Converted from Fat32 to NTFS now I have startup problems

[0wen]

I just converted my 120 Gig hard drive from Fat 32 to NTFS using Windows Xp Pro's built in conversion tool. Now whenever I start up Windows, I get a long pause after the Windows XP Pro loading screen with the little bar that moves back and forth. It will pause on a blank black screen after the loading screen for at least 30 seconds to a minute or more without showing the mouse pointer or anything. The Fat 32 setup would show my desktop a few seconds after the XP loading screen so I am at a lost as to what the issue could be other than something with the conversion. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Heeter]

Was this your C: drive that you converted? Did you defrag the drive after the conversion? Converting your drive usually leads to massive file/folder dissarray on your drive. After Defrag, find and use "bootvis" to speed up your startup. Hope this helps.

BTW, Welcome to NTFS.org, Owen.


Heeter

 

[Dublex]

I would agree with Heeter here, NTFS works better if you defragment the hard drive and structure after you have converted it to NTFS.

Its even better to convert a drive to NTFS after a format or by using a partiton program like Partition Magic or Paragon's Hard Drive manager. If a drive is reformatted to NTFS then the directory structure will be optimised automatically. You may not want to do this if your window system is on the drive however

 

[0wen]

It was my C: drive (which has my Windows Directory on it) that I converted to NTFS. My drive was pretty full, about 100 gigs used of the 120 total. When I tried to use Norton Utilities Speed Disk I let it run for over 12 hours and it still was only at like 5% done. I was not sure if this was normal or if it was something do to the conversion.

 

[GoNz0]

100gb of 120gb, yep thats gunna be 1 hell of a defrag to sort that mess out.

 

[dreamliner77]

Partition, partition, partition...

 

[Heeter]

WOW,

100gigs one single, non partitioned drive!! And you took a chance and reformatted that! The fact that you even managed to pull that off is a feat in itself. Defragging that should set you back for a couple of days!!

Like dreamliner said, you really should looking into partitioning that drive or hooking up multiple drives.

All I can say is WOW!!

Heeter

 

[cryogenic]

I think in this scenario either Raxco's PerfectDisk or Execsoft's Diskeeper 8.0 Pro would be a very wise investment... I've had better luck with Diskeeper than I ever did with Norton SpeedDisk. Generally speaking, both also work better than XP's built-in defragmenter and both offer scheduling capabilities so you won't have to remember to defrag regularly; it will just do it for you based on the schedule you specify.

 

[LeeJend]

You really need to split that up into partitions. Recommendation is have C: about 10 gig and just put your system and main programs on it.

After that break up the remainder into a Games partition and a Data (mp3, jpg, mpeg, backups) partition.

I also create a pagefile partion of about 10 gig where I put my fixed size pagefile and have plenty of room for CD/DVD images when burning.

Your just going to have to bite the bullet now and defrag that mess. It could take days. Norton speed disk can do a lot of manipulation with the file layout to improve performance. That will slow the defrag. It might be better to use the Windows defrag until you can re-partition the hard disk.

I assume during the 30 second delay your hard disk is accessing like crazy, right? That's a sign of fragmented program files and pagefile.

 

[0wen]

During that long delay, I do not see any real HD access. It just kind of hangs there. As for the defrag, since my last post I have let Norton Speed Disk run and it is now at 60% done but it has been stuck there for a few hours. My 60 gig D: drive is pretty full as well but I just recently got a DVD Burner so I should be able to start clearing out some of the stuff on my drives. Thanks for all the advice so far.