my pc runs kinda slow on winxp
633 celeron
384 RAM
40 gb one partition
geforce 2 400 mmx 64 mb

ma friend told me to change or convert my fats32 hd system to ntfs

and how can i do that ? should i fdisk my hd again or i can do it right here in winxp ?
thanks

You can convert just by typing convert x: /fs:ntfs where x is your drive letter. Full details are in the windows help thing.

From what I gather though if you use this method you don't get the most efficient cluster size.

Anyway, I'm moving this to Open.

i need more answers guys c'[mon

The format of the hard drive has little bearing on the speed of your system.
Your friend should have gave you the "your computer's slow because your CPU's old" speech instead.

In fact fat32 is faster than ntfs because you don't have the added overhead of file security.

But if you really feel that you need to convert your HD to ntfs then you can do this easily with partition magic without losing any data.

Well, it might help a bit if he had his hard drive was partitioned into smaller sections, say 8 to 10 GB. It would cut down on hard drive access time at the very least.

Originally posted by ElaineM
Well, it might help a bit if he had his hard drive was partitioned into smaller sections, say 8 to 10 GB. It would cut down on hard drive access time at the very least.

True, because, I notice, when I splitted my 40gb into 10-30, it was much much faster...and FAT32 is good for 10GB...I think anything over 30 or 40GB should be NTFS....I Forgot...but NTFS does provide more security.

Anyways if you still want to convert go to the
"Administrative Tools" --> "Computer Management"--> "Storage" option --> "Disk Managment" then right click on the drive and then you should get some options, (I can't be anymore specific then this becasuse im useing ntfs and can't remember exactly where the option is)

Anyways I think your CPU is a factor and not fat32 which is faster then ntfs.

Overall, you're still better off if you can get your drive converted to ntfs. It's much more stable imo. Here is some info I got on how to convert. I haven't tried this because my drive is already ntfs. You may want to give it a shot.

ConvertConverts FAT and FAT32 volumes to NTFS.

Syntax
convert /fs:ntfs [/cvtarea:FileName] [/nosecurity] [/x]

Parameters
volume
Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon), mount point, or volume name to convert to NTFS.
/fs:ntfs
Required. Converts the volume to NTFS.
/v
Specifies verbose mode, that is, all messages will be displayed during conversion.
/cvtarea:FileName
For advanced users only. Specifies that the Master File Table (MFT) and other NTFS metadata files are written to an existing, contiguous placeholder file. This file must be in the root directory of the file system to be converted. Use of the /CVTAREA parameter can result in a less fragmented file system after conversion. For best results, the size of this file should be 1 KB multiplied by the number of files and directories in the file system, however, the convert utility accepts files of any size.
For more information about using the /cvtarea parameter, see "File Systems" at the Microsoft Windows XP Resource Kits Web site.(http://www.microsoft.com/)

Important

You must create the placeholder file using the fsutil file createnew command prior to running convert. Convert does not create this file for you. Convert overwrites this file with NTFS metadata. After conversion, any unused space in this file is freed. For more information about the fsutil file command, see Related Topics.
/nosecurity
Specifies that the converted files and directory security settings are accessible by everyone.
/x
Dismounts the volume, if necessary, before it is converted. Any open handles to the volume will no longer be valid.
Remarks
You must specify that the drive should be converted when the computer is restarted. Otherwise, you cannot convert the current drive.
If convert cannot lock the drive (for example, the system volume or the current drive), it offers to convert the drive the next time the computer restarts.
The location of the MFT is different on volumes that have been converted from previous version of NTFS, so volume performance might not be as good on volumes converted from Windows NT.
Volumes converted from FAT to NTFS lack some performance benefits compared to volumes initially formatted with NTFS. On converted volumes, the MFT might become fragmented. In addition, on converted boot volumes, NTFS permissions are not applied after the volume is converted.
Examples
To convert the volume on drive E to NTFS and display all messages, type:

convert e: /fs:ntfs /v

P.S. Just in case you're not sure where to put the commands:



Some command-line tools require the user to have administrator-level privileges on source and/or target computers.

Command-line tools must be run at the prompt of the Cmd.exe command interpreter. To open Command Prompt, click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK. To view help at the command-line, at the command prompt, type the following:

CommandName /?