NTFS vs FAT32
A friend called the other day with a Windows XP computer that all of a sudden wouldn’t load Windows. Apparently it was reporting that a couple of key files were missing.
He booted from the CD into the recovery console (must not have had it loaded, I always load on any installs I do). But he could not get the files to copy.
I suggested trying a different CD drive, as often that seems to fix the problem (what do you expect for under $40 these days?). That fixed that problem.
Next issue: why did this happen in the first place? Well, when he told me that he could boot with a Windows 98 floppy and read the files I knew his drive was formatted as FAT32 and not NTFS. NTFS is a more secure file system, but it also has error checking built in that makes it less likely to fail in the first place.
To convert your drive to NTFS:
- Backup your PC
- Verify your backup - This conversion is NOT prone to problems; but what if the power goes out, or someone kicks the plug accidentally?
- At a command prompt, type (without the quotes) “convert [drive letter]: /fs:ntfs” which will likely be “convert c: /fs:ntfs”
Now, in all fairness, this could lead to a small performance penalty. This is due to cluster sizes with NTFS, potential fragmentation and some overhead for the file system; but, trust me, it’s well worth it.
