Converting FAT32 to NTFS5: Repartition and Reformat, or just use convert tool?

[Noriaki]

I have two hard drives...partitioned in FAT32 running Win2000

I could copy my data off my 2nd hard drive onto my first and repartition and reformat it. Then copy my data over to the 2nd drive and repartiton and reformat the 1st drive.

Is this worth the time it would take?
Or should I just convert d: /fs:ntfs ?

Just as a side note....I'm re-isntalling windows either way (not that it needs it but I'm using a "trial" copy now *cough*juarez*cough* and I'm going to buy it next week so I want to re-install with my own Serial number and what not)...I'm just wondering if I should just convert or if I should reformat...the format would take a bit longer, but if it's worth it I don't really care.

 

[Workin']

I would just convert it. Actually, that's what I did. No problems at all.

 

[AndyHui]

Just use the Convert tool.

 

[Noriaki]

Ouch...I guess it's reformat:



<< When you are using the Convert.exe utility to convert to NTFS, Windows NT always uses a 512-byte cluster size. This is due to the fact that the FAT structures are aligned on 512 byte boundaries, so any larger cluster size would not allow the conversion to function >>

- Pulled from Default Cluster Size for FAT and NTFS from microsoft's support site.

and



<<
- Under FAT-16, under which I could only use a 64K-byte cluster size, the job completed in 1,682 seconds.
- Under FAT-32, with a 4K-byte cluster, the job completed in 2,472 seconds; with a 1K-byte cluster size the job completed in 3,960 seconds; with a 512-byte cluster size the job completed in 7,860 seconds.
- Under NTFS, with a 4K-byte cluster, the job completed in 1,532 seconds; with a 1K-byte cluster size the job completed in 2,963 seconds; with a 512-byte cluster size the job completed in 4,983 seconds.
>>

- From badthad's cut&amp;paste here

NTFS with 4k clusters it is!

 

I learned the hard way about CONVERT, 512 byte clusters do suck. Don't do a Win2k install and let setup format the drive either. It formats the drive as FAT32 then runs CONVERT at the first boot, but you get 4k clusters somehow. The problem with setup is it puts the MFT somewhere other than the start of the disk because on the original FAT32 partition it copies a bunch of temp files from the CD.

The proper way to set up a NTFS drive is to format it &quot;by hand&quot; with &quot;FORMAT /FS:NTFS&quot; That way you will get get 4k clusters and the MFT will be allocated at the very start of the disk.

I finally got a boot partition working with NTFS as per the directions above and it is quick as FAT32 (only a couple points shy of FAT32 on the benchmarks).