File format conversion

how/whats the simplest way to convert a second hard drive from Fat32 to NTFS? i have two drives(c: and f: ) my main drive 120gb's is NTFS. the other a 40 gb is FAT32. i'm thinking of using the second drive as a backup and figured i should reformat it before i do. is this the best idea? if i have this second hard drive do i need to partition either one? yea i'm a newbie. still in boot camp. recruit. or does xp convert them automatically whenever i send something to that drive?

 

Formatting the 40gb will erase all data currently on it.
If you want to use it for backup, then, make sure theres nothing important on it, then, format it.
I would suggest FAT32, since data on an NTFS volume is harder to recover in case of hard drive problems. THere is essentially no performance difference either way.

No, you will not need to do any partitioning.
If you copy from NTFS to FAT32, you copy the data, not the way its stored.
ITs like typing notes onto your computer from a book; the information is the same, but the way that info is stored is different. Same thing with NTFS vs FAT

 

While NTFS is more secure, this makes it harder to recover files from the drive should all go kablooey. Since its a backup, it would be good for it to be backwards compatable with most computers, and easy to get data off it should the backup drive have problems.
And NTFS does have smaller clusters, which can give more space on the drive depending on the files stored on it...but its not really important for a backup drive, which will probably have files of a fairly decent size on it. (ie, >32K)

When all is said and done, NTFS is better, but for a backup drive, Id still suggest using FAT.

 

My favorite feature of ntfs?

No lost data clusters, no crosslinked files!

Long live the king baby.

I hate fat ( in all context of the word) with a passion.