Re: Use of FAT32 with WXP
- From: "Jim Carlock" <spamtrap@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:12:43 -0400
: Is there a way to copy all the files from an NTFS partition to a
: FAT32 partition and vice versa and still have the final NTFS
: partition (after changing from NTFS => FAT32 => NTFS) bootable?
: Also, what might be lost in the process such as which file attributes?
You can copy from NTFS to FAT32 and vice versa with little problems. The
problems you will run into involve NTFS encryption (those are the main
attributes that you'll have to worry about) and possibly some other
details.
NTFS also supports the following file attributes, which I believe FAT and
FAT32 do not (I wouldn't worry about this one too much, but note that
copying files from one disk drive to another may cause problems in keeping
track of dates/times - this IS moreso a problem when copying files to a
CD/DVD using XP to copy the files as opposed to third-party software):
File Modification Time/Date (NTFS only)
File Creation Time/Date (NTFS only)
File (last) Access Time/Date (NTFS only)
whereas FAT/FAT32 only support a creation date (if I remember correctly).
CD's/DVD's only support one date, a creation date.
NTFS also supports encryption whereas you'd need a third-party
tool to support that for FAT/FAT32 (if I recall correctly).
The other big problem alleviated when converting from FAT32 to NTFS
involves the hard disk drive cluster/sector sizes. FAT32 tends to
start creating very large cluster/sector sizes after perhaps a 4GB
partition and NTFS works much better for hard disk drives greater than
4GB in size. As an example, forgive me if the numbers are wrong be-
cause I have not worked with FAT32 in awhile, if your file size was
100 bytes, and the cluster size on the FAT32 machine was 32768 byes,
NTFS cluster sizes tend to run at 4096 bytes for (any?) size hard
disk drive. This means that even the smallest files stored on a FAT32
disk drive take up 32768 bytes of hard disk space, whereas the same
file on an NTFS partition (no need for sub-partitioning on NTFS)
only takes up 4096 bytes.
I'm not sure of the specifics on where FAT32 starts creating huge
cluster sizes, but it tends to become astronomical at a point, and
that's why Microsoft created FAT32, because FAT did not support the
large hard disks (1GB+) that came out and the cluster sizes ended
up absurd. Things have come a long way since the first 60 MB RLL
disk drive I bought.
NTFS also supports file compression as a file/folder attribute where
FAT32 supports compression for a whole disk drive (or partition).
I believe I stated this all properly. If I've forgotten some detail,
or if anyone can correct, please do.
--
Jim Carlock
Natural Cure For Pink-Eye (Conjunctivitis)
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/381336/saliva_a_natural_cure_for_conjunctivitis.html
.
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