can i install XP with NTFS on one partition while leaving FAT32 on the other partitions?

[jonnyjack]

i'm currently using 98SE and have 3 forty gig partitions on FAT32. i want to reformat and install XP on the main partition. is it possible to keep FAT32 on the 2nd and 3rd partitions during installation? after XP is installed, i would like to copy the files from the other two partitions to the main partition and convert those to NTFS also. is that possible? or is there any reason to keep the the 2nd and 3rd as FAT32? thanks for your help!

 

[ColKurtz]

Yes -you can keep them Fat32. You could also convert them to NTFS - you don't even need to copy the data over to the XP drive. You can use the convert.exe command to convert from FAT32 to NTFS without data loss (though it's always a good idea to back up important files). Only good reason to keep them FAT32 is for compatibility with Linux or other non-NTFS-aware OS's.

 

[bdoople]

Although most Linux distributions have NTFS support, it is Read-Only. Fedora Core for example does not have it out-of-the-box, but a simple search on Google will give you support.