NTFS Help

I just successfully converted over to XP from 98SE without losing anything, just minor reinstall's. I am new to XP and wanted the secure/hidden file feature with XP Pro.
I know how to do it but will I lose anything doing it? Any risks that anyone has experienced. Thanks. (current Fat32)

Just as someone here has said, 999 times out of 1000 all goes well. My conversion was in the 999 area. I don't want to push my luck.

 

You ought to back up your personal files first; address book, documents, pictures, etc. But that's a good idea in any event.

After that, the conversion should go smoothly. I have never seen a problem with 2K or XP and have yet to read on here about anyone who actually had one. Not to say they can't happen but they seem very rare. The 999/1000 was about right for NT4 I think but high for 2K/XP.

I had to convert both the XP systems I have at home. Built by a local guy who is great on hardware but for some reason decided to do the OS load as Fat32 without asking me. I didn't think to specify either since with a new single boot (XP only) system it didn't occur to me that anyone would want to go with FATxx.

 

There is always that risk. If anything were to happen in the process (cat pulls the plug, someone shorts the toaster with a butter-knife, etc.), you would be pretty much sunk and need to format.

Failing that, the process should proceed without a hitch and give you the stability and security of NTFS. You will hardly ever see chkdsk run trying to repair those errors that FAT32 is prone to.

But---
Using XP's converter has a problem. The cluster size is very small, 512 bytes instead of the usual NTFS 4k. This can lead to a slower system that is more prone to fragmentation, though others that have done it don't seem to notice.

If I were you, I would use an app like Partition Magic to convert first to FAT32 aligned with 4k cluster size, and then to NTFS with 4k cluster size.

 

Take a look at New in File Systems. XP-pro now behaves lots better with CONVERT.

 

Thanks Newt. What will they think of next?

 

Getting it right the first time? Naaaa. That would be way too simple for them.

 

Hi,

I would agree that Partition Magic 8 is a good software to convert your partitions, and also fast. I tried it for myself. NTFS is a much more stable partition than FAT32, so there should be no problem if u convert it. If there is really a serious problem (in case u have old softwares that are very sensitive) which is quite unlikely to happen, then Partition Magic have the ability to convert it back to FAT32 or even FAT16.

Hope this helps

 

Thank you for all of your replies.

 

Again thanks for the info.
I just have one question. With the improvement to the XP NTFS tool, since my OS came from 98SE, I presume 512, do I still need to use partitionmagic and convert first to fat32 4k then NTFS 4k or am I okay now to just use the XP convert tool. (not have my system slow).

 

I have been using XP Pro for about 8 months now, without any probs. I originally used FAT. A few weeks ago, I had to do a reinstall and decided to go with NTFS. I had a lot of trouble with the reinstall and finally had to use an old Win98 start up just to get the machine to boot. With that disk, I formatted the drive. Then I installed XP and chose NTFS. I gather from Arie's comment above that I may still have clusters of size 512. Can this explain my strange behavior? The computer is now soooo slow. I haven't tried any apps other than Word 2000, but it is intolerable.
It would be a simple matter to go back to square 1, if some sort of reinstall is indicated. Is that what needs to be done?