FAT32 to NTFS

[sam7]

Hi all,

I'm considering to convert my boot drive from FAT32 to NTFS in WinXP Pro (SP1).

A few questions please:

1. My HDD is partitioned into drives C, D and E (all FAT32). All my games are installed on D-drive (60 GB). Can I have NTFS on C-drive (boot drive) and FAT32 on D-drive and play games like that? (or will D-drive also need to be converted to NTFS?)

2. Is NTFS fully compatible with games (as faultless as FAT32)?

3. I know that with NTFS I cannot boot to DOS via a stiffy any more. I find the Recovery Console to be a poor substitute. Is there an alternative method to get to "DOS" with NTFS?

4. Is NTFS significantly faster than FAT32?

5. Any major problems with NTFS?

Thanks a lot
Chris.

[Play_The_0dds]

ntfs is actually a little slower compared to fat32, you really wont gain much by converting, the main reason to use it is stability, it manages ram and page file better with a ntfs system so you dont have to reboot often, but game play is not as good on ntfs as on fat. if you convert you will not get all the security as if you did a clean install of xp on a formatted ntfs drive. if you dont want to format and install a clean ntfs xp i suggest you leave it fat32 or you will not be happy with the results. there is a command to convert the drive just type it in the run command, i will have to find where i have it written down, or someone else will post it if you still want to do this.

[snowmonkey]

Just type in convert on command prompt,, it will give you all the options.

C:\>convert /?
Converts FAT volumes to NTFS.

CONVERT volume /FS:NTFS [/V]

volume Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon),
mount point, or volume name.
/FS:NTFS Specifies that the volume to be converted to NTFS.
/V Specifies that Convert should be run in verbose mode.


cheers

[sam7]

Thanks guys. So since my system is mainly for gaming, I'll just stick to FAT32 for the time being.
Much appreciated.

[Azn_tweaker]

i thought NTFS was faster than FAT32

[sam7]

Two last questions please:

1. I read that the native WinXP Pro Defrag program does NOT defrag the NTFS MFT. Does Norton Speed Disk (Norton Systemworks 2003) defrag the MFT, or do I need another program, and if so, which programs are good ones?

2. Is there a utility (driver) I can use to gain full read/write access to NTFS partitions from Win98SE?

Thanks a lot

[waresoft]

Originally posted by sam7
Two last questions please:

1. I read that the native WinXP Pro Defrag program does NOT defrag the NTFS MFT. Does Norton Speed Disk (Norton Systemworks 2003) defrag the MFT, or do I need another program, and if so, which programs are good ones?

Thanks a lot

I use PerfectDisk it, in my opinion, is the best defragger out there and it will defrag the MFT and the Meta Data Files on reboot.

Originally posted by Azn_tweaker
i thought NTFS was faster than FAT32

NTFS is faster than FAT32 on partitions larger than 20GB. For partitions smaller than 20GB FAT32 blows NTFS out of the water!

[Play_The_0dds]

waresoft's post reminded me of another point, ntfs partitions or drives can be up to 2 tera bytes, fat32 can only go up to 32 gig, it will format and work on a bigger partition or drive, but doesnt work correctly. so if you have a large drive or partitions(above 32 gig) ntfs is needed.