Extl hard drive and new o/s

  • Thread starter Thread starter almannon
  • Start date Start date
A

almannon

Just purchased a new system with Windows XP (NTFS). I am currently using
win98SE (FAT32) system with a Western Digital 80 gig external hard drive. I
assume that when the new system arrives the external drive will have to be
reformatted to the NTFS system. If I back up the files on the external drive
to the old win98 system, can I then copy the files back to the new NTFS
formated drive or do these files have to be converted?
 
Just purchased a new system with Windows XP (NTFS). I am currently using
win98SE (FAT32) system with a Western Digital 80 gig external hard drive. I
assume that when the new system arrives the external drive will have to be
reformatted to the NTFS system.
Click to expand...

No, it definitely does not need reformatted.
In fact you don't have to run NTFS for ANY drives, including
the OS. Frankly I wouldn't use NTFS for the external drive
since you do have the other Win98SE system still... and if
you didn't, and there was a problem getting WinXP running
again, it could be useful to have more versatility in access
to the drive with FAT32 outside of windows.

If I back up the files on the external drive
to the old win98 system, can I then copy the files back to the new NTFS
formated drive or do these files have to be converted?
Click to expand...

it's not that the files have to be converted but rather that
win98 doesn't recognize NTFS. So you could copy the files
off onto (either system, wherever there is room to store
them) then use the new system to format the drive as NTFS,
then if files are on new system just copy them back to the
drive. If files are on old system, network the two to copy
them back.

I'd do neither of the above, rather leaving it as FAT32.
 
almannon said:
Just purchased a new system with Windows XP (NTFS). I am currently using
win98SE (FAT32) system with a Western Digital 80 gig external hard drive. I
assume that when the new system arrives the external drive will have to be
reformatted to the NTFS system.
Click to expand...

I don't think that's a good assumption.
If I back up the files on the external drive
to the old win98 system, can I then copy the files back to the new NTFS
formated drive or do these files have to be converted?
Click to expand...

The file system format and a given file's format are independent -- the
files don't have to be converted.
 
Back
Top