelX]

Please. 8-)
Wes
"Mike Brannigan [MSFT]" > wrote in message
...
> Michel - your PC clock appear to be set to the year 2026.
> Since we do not wish to have everyone see your post for the next 23 years,
> would you mind if I removed it?
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Mike
> --
> Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]
>
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
> rights
>
> Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
> newsgroups
>
> "Michel Savard" > wrote in message
> .. .
> > I have just purchased a new system with a 120Gigs harddrive and I tried to
> > format it with a Win98 boot disk with Fdisk and format but for soem reason
> > it can only fdisk to 60 gigs?
> > Is this because of FAT32 restrictions?
> > Would I be better to format NTFS?
> > Wouldn't it be easier to maintain with FAT32 format?
> >
> > Thank you for your help in this mattter.
> >
> >
> >
>
>

[R. C. White]

Hi, Michel.

Throw away that MS-DOS boot disk! Or at least hide it so that you won't be
tempted to use it again.

As several others have told you, initial partitioning and formatting can be
done by Setup after booting from the WinXP CD-ROM. After WinXP is
installed, use Disk Management (type diskmgmt.msc from the Run prompt) to
create and delete other partitions, assign or reassign drive letters, and
format them to your choice of FAT or NTFS. As they said, MS restricts the
ability of WinXP to format FAT32 to volumes no larger than 32 GB. If you
insist on larger FAT32 volumes, you will have to find that boot floppy I
told you to hide. According to MS, "The maximum volume size that Windows 98
can create is 127.53 GB."
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/en-us/prork/prdf_fls_pxjh.asp?frame=true

Note that these limits are per VOLUME (primary partition or logical drive in
an extended partition). Since a physical drive can hold several volumes,
the limits per HD are several times the per-volume limits.

FAT or NTFS? Unless you plan to install Win9x/ME on this computer, there's
no reason to use FAT on it. NTFS is much more secure, both in the sense of
secure from unauthorized access and in the sense of secure from hard drive
glitches.

See this TechNet page for more details:
Size Limitations in NTFS and FAT File Systems
http://www.microsoft.com/TechNet/prodtechnol/winxppro/reskit/prkc_fil_tdrn.asp?frame=true

I've been using a 120 GB secondary drive for several months. The largest
volume on it is 60 GB, but that's my choice, not due to any restriction.
Disk Management would have cheerfully created a single partition for the
whole 120 GB if I had asked, and formatted it NTFS.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP

"Michel Savard" > wrote in message
.. .
>
> Thank you all for your prompt reply.
> I have changed my clock to show 2003 now. Not sure how it got to change?
>
>
> "Michel Savard" > wrote in message
> .. .
> > I have just purchased a new system with a 120Gigs harddrive and I tried
to
> > format it with a Win98 boot disk with Fdisk and format but for soem
reason
> > it can only fdisk to 60 gigs?
> > Is this because of FAT32 restrictions?
> > Would I be better to format NTFS?
> > Wouldn't it be easier to maintain with FAT32 format?
> >
> > Thank you for your help in this mattter.

[Treeman]

How does NTFS compared to FAT32 in Windows XP, and which is faster?
Here's a helpful link;
'NTFS.com' (http://www.ntfs.com/)
Treeman


--
Treeman


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[Bert Kinney]

Microsoft Windows XP - Advantages of Using NTFS
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkc_fil_duwx.asp?frame=true

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://dts-l.org/


Treeman wrote:
> How does NTFS compared to FAT32 in Windows XP, and which
> is faster? Here's a helpful link;
> 'NTFS.com' (http://www.ntfs.com/)
> Treeman