my in-laws are still running windows 98

[mack]

that is prolly what im gong to do, but im not going to format the drive in NTFS, as their stuff is in FAT32 and it wont be able to be transferred to an NTFS drive, and FAT32 is better for games anywayz. they have a 13GB HDD and a 160GB HDD, so ima put the OS on the 13GB (if we can find it lol) and the data/progs on the 160GB, that way ill never have to worry about losing their data if their OS crashes, which it will, within the next 6 months, guarunteed

I'm not 100% sure, but I'm sure you can access a FAT32 drive from a NTFS drive.

If you're installing Windows XP on FAT32, get ready to be formatting again. I did this, nothing but crashes and problems. Why? XP Is more designed for NTFS. NTFS provides a lot more secruity then what FAT32 does.

Try this, go in command prompt after you installed XP on NTFS and type:
CONVERT drive NTFS
(I think it's that, if not try looking it up on www.google.com for more information)

This may or may not lose files, you shouldn't as it's converting everything to FAT32 instead. I would surely look this up on the internet before *doing* this.

But, then again if you're not installing XP then I wasted my time

 

[mack]

I found information here is how you convert a drive to NTFS in XP:
convert X: /fs:ntfs /v
Replace X with the drive you want to convert.
You will NOT lose ANY data.
The /v will display the status. It will slow down the process about 50%, so if you're converting that 160 gig harddrive then I recommend not using this. Do it at night, and let it go all night keep a eye on it. This is not required.
Here is where I found this information:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/Q_20711532.html

Here is some information you'd want to read:
http://www.riverbank.co.uk/support/R1234.html

Also, I recommend NOT doing this to your actual OS as it will cause performance issues..

Good luck, I hope I helped!

 

[ekÆsine]

mack i agree with you. your win2k on an ntfs partition should be able to read from fat32 fine. and dethangel i would make a primary partition on the 160GB HDD for the OS and use the 13GB HDD to hold data or just not use it. the newer HDD will make your OS run much faster. the old disk is a bottleneck. and like i said, use ghost or drive image to create a backup of your OS partition if it should fail.

......, as their stuff is in FAT32 and it wont be able to be transferred to an NTFS drive, ....... they have a 13GB HDD and a 160GB HDD, so ima put the OS on the 13GB (if we can find it lol) and the data/progs on the 160GB, that way ill never have to worry about losing their data if their OS crashes, which it will, within the next 6 months, guarunteed

 

[dethangel]

im putting win2k on it, not XP and i like FAT32, they dont have anything that they have to worry about being stolen off of their computer or anything and FAT32 is faster for gaming, their computer is too slow to run XP (only 256MB of pc133 on a P3 @700MHz)

 

[ekÆsine]

yes im aware you are installing win2k. win2k has support for NTFS and as far as which file system would make your games run faster, i have never heard of fat32 having a speed advantage over NTFS. NTFS is more fault tolerant than FAT which is is why i suggested using NTFS not just for better security.

 

[CrashAbbott]

Mack,,

You posted something about having problems with FAT32 on XP,, I have been supporting a small company of 13 pc's that run a mix of win98 and XP,,,

I have had absolutely ZERO problems with my XP machines that are in FAT32??

Now you made me curious,,

going to do some checking on your theory,,,

Plus,, I run 5 pc's at home all in FAT32,, all varying in components and processor and harddrives,,, NO ISSUES...

hmmm,,,, makes ya wonder ,, dont it?

 

[dethangel]

yes im aware you are installing win2k. win2k has support for NTFS and as far as which file system would make your games run faster, i have never heard of fat32 having a speed advantage over NTFS. NTFS is more fault tolerant than FAT which is is why i suggested using NTFS not just for better security.

with the added security does come a slower loading time, ive used both fat32 and ntfs with winxp and fat32 is faster

and crash, stop using so many damn commas, you only need 1 at a time,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, rofl

 

[mack]

Mack,,

You posted something about having problems with FAT32 on XP,, I have been supporting a small company of 13 pc's that run a mix of win98 and XP,,,

I have had absolutely ZERO problems with my XP machines that are in FAT32??

Now you made me curious,,

going to do some checking on your theory,,,

Plus,, I run 5 pc's at home all in FAT32,, all varying in components and processor and harddrives,,, NO ISSUES...

hmmm,,,, makes ya wonder ,, dont it?

Well, that's interesting. All I know is when I ran Windows XP Pro. edition on my Compaq Presario 5000, 700MHZ Amd DURON, 256MB ram, 20 gig HD it was laggy and very slow. It could of been my system.

Later, I built a AMD Duron 1.2GHZ (upgrading to athlon when I get $$, it was a combo deal =x!) and I had same problems.
The specs of it are
Window XP Pro. Edition
AMD Duron 1.2ghz
512MB DDR Ram
80 GIG Maxtor HD
20 GIG Western Digital HD
8 GIG western digital HD (Linux) HD

Laggy and very slow. I then formatted to NTFS, no problems whats so ever.

Now I installed Windows XP Pro on my laptop with FAT32, Amd athlon 1.33GHZ, 256MB ram, 4200 RPM HD

I had same problem. Three computers, and the same problem. Maybe AMD Doesn't like FAT32 and Windows XP? Maybe it's a hardware conflict, but in all three computers? By the way, all of them run XP Pro right now and run great. I don't understand.

My friend is in college, and works with computers even told me that FAT32 would be faster then NTFS but not noticable. I would recommend researching this

with the added security does come a slower loading time, ive used both fat32 and ntfs with winxp and fat32 is faster

and crash, stop using so many damn commas, you only need 1 at a time,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, rofl

Yea, what is with the commas? lol If you're on a slower computer, this may be noticable but I'm on faster newer computers so all I noticed was laggy.

Like I mentioned earlier in this post, all 3 of my computers run great on XP with NTFS.

Maybe I'm wrong? I don't really know, now

 

[Apokalipse]

im putting win2k on it, not XP and i like FAT32, they dont have anything that they have to worry about being stolen off of their computer or anything and FAT32 is faster for gaming, their computer is too slow to run XP (only 256MB of pc133 on a P3 @700MHz)

hey, you do know I'm running XP on a P3 500 MHZ with 192 MB of RAM
now we've had 98 on our computer and XP runs soooo much better, so if my 500 MHZ computer is running XP so can your 700 MHZ computer!

 

[Apokalipse]

and I said above, Windows XP has a compatibility option so you can run more programs than 2000 (like older Win95 games)