NTFS Question

[winders]

Folks,

I have a Dell Dimension 8200 system that originally had Window ME on it. I upgraded to Windows XP Home Edition a few months later using the upgrade software Dell provided. I did not install XP from scratch.

Anyway, perfromance and reliability has been great. I was reading about the pros and cons of the fat32 file system versus NTFS. I liked what I read so I used the "convert" program to change my lone file system to NTFS.

Everything is still performing well and reliably.

Here is my question:

I have seen a few comments here suggesting that changing from Fat32 to NTFS using the "convert" command does not get you all the benfits of NTFS. That you must format the drive and setup the partitions to be NTFS from the start.

Is this true? Do I need to backup my software and start over to get all the performance benefits of NTFS?

Thanks,

Scott

 

[allan]

While your current ntfs system is fine (no need to reformat), I'm not thrilled with the fact you upgraded over ME. ME is a DOS based O/S and even though you aren't experiencing any difficulties now, I'd much prefer to see all those legacy files off your disk. Some day something may jump up and bite you in the rear end.

BTW, the upgrade disk will allow you to do a clean install. Feel free to reformat & boot to the XP disk. If it can't see that you've had a prior OS, at some point it will ask you to insert the disk from the older version.

 

[Lonman]

Some day something may jump up and bite you in the rear end.

^^^^
A classic

As long as you're happy with your performance, don't tamper with success. BUT, you should have a backup anyway (coming from a guy that backs up to the same hard drive, lol).

 

[winders]

Is there any way to get rid of these "legacy" files without doing a clean install?

 

[allan]

Glad you got a laugh out of my post Lonman. But as I'm sure you know, a clean install is much less prone to problems and conflicts than an upgrade - especially an upgrade over a DOS based version.

I do have to agree that if there are no problems there's no reason to try to correct them (if it ain't broke....), but I was just stating my preference for a clean install and pointing out potential long term issues. It's generally easier to do a reinstall sooner rather than later.

Or he can just stay the way he is and maybe he'll never have a probelm - who knows?

 

[allan]

Many but not all, no. And there validity to Lonman's post - though not necessarily his style.

 

[Lonman]

If you have a decent sized hard drive, I wouldn't worry about them. Someday you'll probably want to do a clean installation just to see what it will do (not a whole lot of much really). Honestly, of all the Windows OS's, I think XP upgrades the cleanest of the bunch.

 

[winders]

Any way to do a clean install of XP without having to reinstall all apps from scratch?

Scott

 

[Lonman]

Nope. That's why I suggest leaving well enough alone if everything is cool.

allan, you snuck in a couple posts I missed. I agree, I hate upgrades, but in a case where performance hasn't been degraded, then hey, enjoy.