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Technical Help & Discussion => Windows PCs & Software: Help, News & Discussion => Topic started by: Camstop on March 03, 2003, 21:07

Title: NTFS on xp pro or not
Post by: Camstop on March 03, 2003, 21:07

when i do a clean install of win xp should i change to NTFS or stay with fat32.....what should i do.... ???

Title: Re:NTFS on xp pro or not
Post by: Adept on March 03, 2003, 21:12

If you have no other operating systems on the PC you should definitely go NTFS camstop. This will give you the highest levels of reliability and security 8)

Otherwise, if you have a dual boot system, it is sometimes an advantage to be able to view the XP drive from the other operating system, in which case you should use FAT32.

Hope this helps :)

Title: Re:NTFS on xp pro or not
Post by: Sandra on March 03, 2003, 21:16

What happens if you network a PC on 98 and one on XP if its using NTFS,can the 98 PC see and access the XP ones drives  ???

Title: Re:NTFS on xp pro or not
Post by: bat69 on March 03, 2003, 21:19

As far as I know, NTFS is best for XP, and I read somewhere if you are using other operating systems, to have a Fat16 partition for shared files

NTFS is meant to be a much more secure format, and is claimed not to allow anywhere near as much fragmentation of files ... not sure if that claim is 100% true  ;)

The only thing is, if you have win98 or Me (I think), they won't recognise your NTFS partitions

Title: Re:NTFS on xp pro or not
Post by: Adept on March 03, 2003, 21:30

Quote from: Sandra on March 03, 2003, 21:16

What happens if you network a PC on 98 and one on XP if its using NTFS,can the 98 PC see and access the XP ones drives  ???

Yes, it can Sandra 8)

Title: Re:NTFS on xp pro or not
Post by: Sandra on March 03, 2003, 21:46

So why cant it see it if its on same pc(Very confused now of Lancs) ???

Title: Re:NTFS on xp pro or not
Post by: Adept on March 03, 2003, 22:07

Because a network share isn't a drive ;)

The sharing mechanism is standard across Windows versions, whereas Win9x doesn't know how to read NTFS partitions.

Title: Re:NTFS on xp pro or not
Post by: bat69 on March 03, 2003, 22:14

Well I've learned something new tonight  ;D

I must read more on networks ... not done much on them yet

Title: Re:NTFS on xp pro or not
Post by: Hitch on March 04, 2003, 15:06

Bat dude, in regards to your post about stabililty. My laptop is NTFS (purely coz i aint got round to changing it yet) and my desktop is FAT32, I have not found prove yet thta one is more stable than the other.

Infact due to the stability of XP anyway id say it makes ntfs pretty usless unless in extreme network conditions.

Title: Re:NTFS on xp pro or not
Post by: Simon on March 04, 2003, 16:49

Apart from the name, and the apparent increased stability, can someone please explain the difference between FAT32 and NFTS?

Title: Re:NTFS on xp pro or not
Post by: Adept on March 04, 2003, 18:52

This Microsoft article (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/columns/russel/october01.asp) may help Simon.

Title: Re:NTFS on xp pro or not
Post by: Camstop on March 04, 2003, 18:59

Right guys...
i've installed xp..ok.
my c drive is ntfs..but my d drive is fat32.
when i was installing it asked me which drive i wanted the opp system on..and it only gave me the option to change that one to ntfs...
so now i want to convert d drive to ntvs...am i able to do this now and how... ;D

Title: Re:NTFS on xp pro or not
Post by: Adept on March 04, 2003, 19:03

Make sure you have a backup of anything important on d:, go to a Command Prompt and type

Code: [Select]

convert d: /FS:NTFS

Title: Re:NTFS on xp pro or not
Post by: Camstop on March 04, 2003, 19:26

Sounds good adept...but which comand prompt..do i have to put in my win98 boot disk..?

Title: Re:NTFS on xp pro or not
Post by: Adept on March 04, 2003, 19:37

Coomand prompt is XP's version of the old Win9x MS-DOS prompt.

You'll find it in Start | All Programs | Accessories (I think) ;)

Title: Re:NTFS on xp pro or not
Post by: Simon on March 04, 2003, 19:51

In XP do Start > Run then type 'cmd' and press OK.

Title: Re:NTFS on xp pro or not
Post by: Camstop on March 04, 2003, 20:09

Thanks guys ...got it now....