Is it a good idea to create an extra FAT32 partition on my WinXP machine?

[beefkake]

I'm in the process of putting WindowsXP on my new system, and I plan to use NTFS as my primary filesystem. Would it be a good idea to add a small (1GB or so) FAT32 partition to my drive in case I ever need to access the file system from a boot disk? Are there easy alternatives to doing this? I saw a program in the Anandtech FAQ that lets you access NTFS partitions from DOS, but it cost about $250. Do most people bother creating the second FAT32 partition?

Thanks for the info.

 

[uhohibrokeit]

i use all NTFS...

ive never had the need to boot off a floppy to MSDOS and access anything onthe hard drive...

 

[BCYL]

Well even if you can boot into the FAT32 partition using a bootdisk, u still wont be able to access the files in the NTFS partition... so what good does that do you?

If you are that concern, then why dont u just use FAT32 for your main partition (if you dont need all the security features NTFS offers)?

 

[CQuinn]

you can also boot from the XP CD, which would give you the ability to read NTFS if needed for a recovery.

I think you can still install the Recovery Console, like you could under Windows 2000; which gives you the
ability to boot to an NT command prompt from the Hard drive, in case you put the CD away and can't find it.

 

[beefkake]

Basically, the point is I can put any files I want to access (like a bios update or something) on the fat32 partition. Also, if I want to ghost my drive, I can write the ghost to the fat32 partition. That's basically the gyst of why people did this with Windows 2000. I basically just wanted to figure out if this was no longer necessary in Windows XP, or if it was still done.

 

[beefkake]

Does booting from the XP cd allow you to run DOS commands at a DOS prompt or NT prompt?

 

[AndyHui]

It's an NT Command Prompt. Most DOS-style commands still work.