WinXP and NTFS on two hard disks or NTFS on C: and Fat 32 on D:?

[IanMatthew]

Hi to everyone. I have two Seagate brand hard disks. The C: drive is 20gig ATA100, Win 98SE and the D: drive is 13gigb ATA66. Both are sharing the same IDE cannel. I use the D: 13 gig drive for data storage and backup. If I install Win XP on the C: 20gig drive and format it under NTFS, it should be able to see and read the D: 13gig drive under formatted FAT 32, right..? Or do I have to format BOTH disks under NTFS or FAT 32..? By the way I have a bbotleg copy of WinXP pro gathering dust. May install but would rather sve up for legit OEM copy. Wot does anyone else think. Buy WIXP from shop or use pirate copy..?

[Nick CPU]

First, you can format one drive NTFS and another Fat32. As for the second question.........dont ask that here, thanks

[Holodoc]

i can't say, i buy all my software. but the OS i always do! it's
the thing to work with and specially win2K pro or something
is certainly worth the money....but windows xp...well, you
should decide...

[valachimus]

You could format the C: as NTFS and the D: as fat32. If you do, I would suggest upgrading both disks to dynamic instead of basic. The main question I have is, why? FAT32 is a little (read; very little) faster, but all your system files would run from the C: drive anyway.

[Midknyte]

The only good reason to have your data on FAT32 is if you have a dual boot win9x/winnt. Win9x can't read NTFS (without 3rd party software).

[Evil_Messiah]

Well right now in my rig I have two drives, my C: a 8 gig maxtor for my OS (winxp) and my d: a 34 gig, also maxtor for data, proggies, etc. I use NTFS on my C:, but I kept the original FAT32 on my storage drive primarily for reasons where I don't want any data corruption, I have too much that I can lose... So in other words, it worked for me :D

[IanMatthew]

Thanx for the relplies. I will purchase a LETGIMATE, repeat LEGITIMATE copy of Win XP soon. (probably home ed). I think I'll format c drive as NTFS and keep the d drive as fat 32. I have back up prog files, workfiles, graphics, fonts, clipart, etc that I'd rather not lose.

By the way, I actually installed the pirate copy of XP to see if my PC was at all compat. It passed with flying colours. I kept it for a week or so the reinstalled good ole WIN 89SE. I will get Win XP when I can afford to do so (or if I can get it dirt cheeeep). I promise guys...

[RayH]

You might need a FAT 32 partition to dump a ghost or image file.

[jmorrell]

RayH is correct. You need your D: drive to be FAT 32 if you want Norton Ghost 2002 to write an image to it as Ghost cannot write to a NTFS partition. The same applies to Powerquest Drive Image 5.0, but doesn't apply to Drive Image 2002, which can write to a NTFS partition. My C: drive is NTFS, my D: drive is FAT 32 as I use Ghost to image the C: drive to the D: drive.