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| Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - Hardware/Software - FAT32 and NTFS questions |
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CoolMario Micro-Goomba Level: 7 Posts: 11/12 EXP: 1012 For next: 436 Since: 03-19-04 Since last post: 83 days Last activity: 25 days |
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| 1. I plan on downloading a 6.58 GB file onto an external hard drive pre-formatted with FAT32. I heard that the maximum file size for a FAT32 drive is 4 GB, and an NTFS drive can hold far larger than that. Is that true? If so, how much larger? 2. I also plan on converting my FAT32 external hard drive (which is a Western Digital, capacity 120 GB) into an NTFS drive, and I heard it's possible without formatting using a utility supplied with Windows XP. Is there anything I should know about before converting, like defragmenting or scanning the disk for errors? I'm a bit afraid that the conversion could have some data loss, and I'd like to convert flawlessly, I have gigs of data on that drive that I don't want to lose. |
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kitty Come on babe, pet the pussy ;) Level: 70 Posts: 1818/2449 EXP: 2962406 For next: 53405 Since: 03-15-04 From: Scranton, PA, USA Since last post: 3 hours Last activity: 3 hours |
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| I've converted a drive flawlessly before. You will need to run scandisk first. Think about what you said here, though: "I heard that the maximum file size for a FAT32 drive is 4 GB" Then, "my FAT32 external hard drive (which is a Western Digital, capacity 120 GB)" I think that answers any questions as to how big FAT32 can hold. I don't know what NTFS's limit is, but it's much larger than FAT32's. |
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CoolMario Micro-Goomba Level: 7 Posts: 12/12 EXP: 1012 For next: 436 Since: 03-19-04 Since last post: 83 days Last activity: 25 days |
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Originally posted by Czar Yiffy Kitten Hm... after some research I did... ** NTFS limit = 16 Exbibytes (EiB) (1 EiB = 2^60 bytes, 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 bytes) ** (2^60) * 16 = 18,446,744,073,709,552,000 bytes = 1,073,741,824 GB = 1,048,576 TB = 1,024 PB No way, that's extremely huge, that's 100,000,000x more than enough, who would use a single file that large, anyway?  Thanks  |
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||bass Programmer Admin Level: 44  Posts: 726/817 EXP: 570813 For next: 40472 Since: 03-15-04 From: Salem, Connecticut Since last post: 26 days Last activity: 11 days |
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| I would suggest checking for errors before converting. | |||
FreeDOS Lava Lotus Wannabe-Mod :< Level: 59 Posts: 1552/1657 EXP: 1648646 For next: 24482 Since: 03-15-04 From: Seattle Since last post: 6 hours Last activity: 4 hours |
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| Yeah, FAT32's maximum filesize limit is just 512 bytes less than 4GB, to be exact. NTFS can carry files as large as the volume itself, which is 16 exabytes. You can hold your puny 6GB file on it just fine. Also, once you convert to NTFS, you'll notice some more free space. Right now, you should be using 32KB clusters on FAT32. Default NTFS format is 4KB clusters; converting it from FAT32 to NTFS for some reason uses the smallest cluster size, of 512 bytes. If that meant anything to you, then there's another good reason to convert. If you have a few large files, you may gain a few megabytes. If you have many small files, it'd be hard to tell... I converted an old 20GB Win98 partition a while ago, and it saved about 3.5GB of space because of the cluster size. (more in-depth comparison of filesystems here: wikipedia Comparison of file systems; NTFS and FAT are the ones that apply to Windows) (edited by FreeDOS on 08-11-05 12:13 AM) |
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neotransotaku Baby Mario 戻れたら、 誰も気が付く Level: 87 Posts: 3792/4016 EXP: 6220548 For next: 172226 Since: 03-15-04 From: Outside of Time/Space Since last post: 11 hours Last activity: 1 hour |
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| ^ i think you meant you may get more space from the smaller files with smaller cluster sizes since a 1KB file on a 4KB cluster is still a 4KB file. So, by making the cluster size smaller, you have less wasted space... | |||
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||bass Programmer Admin Level: 44 Posts: 727/817 EXP: 570813 For next: 40472 Since: 03-15-04 From: Salem, Connecticut Since last post: 26 days Last activity: 11 days |
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| I should just point out that 512 byte clusters is not necissairly best. While you do save space, it slows down access times. This is why huge database servers use 64k clusters. The optimal cluster size for general-purpose computing is 4k. |
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FreeDOS Lava Lotus Wannabe-Mod :< Level: 59 Posts: 1554/1657 EXP: 1648646 For next: 24482 Since: 03-15-04 From: Seattle Since last post: 6 hours Last activity: 4 hours |
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| Yes, but the only two ways I know of to change the size are these: 1. Perform a normal format, changing the cluster size there. Loses data, which is probably not what CM wants. 2. Get Partition Magic ($70) and use it to change the size -- Can be slow, and sometimes corrupts the filesystem. |
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||bass Programmer Admin Level: 44 Posts: 728/817 EXP: 570813 For next: 40472 Since: 03-15-04 From: Salem, Connecticut Since last post: 26 days Last activity: 11 days |
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| I've never had Partition Magic screw up my partitions or filesystems. | |||
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Surlent サーレント Level: 49  Posts: 965/1077 EXP: 863920 For next: 19963 Since: 03-15-04 From: Tower of Lezard Valeth Since last post: 16 hours Last activity: 1 hour |
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| I converted my four FAT32 partitions to NTFS. To get along with 4KB clusters than to use the smaller 512Byte ones for FAT32 - as stated above - I read these instructions to ensure to have optimal cluster sizes. I had to run a repair install after my C:\ partition got converted (only possible when restarting since it is impossible to convert it, while Windows is running) - but after that it ran file until now. Although it is no risk, be sure to backup at least the most important data like images, save files from games, maybe ROMs an such, before you begin to convert. Since any partition except the C:\ one is converted instantly while running Windows, you might only want to backup files from C:\. But as said, it's just recommended - you never know. Yiffy Kitten is right that it is practically done without problems, but a power loss while converting and anything else what happens when the hard disk/MFT is processing can be dangerous, though. (edited by Surlent on 08-11-05 03:17 AM) |
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||bass Programmer Admin Level: 44 Posts: 729/817 EXP: 570813 For next: 40472 Since: 03-15-04 From: Salem, Connecticut Since last post: 26 days Last activity: 11 days |
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Originally posted by SurlentYou should REALLY REALLY REALLY follow these instructions to make sure you end up with 4k clusters. The space loss with 4k over 512b clusters is minimal and the speed increase is fairly helpful. |
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HyperLamer <||bass> and this was the soloution i thought of that was guarinteed to piss off the greatest amount of people Sesshomaru Tamaranian Level: 118 Posts: 6377/8210 EXP: 18171887 For next: 211027 Since: 03-15-04 From: Canada, w00t! LOL FAD Since last post: 2 hours Last activity: 2 hours |
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| Just to clarify... FAT32 can have however big volumes, but no single file can be more than 4GB. NTFS has no such restriction. The command line program 'convert' may be useful. |
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