FAT32 tp NTFS and cloning

[shiatsu]

I have a 30GB IDE HD with 3 partitions, all formatted as FAT32. I want to install WinXP onto the first partition and then mirror image the new system onto the second identical size partition with Norton Ghost. Prior to installing XP I was going to delete the third partition and leave it as free space for a future installation of Linux.

Can XP be installed in the way I have envisaged and if I subsequently convert to NTFS will it be necessary to retain a FAT/FAT32 partition for booting the system?

Will a future installation of Linux be likely to cause any problems if I have NTFS partitions?

Thanks, Alan

 

[Iceman]

what os you have on it now?

 

[shiatsu]

Originally posted by Iceman38
what os you have on it now?

I've presently got Win98 on another IDE HD which I would like to run run in a master/slave arrangement with the 30GB drive containing WinXP/Linux.

I was anticipating using a boot manager like LILO to choose which OS I go into out of Win98, WinXP and Linux.

Alan

 

[AznGuru]

Hi Alan,

Originally posted by shiatsu
I have a 30GB IDE HD with 3 partitions, all formatted as FAT32. I want to install WinXP onto the first partition and then mirror image the new system onto the second identical size partition with Norton Ghost.

I believe that in Norton Ghost doesn't let you do a partition dump to the same physical hard drive. At least in my experience, I haven't been able to do that. I've used the Norton Ghost from Norton Systemworks 2001 and 2002 PRO. I've always had to do a dump to another physical drive. Another thing I noticed was that while Norton Ghost appears to let me read from both FAT32 and NTFS drives, it only lets me do a dump onto a FAT32 partition. I haven't been able to figure out while.

Originally posted by shiatsu

Prior to installing XP I was going to delete the third partition and leave it as free space for a future installation of Linux.

I don't think it matters when you delete/make the third partition. As for if there is a necessary order of installation (such as if you want to dual boot 98 and XP on the same drive, you have to install 98 then XP) I'm not sure.

Originally posted by shiatsu

Can XP be installed in the way I have envisaged and if I subsequently convert to NTFS will it be necessary to retain a FAT/FAT32 partition for booting the system?

I see no reason why you can't boot from an NTFS partition.

Originally posted by shiatsu

Will a future installation of Linux be likely to cause any problems if I have NTFS partitions?

No idea but I don't see why it should. I'd like to know too if you ever find out, I'm thinking about trying out LINUX too.

Hope this helps,
-Dan

 

[shiatsu]

Re: Re: FAT32 tp NTFS and cloning

Hi Dan,

Thanks for your reply.

As regards Norton Ghost I have the stand-alone version of Ghost 2002 and it seems to offer the facility to clone one partition to another on the same drive. Probably the limitation you mention is due to them supplying a cut-down version of Ghost with Systemworks.

On the matter of deleting the third partition before installing WinXP this seemed a good idea on the basis that, as I understand it, NTFS assigns a permanent drive letter to each partion it recognises during installation. If a partition is subsequently removed drive letters are not dynamically reassigned as they would be in Win98/FAT32.

It occurred to me that this could cause a problem with XP if I was to delete a previously recognised partition and then install Linux which uses a disk format not recognised by XP.

With previous Microsoft OS that use NTFS (NT/2000) I read somewhere that it was necessary to have a FAT partition on Drive C to be able to boot the computer. I wanted to know if this limitation had been removed with XP.

Regards, Alan