NTFS Newb! Knowledge Needed

[gtd2000]

I?ve just formatted and installed win XP on my replacement 120GB Maxtor HD (old one suffered mechanical failure). On this particular occasion I decided to format the drive using the NTFS files system as opposed to the usual FAT32 that I?ve been using all of these years.

The question I have is that when I connected my old FAT32 formatted HD it did not appear to be recognized in windows.

Is this because I?m using the NTFS file system for windows and I cannot mix NTFS and FAT32 drives/file systems on the same computer?

If not I guess I need to format and re-install in FAT32?

 

[Viper96720]

I think NTFS can read fat 32 formatted but fat 32 can't read ntfs formatted. Check the Anandtech FAQ

 

[minendo]

Originally posted by: Viper96720
I think NTFS can read fat 32 formatted but fat 32 can't read ntfs formatted. Check the Anandtech FAQ

You are correct. As long as your os is on the NTFS, then you can read FAT32 drives.

 

[gtd2000]

Thanks for the quick replies

I'll look into this later after work

 

[Accord99]

The explanation is not quite true. It all depends on the OS you're using, Windows XP will read Fat 32 because it has the drivers to do so, as will Windows 2000. Windows NT does not.

 

[Arcanedeath]

Their is a program (of which I forget the name) for Windows NT 4.0 that lets it use Fat 32 and I think w/ SP 6 or 6a you can at least read fat 32 volumes, dunno about writing them tho. Hope this helps...

 

[extro]

I've got a mix of 4 FAT32 and 2 NTFS partitions spread across two drives. XP is installed on a FAT32 partition and has no trouble reading/writing any partition.

Check to see if the second drive is installed properly and is recognized in Disk Management.

 

[gtd2000]

Well I?ve got my WD 60GB which is using the FAT 32 system working perfectly now.

I think the reason that I had a problem with my other drive is because something went wrong with the boot sector?

I?ll go through the run up to this whole fiasco:

When I moved up to Canada from Florida in May my PC was sent via FedEx ? well at some point in the journey somebody played basketball or football with all of my packages. You should have seen the state of the stuff ? unbelievable!!!

Anyway my primary 80GB HD failed which is now replaced with a 120GB using the NTFS file system. I had a spare 40GB drive which I used until I swapped it for the NTFS file system HD. I started getting shutdowns and then one day I got a message at post, something along the lines of ?NTFLR not found?..?

After a couple of days of scratching my head it was discovered that in the move the IDE cable had been slightly rubbed which was causing any drive to be recognized as 7.811GB.

This really threw me off until I changed the IDE cable. Once the cable was changed the true size of the drives was established.

My original 40GB drive was partitioned and would be recognized by windows but none of the information appears to be accessible and the partitions have disappeared. I guess that the damaged cable must have had a greater effect on the drive than I would have expected?

 

[thorin]

What do you see when you go to:

Administrative Tools : Computer Management : Storage : Local Drives
(Might be slightly different in XP .... I'm on a 2K box right now)

Thorin

 

[gtd2000]

Originally posted by: thorin
What do you see when you go to:

Administrative Tools : Computer Management : Storage : Local Drives
(Might be slightly different in XP .... I'm on a 2K box right now)

Thorin

It shows the 40GB drive as 3X GB in one partition. I'm at the office right now - can check later though