FAT32 or NTFS

Rev

After months of umming and ahing about what laptop to get, and almost buying a dell I went for the acer 5051 from eBuyer. Added and extra 512 and un-installed all the crap that came on it and I'm really happy with it.

But I noticed last night that it's FAT32 not NTFS. The drive has in three partitions, a partition with windows on and another 25gig partition.

My question is s it worth converting them to NTFS? Or should I just leave them be? And If I do convert can I do so without losing any data. And how do I convert all three partitions? Since they're all the same drive will they all need to be converted at the same time?

Thanks

Chippy_Minton

FAT32 has a maximum file size of 4 GB so if you have large files (e.g. databases or videos) you won't be able store files bigger than that.

You can have FAT32 and NTFS partitions on the same physical drive and each partition is converted separately. You won't lose data if you convert - see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307881.

startrekker

How to HERE
And read this HERE from Microsoft

ReadyBet

pro's and con's are outlined here...

http://www.theeldergeek.com/ntfs_or_fat32_file_system.htm

Rev

Thanks for the replies. I was basically just worried about losing data on the recovery drive. And just to double chek, the recovery partition is called PQSERVICE, no letter, so if I decide to convert it'll be

C:\> CONVERT PQSERVICE: /fs:ntfs

sorry if it's a stupid question, just don't want to mess anything up.

Ivan_Konstantinov

well you should backup your stuff,which you should do anyway if you so worried:money:

GreenNotM

Rev wrote:

Thanks for the replies. I was basically just worried about losing data on the recovery drive. And just to double chek, the recovery partition is called PQSERVICE, no letter, so if I decide to convert it'll be

C:\> CONVERT PQSERVICE: /fs:ntfs

sorry if it's a stupid question, just don't want to mess anything up.

If that is Acer's recovery partition - I would not convert it without confirming with Acer that their recovery tools will work with an NTFS partition.

Do the partition with Xp on it and - what is on the 3rd partition ?

back up your data etc before you do anything, but check with Acer before touching their recovery partition

albertross_2

Rev wrote:

sorry if it's a stupid question, just don't want to mess anything up.

If it aint broke..

Rev

Thanks for the replies. Having just bought the laptop there's nothing on it to back up. I'll check with acer about the recovery partition.