Should I Quick Upgrade, or New Install?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Robert Sladek
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Robert Sladek

I am ready to upgrade from Win 98SE to XP Home Edition. I
currently have a 40GB hard drive, and after I upgrade I
will be installing a Maxtor 80GB as a slave for video. If
I use the quick upgrade will it convert my file system to
NTFS, which is what I am told I will need for the system
to recognize the 80GB? I really don't want to delete any
of my current files. Will XP automatically recognize the
new drive?
 
Hi Robert,

The upgrade will not convert the file system unless you tell it to, and it's
not something that you have to do. After upgrading, when you connect the
80GB drive, you will want to run the disk manager tool (start/run
diskmgmt.msc) and first create a partition, then format the new drive. WinXP
will only set the drive up as NTFS if the desired partition is above 32GB,
and for what you are going to do with it, I would recommend that you use
NTFS, though again, it is not your only choice. If you wanted to do it in
FAT32, you would need to use fdisk while still running Win98.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone
 
In
Robert Sladek said:
I am ready to upgrade from Win 98SE to XP Home Edition. I
currently have a 40GB hard drive, and after I upgrade I
will be installing a Maxtor 80GB as a slave for video. If
I use the quick upgrade will it convert my file system to
NTFS, which is what I am told I will need for the system
to recognize the 80GB?
Click to expand...


If you install the 80GB drive after upgrading to XP, there's no
need to convert it to NTFS; just format it as NTFS in the first
place.

By the way, it is *not* true that it has to be NTFS for XP to
recognize it. The only issue is that XP will not create a FAT32
drive larger than 32GB; however it will happily use one if you
create it externally, for example with FDISK from Windows Me. But
although you don't need to make it NTFS, I recommend that you do;
especially with a drive that large, it's much better.

I really don't want to delete any
of my current files.
Click to expand...


Are you concerned about converting the 40GB drive to NTFS, and
asking whether the XP installation will do that? No it won't,
although you can easily do so afterwards by using the convert
command (but first read http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.htm).

One of things that may be confusing here is that you may think
that all drives have use the same file system. That *is* not
correct. Windows XP can simultaneously use any combination of
NTFS, FAT32, FAT16, and FAT12, on different drives, and even on
different partitions on the same physical drive.

By the way, when upgrading to XP or when converting to NTFS,
although it's unlikely, it's always possible that something might
go wrong. For that reason it's prudent to be sure you have a
backup of anything you can't afford to lose before beginning.
 
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