external hard drive question

I have an external hard drive that is Fat32 but the C:drive is NTFS. I was told I should format the ext. HD to NTFS for better performance. Is this correct? Please advise. If so, how would I go about reformatting it to NTFS. Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

Wadda

 

If you use the external drive with other PC's that are not running NTFS, you should leave the drive as a FAT32 'cuz a non-NTFS system cannot read an NTFS drive. But, if all the PC's you use the external with are NTFS systems, you don't need to reformat the drive and lose everything on it. You can convert from FAT32 to NTFS non-destructively. Visit this link for details: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307881/en-us Just read thru the info, print it out if needed, and follow the steps; it's really fairly easy
Good Luck!!!

hopperdave2000

Oh.... yes, NTFS provides better performance than FAT32 and is recommended over FAT32 big time!

 

Can I be sure I will not lose the files on this external drive? I am not questioning your expertise. I want to make sure I won't lose any files as it took 9 months to gather these files. Losing them would be a disaster to me. Thank you again for helping me. Would you please let me know what you think. I am not that knowledgable on this.

thank you,

Wadda

 

No guarantees, but it should be ok. The chances of something happening are fairly low. I would back up whatever you absolutely needed just to be safe.

 

While I cannot guarantee anything, I have no control over the environment surrounding your PC, but I've converted MANY drives from FAT32 to NTFS over the past 5 years, and NEVER had anything bad happen. NEVER! NEVER EVER!!!!

No worries, it'll be OK!

hopperdave2000

 

Thank you,

Wadda