Fat32 vs NTFS ?

I have XP home, while defraging (takes forever) I see that I have Fat32. Is
that why it takes so long and should I convert to NTFS. If so how do I
convert? Thanks

Yes. Defragging FAT32 takes a lot longer to do. The speed difference is
astounding once you compare the two.

To convert:
Just go to the Command Prompt and execute the command:

C:\ CONVERT C: /fs:ntfs
Where C: is a name of the drive you want to convert.

After machine re-boot conversion process will start and you'll have your
FAT32 converted to NTFS without of data loss.

You may want to read this article first:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q307881

--
~john aka: jopa




Curtis wrote:
I have XP home, while defraging (takes forever) I see that I have Fat32.
Is that why it takes so long and should I convert to NTFS. If so how do I
convert? Thanks

"Curtis" wrote:

I have XP home, while defraging (takes forever) I see that I have Fat32. Is
that why it takes so long and should I convert to NTFS. If so how do I
convert? Thanks

NTFS is much better for XP, especially on larger hard drives (did you
mention defrag time -- the answer to your question is yes). There should be
a conversion utility as part of system tools. Also, here is a Microsoft
article that explains the procedure.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q307881

Not only will you get better performance, fewer disk errors, and shorter
defrags, but NTFS also has lots of cool security/privacy features that FAT32
does not have.

Ken

Curtis wrote:
I have XP home, while defraging (takes forever) I see that I have
Fat32. Is that why it takes so long and should I convert to NTFS. If
so how do I convert? Thanks

You should convert, for several reasons.

Ken Gardner wrote:


NTFS is much better for XP, especially on larger hard drives (did you
mention defrag time -- the answer to your question is yes). There should be
a conversion utility as part of system tools. Also, here is a Microsoft
article that explains the procedure.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q307881

Not only will you get better performance, fewer disk errors, and shorter
defrags, but NTFS also has lots of cool security/privacy features that FAT32
does not have.


The one problem I have noticed with NTFS is how frameted the drives do
get, and quicker than fat 32. That is the one main problem with NTFS.

"AD" wrote:

The one problem I have noticed with NTFS is how fragmented the drives do
get, and quicker than fat 32. That is the one main problem with NTFS.

Does it? I don't know, at least not as a general rule. However, if NTFS
does get fragmented more often, the reason is because it uses 4kb file
cluster sizes instead of the larger cluster sizes that FAT32 uses. To make a
long story short, this essentially means that NTFS wastes less space on the
hard drive than FAT32, which in turn means that a defragmented (or, in some
cases, even a slightly fragmented) NTFS drive will be faster and more
efficient than a defragmented FAT32 drive. The bigger the hard drive, the
greater the advantages of NTFS over FAT32. Also, a NTFS drive defragments
much faster. An NTFS drive is lot less prone to disk errors, and does a much
better job of recovering from such errors. And a NTFS drive gives you
security and privacy features that are unavailable on FAT32 drives.

Really, there is no good reason to use FAT32 unless you need it to boot a
second operating system that requires it, or -- to get hypertechnical -- you
save lots of large files on a small hard drive (but who the heck does THAT
nowadays??).

Ken

jopa66 wrote:
Yes. Defragging FAT32 takes a lot longer to do. The speed difference
is astounding once you compare the two.

To convert:
Just go to the Command Prompt and execute the command:

C:\ CONVERT C: /fs:ntfs
Where C: is a name of the drive you want to convert.

After machine re-boot conversion process will start and you'll have
your FAT32 converted to NTFS without of data loss.

You may want to read this article first:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q307881


Can the conversion be reversed? I have a few drives I would like to be able
to place into HDD drawers in Win98 machines temporarily.

J.

Jimmy wrote:

jopa66 wrote:

Yes. Defragging FAT32 takes a lot longer to do. The speed difference
is astounding once you compare the two.

To convert:
Just go to the Command Prompt and execute the command:

C:\ CONVERT C: /fs:ntfs
Where C: is a name of the drive you want to convert.

After machine re-boot conversion process will start and you'll have
your FAT32 converted to NTFS without of data loss.

You may want to read this article first:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q307881



Can the conversion be reversed? I have a few drives I would like to be able
to place into HDD drawers in Win98 machines temporarily.

J.


Nope. Not with native Windows. I've read there was 3rd party stuff that can.

Steve

Steve N. wrote:



Nope. Not with native Windows. I've read there was 3rd party stuff that
can.

Partition magic can reverse it.
That is what I had to do to get my system running ME.

