About to take the XP plunge. Is there any advantage to using FAT32 instead of NTSF in XP? I have 3 books telling me that the maximum partition size for a FAT32 and XP is 32 GB. But people using it tell me FAT32 works fine on volumes much larger. Thanks for your help. Pinto

The only advantage I can tell is that the upcoming Poser utility, PBooost, might work with XP with FAT32. It does not work with NTFS. OK, there might be another advantage. You can't boot with a floppy disk and read NTFS partitions, but you can read FAT32 partitions (providing you use a Win98 or above system floppy).

The advantages of NTFS are many. Better security, not only for accessing files, but better at not losing data due to corruption. It is also a faster file system than FAT32. I take the opposite view than some, I believe that NTFS is the way to go unless you have a specific reason to go with FAT32. If you have a large hard drive, you might want to use a combination NTFS/FAT32 drive. Format the system partition with NTFS, and format the other with FAT32. I do not know what will happen as far as PBooost goes. It may still not work, even if you put Poser and PBooost on the FAT32 partition because of the presence of NTFS on the system partition.

either one is good. if you are upgrading a system to XP then you will have the option to stay fat or go ntfs, if the system is going to be new or home built and no os is installed XP will only allow ntfs. I have a fat32 40 GB hdd and a ntfs 40 gb ( poser is on the NTFS) and i have no real problems that i have seen. and i run the "Lesser" win2K pro

"maximum partition size for a FAT32 and XP is 32 GB"

The maximum partition size XP will allow you to format is 32GB. That's Microsoft dictating to you that they want you to use NTFS on larger volumes (i.e. they intentionally crippled XP's ability to format anything larger than that as FAT32). XP runs just fine on larger drives if they were already formatted as Fat32 before installation. For example, if you're upgrading WinME and your drive is bigger than 32GB you don't have to convert it to NTFS to install XP and your entire drive will remain totally accessible. I have XP running on an 80GB FAT32 drive with no problem at all.

Note that you can convert a FAT32 drive to NTFS at anytime using XP's utility, but you can not convert from NTFS back to FAT32.

I recommend NTFS for many reasons: better security features, less chance of corrupting (or losing) data, more stability, use of long file names, etc. Also, remember that FAT32 is the "upgrade" from FAT16, the file system for Win95, which, in turn, was upgraded from Win3.1, which, in turn, uwas upgraded from DOS. However, NTFS has been used since NT, which means that it is a fully 32bit-compatible, non-DOS-based file system. And, the other thing to remember when asking a question like this: you are asking Poser (and other) graphic artists about something technical. My suggestion would be to go to a search engine (such as www.google.com) and do some research there. Sure, some of the websites may get technical, but you'll get a lot more information than you would from us. --John

Thank you for the clarification. This is a clean intall so I guess it's a moot point now. Thanks Pinto

Hi, You can convert from Fat32 to NTFS at anytime, but if you do, the cluster size is set ridiculously small (512 bytes I think) which means you have no end of troubles with fragmentaion, etc. This becomes especially accute when compressing your file system... Your best bet is to go NTFS from the start, that way it uses a far more sensible 4K cluster size and doesn't waste space. Both my partitions are NTFS. Oh, and make a manual backup of your registry for safe keeping should things screw-up later. XP has an auto registry roleback feature, but what the Admin manual tells you, (that the OS doesn't) is that if you get too low on space (on your boot disk) it's stops doing these backups. It just doesn't tell you that... later jb

Hi, You can boot from floppy and read NTFS, I have a tool that will not only allow you to boot NTFS ofline, it;ll also blank the Admin password, allow you to edit the registry, etc. It's a professional program "System Commander32" (or something like that) I think. Came in very usefull for cracking the corporate network when I found myself on the wrong side of the user/admin divide a while back. :) later jb

