FAT 32 to NTFS-Should I?

I've done it on my older PC, that was upgraded from Me to XP (Home) and no problems.  Just used the Windows XP procedure to convert it.  NTFS will address larger drives, it is supposed to be more efficient and better security.  All new PC's come with the hard drive formatted for NTFS. 

After I converted the drive to NTFS, I would up with a little bit more free disk space than I had with the FAT32,

alan321,

Start|All Programs|Accessories|System Tools|Disk Defragmenter.

Thank you for your reply, i suppose i should defragment first. where in winxp home is that procedure?Yes it came with "me" i did a clean install 2 yrs ago and everything has been pretty much ok.

Message Edited by alan321 on 04-22-2004 12:17 PM

There is no good reason for you to switch and there is a possibility of problems re data. I'd run the SFC utility as well as the defrag if your set on it.

 http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/itpro/managing/convertfat.asp

Where can i find the procedure in xp home to convert fat32 to ntfs?

thanks for your reply

alan321,

You gain some security feature when you convert to NTFS as well as some other enhancements. See the information here. The conversion process is not complex but if you are happy with the performance of your system there may be no compelling reason to make the change.

I assume your system came with Windows ME and it has been upgraded to Windows XP.

There is also useful information and instructions in the help and support file in the start menu. Search for convert FAT32 to NTFS, look under full text search. If you do this whilst connected (and you've set search options appropriately) you'll also get relevant MS knowledge base articles.

If it aint broke, don't fix it...................

NTFS beats FAT32, hands down. You should always use NTFS unless you are dual booting with Win9x or even Linux.