Win 2K

[fraelorn]

What are the advantages of converting a hard drive over to NTFS from FAT 32??

I have two hard drives, both running under FAT 32 with Win 2K installed. Can anyone get me any info on this??

------------------
Übergamer: He who dies with the most frags wins.

[diurnal]

NTFS is the way to go man FAT 32 holds 2 terabytes and NTFS holds 16 exabytes. I dont know how much this is but its alot. Also Ive read NTFS does not fragment like fat 32. I have used ntfs for a while and its ausome. Ive never crashed with 2k, its lot more stable than fat32. Futhermore you know when you close down windows by hitting your reset button and then You have to wait for scandisk to check your drive in NTFS it doesnt have to scan your hard drive it just boots right on up ausome if you ask me!! The only problem with windows 2000 is its not compatible with many games but thats my problem other than that I would take NTFS over Fat 32 any day.

[fraelorn]

I've been running Win 2K for a few weeks now, mebbe a month. I play lots of games myself, have yet to run into problems with them. I have noticed some drivers don't appear to work, but it could be just the new Detonator driver. (Anyone else have experiences with this?)

Also, I've been noticing Iexplore errors along with Explorer errors, fairly random. The Iexplore errors seem to occur after browsing around on the internet for about 5-6 minutes. Any advice on this other than formatting, which I was planning on doing.. ?

------------------
Übergamer: He who dies with the most frags wins.

[hiredgoonz]

NTFS allows you to hide partitions, password protect partitions, allows better file recovery in case of crashes, and is supposed to be less prone to fragmentation...it also does not have the 4gb file size limit that fat32 has...all these goodies come at the price of more memory overhead...

[mjc]

1 terabyte = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes. 1 trillion bytes. (2^40) (12 80GB and a 40GB hard drives)

1 exabyte = 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 bytes (2^60) (more than any sane person wants to think aboout....)

And try here (http://www.ccsf.caltech.edu/~roy/dataquan/) for some interesting comparisons....
------------------
mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/highrise/11/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.


[This message has been edited by mjc (edited 05-23-2001).]

[CLTEK]

I have questions...

What in the heck would the average user do with a 'terabyte' or an 'exabyte' of information?! I mean, really. LOL

In audio recording circles, I've heard that NTFS is the way to go for realtime tracking. Form what I understand, using NTFS allows the heads to move across the suface of the platter faster to make for more efficient data transfer rates that better support the demands or studio quality audio recording. Would this be correct?

If fragmenting is such a concern for FAT32, wouldn't running 'defrag' fix that? Personally, I run scandisk daily and defrag before and after any recording session or cd burn. Never had any problems with FAT32. Go figger. <shrug>

Cory

------------------
Age and Treachery will forever triumph over Youth and Skill.

[Paleo Pete]

The PC Guide's NTFS (http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/ntfs/index.htm) section has lots of good info concerning the NTFS file system, implementation, compatibility etc. NTFS is very stable, and in most cases coexists well with a FAT16 or FAT32 partition on the same machine.

One thing you have to watch out for is that with NTFS along with the added security features, you get the problem that a win95 or 98 system can't read the NTFS drive.

NTFS was designed by MS specifically to run the NT OS, and is probably the best way to go for the partition containing the OS, but if you're planning to use the machine in question as a file server it would be a good idea to leave one partition as FAT32 so win 9x/ME machines can deal with it. Otherwise if you save a file on the NTFS partition the other machines can't read it with another OS...

------------------
So many idiots, and only six bullets...
Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)

[hiredgoonz]

I've never had any trouble that I could say was from my file system being fat32...you're right, if you scandisk and defrag as recommended, you'll be ok...

I haven't converted any of my systems to ntfs simply because I need the accessibility from any machine on my network, some of which run 9x (a very good point Pete made about 9x not being compatible with ntfs) so I'd end up needing 2 or more copies of all my files and since I run a few dual-boot machines, it ends up being a hassle, plus, to convert back to fat32, you'll need 3rd party software...

Other reasons I don't use ntfs are: I have some hardware that is not compatible with 2k (why I still have 9x) and I don't really have the need for the additional features of ntfs...eventually I'll probably go to it, but right now the benefits are outweighed by the sacrifices I'd have to make...

It all depends on what you do with your system...when you get right down to it, alot of people could do just fine w/486s or slow Pentiums as long as they just browsed the web and emailed...if you don't need accessiblity from 9x machines and you can benefit from a slightly more versatile file system, give it a try...

[fraelorn]

Thanks alot guys! I really appreciate the info.. I do think I'll be ordering that 60 GB Maxtor UDMA 100 drive from Solutions 4 Sure soon along with the P-100 adapter card. So, mebbe formatting will not be required.. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif
Thanks alot for the info though, much appreciated.
-Peace

------------------
Übergamer: He who dies with the most frags wins.