Lyceum

I heard NTFS is a better format for virtual memory than FAT32. But my hard drive is already formatted to FAT32 and with Win XP already on there.

Does this matter for better performance?

linderman

fat 32 cant store files larger than 4gig fat32 doesnt support drives well that are larger than 127gig


convert your drive to NTFS and lose no data

http://www.tech-faq.com/convert-fat32-to-ntfs.shtml

Lyceum

Is there any advantage to Fat32? Also why would anyone need partition on thier drives? I would rather use the whole hard drive for C:\

Lyceum

Can I do this on MS-DOS prompt before Windows XP is loaded? I would like to do this when it's stable.

linderman

only advantage to Fat32 that I can think of is if you want to use an old Win OS like 98 or ME those need fat32 or linux needs fat32

the convert is done easily within the Windows environment dont know about doing it thru the ms-dos ??

fat32 wastes more drive space too = not that its such a big deal anymore with the size of hard drives ????????????????

partitions are very useful to sperate data, pictures, programs etc

more partitions allows you to keep back-up duplicates although making a back-up copy and keeping it on the same drive as the original is almost no back-up at all.

faster defrag when the partition is smaller ????

I see no advantage to a big huge "C" drive especially when you realize the full potential to drive imaging for back up >>>>> the only bad part of imaging is it copies empty data sectors as well as sectors that have data
coping empty data sectors just makes an un-necessary bloated image file

Lyceum

Ah ok,thanks for the info. I meant the command prompt before Win XP loads, my hard drive is glitching. I think I should fix it before I convert this?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v232/Lyceum/XP/HD.jpg

On another thread,people are helping me with the glitch,no good so far.

linderman

i would not try the conversion unless the drive was stable

Lyceum

Ah ok,thanks. I will have to fix that first.

TheMatt

Kubuntu on my laptop can read NTFS volumes, but it can only read them, while it can read/write to FAT32 partitions. FAT32 is good for backing up because some backup programs that backup disk images can only do so to FAT32 volumes. Also, generally use FAT for flash drives for compatibility.

BTW, I have 3 partitions on my laptop that I use, a 40 GB partition for Windows and my programs (NTFS), a 20 GB partition for all my backup in case I ever have to format C: and reinstall Windows (NTFS), and a 15 GB partition on which Kubuntu Linux runs on (ext3) Having multiple partitions can be helpful, and having multiple drives is even better, as your backed up data will be there not only if you have to format, but if one drive fails. That's why I have 2 flash drives plus an MP3 player for redundant data backups. With that in mind, all my school work is stored in 3 places at any one time, on my hard drive in my home folder, on a 512 MB flash drive that stays at my laptop, and on a 256 MB flash drive that goes to school with me every day.