Hi, At some point I'll read the entire thread before commenting... :) FAT is limited to 32Gb, NTFS isn't, (4 Terrabytes I think) Which is not to say you couldn't partiton a 100Gb drive into 3 if you wanted to go with FAT, but why would you if you had the choice? The program that's having trouble with NTFS is probably having trouble with the directory structure. It doesn't work like FAT32, (in that it has no FAT, [File Allocation Table]) NTFS uses a central directory structure that is always in the middle of the disk, this makes access time consistent, as it has a maximum seek time at the edge of the disk, getting quicker as it moves in. It's basically a big linked list. It also looks different at a low level, so if you're expecting FAT32 and you get NTFS it may behave, it may not, depending on the size and status of the filesystem itself. The two are fundamentally different. This means that you can't lose all your data by corrupting your FAT, (in NTFS) and because you have an essentially flat filesystem, you can only loose as much data as is contained on a corrupt physical disk block. The rest will remain readable, and possibly salvagable depending on they type of file. This is not the case if the FAT on a FAT32 file system dies, as then the drive has no idea where your data is. But with a linked list, (NTFS) even if the central directory gets shagged, you can stil find your data by following the links through the individual blocks themselves. To which the central directory is lookup table, a list of pointers. later jb

I was mainly thinking of the average user. They won't have access to a bootable floppy with the NTFS driver. It doesn't come standard with XP.

Hi, "I'm not an artist!" Why do I have to keep telling people this :P I have about 20 odd years of technical background. Built my first two computers from kits when there were no computer magazines, only electroncs magazines with strange adverts! :) The only kind of computer books you could get hold of then, would tell you of the Joys of RTL, ALGOL or COBOL. Unfortunately, (or not) most of these languages are still with us... ;) Right, I'm off home to play with my new Gamecube, (launch day in Europe, WooHoo! :) later jb

Here's my 2 cents' worth: 1) I use NTFS. The security options and cluster sizes alone make it worth it to me. 2) You can boot from your Windows CD if push comes to shove and you need to go in and grab stuff manually. 3) What about data loss? I have a comprehensive setup that has seen through every conceivable disaster (HD failures, a virus, upgrades, etc.). It is as follows: Two physical hard drives, with HD2 about 2/3 of HD1 in size. Partition HD 1 into 2 partitions. When you load up Windows, you'll typically see the following: C: (partition 1 on HD1) D: (HD2) E: (partition 2 on HD1) Then, be careful to use your drives as follows: C = CENTRAL - This is where you install the OS and apps. NO DATA, except for email, etc. (and Poser content) D = DON'T - Aside from creating a couple folders (see below), don't touch this drive unless you need to recover something E = EVERYTHING ELSE - Recipes, docs, MP3s, etc. This rigid adherence to organization is itself a huge factor in helping prevent accidental data loss due to any reason (including human error if, say you forget about some textures when you trash your C:Program FilesAdobePhotoShop 6 folder!) On the D drive, create 2 folders: Book & Apps Backup, and Data Backup. On the C drive, install bnackup software like NovaDISK+ (www.novastor.com). Set it to back up your data every morning at like 4AM to the D:Data directory. Then set it to backup your boot and app files say twice a week at 5AM to the D:Boot and Apps folder. If you have a second computer on a LAN, set up a designated partition on that computer to receive data backups and store all your data on the one shared data partition (E:) Leave your machines on 24/7. If something goes wrong, you install the OS, install NovaDISK+, unpack your backup, reboot, adjust a few things, and you're back in business. I've tried all kinds of systems and, since using this one, I have yet to lose a single byte of data. :-) Anthony

I was a original Beta and Alpha tester for Microsoft on Window 95 and 98...before they started charging to beta. I use now Windows XP Pro..I would not go back to Fat 32 hard NTFS drive runs smoother. The biggest problem you will have ....do you have enough memory and CPU power. Also your system won't crash as much with XP... If you ever want to edit video on your system of NTFS. But make sure you have a good defrag like norton.

Hi, My boss still uses Warp 4 as his main machine at home, though he too is lamenting it's passing as a consumer OS, (IBM now only sell the server variant, mainly to banks.) I still maintain I'm not an artist, part time sculptor maybe, (in RL, not poser :) but I'm a hobbyist, I play with toys, most of my renders are done in 5 mins from start to finish. Very little effort goes into most of it. I remember the Vic20, good version of "centipede" :) later jb