I am soon going to reformat my hard drive at this moment using FAT 32 been told my most programmers that this is not as good as NFTS and Microsoft advise that NFTS is better. SO my question is how do I save my download files? I have already put Boinc into a seperate file so I can save it to disc.

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> I am soon going to reformat my hard drive at this moment using FAT 32 been
> told my most programmers that this is not as good as NFTS and Microsoft advise
> that NFTS is better. SO my question is how do I save my download files? I
> have already put Boinc into a seperate file so I can save it to disc.

If you are going to reformat, you'll have the same results with FAT32 and NTFS: a nice, clean, empty drive.

So, if you want to keep any files, back them up first.

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Reformat? You can't reformat a FAT32 partition into an NTFS partition.
You can convert from FAT32 to NTFS, without needing to reformat.
Or you can delete your whole FAT32 partition (using fdisk from a Win98 bootup floppy), then leave the partition blank and use the WinXP setup to make the partition NTFS.

To convert, use the following command: convert [drive:] /fs:ntfs [/v]
Parameters

drive:

Specifies the drive to convert to NTFS.

/fs:ntfs

Specifies that the volume be converted to NTFS.

/v

Specifies verbose mode. All messages will be displayed during conversion.

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> Reformat? You can't reformat a FAT32 partition into an NTFS partition.
> You can convert from FAT32 to NTFS, without needing to reformat.
> Or you can delete your whole FAT32 partition (using fdisk from a Win98 bootup
> floppy), then leave the partition blank and use the WinXP setup to make the
> partition NTFS.
>
> To convert, use the following command: convert [drive:] /fs:ntfs [/v]
> Parameters
>
> drive:
>
> Specifies the drive to convert to NTFS.
>
> /fs:ntfs
>
> Specifies that the volume be converted to NTFS.
>
> /v
>
> Specifies verbose mode. All messages will be displayed during conversion.
>
>
>Will this then allow me to keep my files etc?

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Yes, by converting you keep all your files intact. It's still wise to make a backup, prior to doing this, but that's just as a fail-safe option.

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Perhaps you could set your daily limit to 0. This way you'll crunch all the data you have but not download any more. Then after the reformat you can just reinstall Boinc.

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madmac doesn't need to reformat. He can just convert his drive(s) and partition(s) to NTFS from within Windows. Okay, it needs a reboot or two, one to do the finalizing of the conversion outside of Windows and maybe one extra to have him log in again on NTFS, but heck, no need to reformat.

Reformatting means you have to reinstall Windows XP, go onto the internet to update it again with an inferior firewall in place, all kinds of weird things can happen that don't need to happen if you just convert the filesystem to NTFS.

Sorry to reitterate this, but it's very easy to do.

Just go Start->Run, type cmd, hit enter.
Then in the command line box type convert {drive:} /fs:ntfs and hit enter.

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> madmac doesn't need to reformat. He can just convert his drive(s) and
> partition(s) to NTFS from within Windows. Okay, it needs a reboot or two, one
> to do the finalizing of the conversion outside of Windows and maybe one extra
> to have him log in again on NTFS, but heck, no need to reformat.

I took "madmac" at his word when he said he needed to reformat, and that reformatting was inevitable.

If his only purpose is to switch from FAT32 to NTFS, then as you say, he does not need to reformat.

... but my question is: why take a perfectly good FAT32 partition and change it to NTFS? Sure, NTFS is better, but unless he nees some of the NTFS features (like security) I'm not sure it's worth the trouble.

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Hi, thanks for all this information at the moment I do not know what to do. My offical Windows XP magazine says that it is better to go to NFTS, because of things like security etc. Want I want to do is allow my great neices on my computer but not to touch certain section. When I try to do this with FAT32 it does not allow mw to do it, even though I have followed everything according to the help section etc.

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> Hi, thanks for all this information at the moment I do not know what to do.
> My offical Windows XP magazine says that it is better to go to NFTS, because
> of things like security etc. Want I want to do is allow my great neices on my
> computer but not to touch certain section. When I try to do this with FAT32
> it does not allow mw to do it, even though I have followed everything
> according to the help section etc.
>
Hi.
Do the conversion to NTFS. Its a more secure file system and more reliable. Recovery from crashes is far far better. I would always recommend ntfs over FAT. If you are running XP then you can set up a user for your nieces and with the right file security settings you can deny them access to your files and let them access to their own without problem. Also as admin you can prevent them from installing new software which is another protection for you. Hope this helps.

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> Hi, thanks for all this information at the moment I do not know what to do.
> My offical Windows XP magazine says that it is better to go to NFTS, because
> of things like security etc. Want I want to do is allow my great neices on my
> computer but not to touch certain section. When I try to do this with FAT32
> it does not allow mw to do it, even though I have followed everything
> according to the help section etc.

There are advantages to NTFS, but I'd get the kids their own computers, or supervise them closely.

I'm going to show my age a little (and probably get flamed) but it takes a while for someone to become wary of things like viruses and trojans, and kids are seriously impressed with "cool" while not thinking at all about safe computing.

There are too many things like Kazaa that open your machine to trojans.

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> I'm going to show my age a little (and probably get flamed) but it takes a
> while for someone to become wary of things like viruses and trojans, and kids
> are seriously impressed with "cool" while not thinking at all about safe
> computing.
>
> There are too many things like Kazaa that open your machine to trojans.
>
Also, don't forget to check their "Recent docs" and History. I found out my Daughter was going to sites that I considered inappropriate.

tony

When I know I am going to format one of my boxes I take it off the network let it finish all the work it has.Then I go into my account and change connect every ?? days to 0.0 then I connect the box back into the network and update project to get rid of the WU's that are finished.
Then take it back off,Change settings back and format and reinstall.
Hope this makes sense.

Scott

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" "

> When I know I am going to format one of my boxes I take it off the network let
> it finish all the work it has.Then I go into my account and change connect
> every ?? days to 0.0 then I connect the box back into the network and update
> project to get rid of the WU's that are finished.
> Then take it back off,Change settings back and format and reinstall.
> Hope this makes sense.
>
> Scott
>

Even easier - If you are on CC4.2x and use BoincView,

You can set "Do not request any more work" (it's the Boinc "B" with a red x through it on the right side fo the tool bar.

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> > Hi, thanks for all this information at the moment I do not know what to
> do.
> > My offical Windows XP magazine says that it is better to go to NFTS,
> because
> > of things like security etc. Want I want to do is allow my great neices
> on my
> > computer but not to touch certain section. When I try to do this with
> FAT32
> > it does not allow mw to do it, even though I have followed everything
> > according to the help section etc.
>
> There are advantages to NTFS, but I'd get the kids their own computers, or
> supervise them closely.
>
> I'm going to show my age a little (and probably get flamed) but it takes a
> while for someone to become wary of things like viruses and trojans, and kids
> are seriously impressed with "cool" while not thinking at all about safe
> computing.
>
> There are too many things like Kazaa that open your machine to trojans.
>
Well I wont roast you for that....very wise and did same with my son. I only spend about 4-5 hours a month now cleaning his PC instead of fighting to get on my own to find nothing works and spending a few hours each day sorting it. Much better idea!. BUT if funds wont allow that the XP and ntfs with separetae users is still reasonable. AS long as they aint admin you can restrict them quit e a bit through local security policy....but its not foolproof of course.

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