Ken Gardner wrote:

The one problem I have noticed with NTFS is how fragmented the drives do
get, and quicker than fat 32. That is the one main problem with NTFS.


Does it? I don't know, at least not as a general rule. However, if NTFS
does get fragmented more often, the reason is because it uses 4kb file
cluster sizes instead of the larger cluster sizes that FAT32 uses. To make a
long story short, this essentially means that NTFS wastes less space on the
hard drive than FAT32, which in turn means that a defragmented (or, in some
cases, even a slightly fragmented) NTFS drive will be faster and more
efficient than a defragmented FAT32 drive. The bigger the hard drive, the
greater the advantages of NTFS over FAT32. Also, a NTFS drive defragments
much faster. An NTFS drive is lot less prone to disk errors, and does a much
better job of recovering from such errors. And a NTFS drive gives you
security and privacy features that are unavailable on FAT32 drives.

I really do find that my drives get fragmented a lot with NTFS, I know
the contents of my video drive do change a lot, but it never got in the
same mess with FAT32. as for the length of time it takes to defrag a
drive, that is not an issue with me, as I leaves the computer on over
night and get the computer to defrag when I am asleep.
Security or privacy is also only an issue if your computer is multi user.




Really, there is no good reason to use FAT32 unless you need it to boot a
second operating system that requires it, or -- to get hypertechnical -- you

but there is, even when I was running XP, my USB drive was formated with
FAT32, as it meant I could move it between computers that had any
windows OS on. All my data drives are also FAT32, due to the fact that
if anything went wrong with this computer, I could still take the drive
to mates place and get data of them.
FAT32 has it advantages, because if the drive do have a problem, you got
more chance of rescuing the files.


save lots of large files on a small hard drive (but who the heck does THAT
nowadays??).

Some might I suppose.

My zip drive is FAT32.

André Gulliksen wrote:
Curtis wrote:

I have XP home, while defraging (takes forever) I see that I have
Fat32. Is that why it takes so long and should I convert to NTFS. If
so how do I convert? Thanks


You should convert, for several reasons.


It is no good saying you should convert for several reasons and then not
state those reasons.

so what are those reasons?

Curtis wrote:
| I have XP home, while defraging (takes forever) I see that I have
| Fat32. Is that why it takes so long and should I convert to NTFS. If
| so how do I convert? Thanks

I had a second harddrive formatted to FAT32 and when I tried to defrag
it in XP I received a message from XP that it would not work correctly.
So I weighed some isssues and reformatted the drive to NTFS.

How do i make a NTFS boot disk ?

I know i would want one and a few copies just incase i would need them
?


On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 18:48:04 -0500, "BBUNNY" wrote:

Curtis wrote:
| I have XP home, while defraging (takes forever) I see that I have
| Fat32. Is that why it takes so long and should I convert to NTFS. If
| so how do I convert? Thanks

I had a second harddrive formatted to FAT32 and when I tried to defrag
it in XP I received a message from XP that it would not work correctly.
So I weighed some isssues and reformatted the drive to NTFS.

AD wrote:
It is no good saying you should convert for several reasons and then
not state those reasons.

Well, IMNSHO the topic is a no brainer. FAT32 or NTFS? In most scenarios,
there are multiple reasons for NTFS, and rarely any at all for FAT32. That's
why I didn't bother going into details.

so what are those reasons?

From the top of my head:

- Added security through file permissions

- Less risk of loss and corruption of data

- Smaller cluster size, causing less data overhead and lower performance
impact from fragmentation

- Native compression support

- Native encryption support

- Better long file name support

- Support for larger files and larger number of files

As for pro-FAT32 I can only think of one single legitimate reason, and that
is if you need to be able to write to the disk from operating systems not
based on NT. Personally I have one single (relatively small) FAT32 partition
to interchange data between Windows XP and FreeBSD. All other Windows
partitions are NTFS.

Paul M wrote:
How do i make a NTFS boot disk ?

I know i would want one and a few copies just incase i would need them
?

What do you mean "NTFS boot disk"? Normally I would say that whenever you
install XP onto an XP partition with a bootloader loading that partition,
there's your NTFS boot disk.

If you mean you want to be able to boot from removable media and retrieve
files from an NTFS formatted disk I know at least two options:

1) Knoppix (http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html). Linux based
live-CD. Full desktop environment, CD burner, network support, NTFS read
support, the works. No assembly required, just download and roast.

2) BartPE (http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/). Builds a boot CD which basically
boots a stripped down Windows XP, with a few useful tools thrown in. NTFS
read/write support. The actual building of this CD may be daunting for a
beginner, though. But if you're serious it's worth checking out.