malau on 20/6/2009 at 17:46
I installed XP Pro the other day, and it offered me the choice of converting my FAT32 hard disk to NTFS.
I've gone and read alot of online stuff about the pros and cons of each, none of which are important to me (file size / partition limit, security, can't easily go back to FAT32 blah blah). I just want to know which is the standard file system that everyone else uses with XP and that I should use ???
If I convert to NTFS will it stop games running ?
I'm pissed off with XP because it is nowhere near as fast as Win ME despite disabling loads of services and switching off the fancy menu fades etc.
I was hoping maybe it was slow because I am using it under FAT32 ??
Also I have read conflicting accounts that 'convert.exe' sets the sector size way too small and makes NTFS really slooooooow. And somewhere else said that Microsoft had fixed this issue.
Enchantermon on 20/6/2009 at 18:20
NTFS is the standard.
As long as you're just installing Windows, you don't have to convert FAT32 to NTFS if you don't want to. However, if you ever try to reformat a hard drive with XP, you have to use NTFS if the drive is larger than 32 GB.
Also, Microsoft has stated that on a FAT32 file system, you cannot create a file that 4 GB or larger. I highly doubt that you would ever need to, however, unless you plan on using the computer to make backup ISOs of games or DVDs.
As far as games are concerned, you need to worry about XP more than the file system. XP will probably kill some of them, but there are ways around that (compatibility modes, DosBox, etc.) That's what Google is for.
Al_B on 20/6/2009 at 20:26
Quote Posted by malau
I just want to know which is the standard file system that everyone else uses with XP and that I should use ??? /QUOTE]
NTFS
(yes, it's that simple).
Renzatic on 20/6/2009 at 20:55
Yup. There are no disadvantages or quirks to be had by switching from FAT32 to NTFS.
malau on 21/6/2009 at 04:07
OK, thankyou very much. NTFS it is then - as soon as I get up the nerve to execute the dreaded 'convert.exe'.
Koki on 21/6/2009 at 08:50
I am pretty sure the conversion is 100% safe.
Nameless Voice on 22/6/2009 at 14:38
NTFS.
Just bear in mind that you can't run any pre-NT operating system from an NTFS drive (e.g. Win98, ME won't be able to read it).
Displacer on 22/6/2009 at 15:05
Meh, that's what a virtual machine is for
