What is NTFS and do I really need it?

nKoan · 2010-03-30T08:52:29.000Z

Lunch of Kong:

Uh, we do. But bunny suits and clean rooms are not free.

Heh, I meant at a consumer level and hopefully at minimal cost to me. I mean, I miss the pixelated <1MP pictures of me and my friends in college, but not that much.

Lunch_of_Kong · 2010-03-30T08:58:53.000Z

Oh, well, that will never happen. Hard disks are going to go away as a storage technology so there won’t be any incentive to create the kind of consumer fix-your-dead-HD-kit you are waiting for.

The longer you keep it, the less chances there will actually be of getting that hard drive fixed cheaply. If the controller circuitry went bad, for example, they can replace the circuitry with some from a working hard drive of the same model. That’s obviously cheaper than opening up the drive and reading data off the platters. But the longer you wait, the less likely it is they’ll be able to find the spare parts for that drive model.

I’m just saying.

Lloyd_Heilbrunn · 2010-03-30T17:42:46.000Z

Well, this did not work. I used the convert.exe as instructed on the linked articles to try to convert the C drive. It seemed to go thru the process, and I rebooted after it was done, but my download failed again. I checked the file System in both System Information and under the C drive properties and it still says FAT32.

Any ideas??

Should my command prompt read C:\documents and settings\lloyd Heilbrunn> rather than just the C> prompt? That seems weird but I don’t think I’ve ever used it since DOS.

Rimbo · 2010-03-30T17:46:10.000Z

I had to double-check the date on this, because other than the reference to Mass Effect 2, I would never have guessed that this was NOT a thread necro.

Wow!

Edit: Lloyd… check to see if your files are all still around. If they are, I’d try following the conversion instructions again, because maybe something got mis-typed or some step didn’t occur that was supposed to. Basically, it sounds like it didn’t take. But it’s tough to know without actually being there, looking over your shoulder…

Lloyd_Heilbrunn · 2010-03-30T17:49:20.000Z

Rimbo:

I had to double-check the date on this, because other than the reference to Mass Effect 2, I would never have guessed that this was NOT a thread necro.

Wow!

Well, just because I could rebuild the computer doesn’t mean I really know how the damn things work! None of my upgrades ever said anything about this…

Rimbo · 2010-03-30T17:53:33.000Z

Yeah… sorry, that came off sounding a bit “looking down the nose at you,” and that wasn’t really my intent. I don’t think most people know the difference.

But I’m not going to be very helpful (other than my edit above)… I haven’t dealt with Windows in a long while.

Lloyd_Heilbrunn · 2010-03-30T17:56:05.000Z

Not a problem, I know there are a lot of guys in the biz here, that’s why I ask for help.

Anybody that really gets snarky, I invite them to argue a court case and let me critique. ;)

Rimbo · 2010-03-30T17:57:15.000Z

Lloyd Heilbrunn:

Not a problem, I know there are a lot of guys in the biz here, that’s why I ask for help.

Anybody that really gets snarky, I invite them to argue a court case and let me critique. ;)

Hahahahaha – I know enough about the law to know how horribly I’d fail at that.

Peter_Jones · 2010-03-30T18:42:54.000Z

Did it say it would do the conversion on the next reboot? Did you get a blue screen (not a BSOD, but similar to if you run Check Disk on the OS drive)?

If it went through all that and still is FAT32 and not NTFS, I am no help.

Lloyd_Heilbrunn · 2010-03-30T19:07:53.000Z

Yes and it seemed to start running. But I left it alone to finish, so I don’t know what happened.

Juste · 2010-03-31T05:17:01.000Z

Lloyd, have you tried the following?

Go to Start | All Programs | Accessories | Command Prompt (or, from a Run box, type CMD) and, assuming you intend to convert C:, give the command:

VOL C:

Note the name of the disk in the first line, and the Volume Serial Number (for example, 3F4E-2D1B) in the second. Then type:

CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS

It will ask for that name in confirmation. Then it will ask two further questions. Reply Y each time to set up conversion to happen at the next boot, then restart the machine. (If you are converting a partition other than the operating system’s partition, you may find that it runs without rebooting.) After returning to Win XP, the hard disk will work for two or three minutes, tidying up. Leave things alone during this time.

This is what i do when converting.

Lloyd_Heilbrunn · 2010-03-31T06:58:15.000Z

Juste:

Lloyd, have you tried the following?

Go to Start | All Programs | Accessories | Command Prompt (or, from a Run box, type CMD) and, assuming you intend to convert C:, give the command:

VOL C:

Note the name of the disk in the first line, and the Volume Serial Number (for example, 3F4E-2D1B) in the second. Then type:

CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS

It will ask for that name in confirmation. Then it will ask two further questions. Reply Y each time to set up conversion to happen at the next boot, then restart the machine. (If you are converting a partition other than the operating system’s partition, you may find that it runs without rebooting.) After returning to Win XP, the hard disk will work for two or three minutes, tidying up. Leave things alone during this time.

This is what i do when converting.

I did everything but the bolded, which was not included on the tech sheets linked above…

Lloyd_Heilbrunn · 2010-03-31T15:36:01.000Z

OK, I tried this again, but it still does not work.

This time I watched it. It went to blue screen,checked my files, determined disc space needed, I had more than enough. Said it would reboot when done. Said “converting file system”. About ten minutes later I got about 12 error messages too quick to read (how do I find where these are stored, so I can read them?) but some referred to insufficient memory(I have 3 Gigs), Some to insufficient space(I have 40 G free), and rebooted itself.

When I checked file system it was still FAT32.

Help please!!

Pogo · 2010-03-31T15:37:26.000Z

Backup your shit and format/reinstall your OS.

Fugitive · 2010-03-31T15:37:29.000Z

Check the event log, via the Event Viewer program, it might have dumped some information there.

Lloyd_Heilbrunn · 2010-03-31T15:39:37.000Z

Pogo:

Backup your shit and format/reinstall your OS.

Last resort.

Fugitive:

Check the event log, via the Event Viewer program, it might have dumped some information there.

Where is that in XP?

Lunch_of_Kong · 2010-03-31T15:40:34.000Z

How to get to the Event Viewer in xp: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427
Fly me out to Palm Beach, I can fix it for you.

Lloyd_Heilbrunn · 2010-03-31T15:47:28.000Z

Lunch of Kong:

How to get to the Event Viewer in xp: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427

Fly me out to Palm Beach, I can fix it for you.

LOL, but if you are ever in the area I do at least owe you dinner for your help in this thread!

This is what I get:

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Winlogon
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1001
Date: 3/31/2010
Time: 6:23:46 PM
User: N/A
Computer: ALIEN
Description:
The type of the file system is FAT32.
A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.
244136352 KB total disk space.
3809312 KB in 1834 hidden files.
419136 KB in 12722 folders.
195742240 KB in 265819 files.
32 KB in bad sectors.
44165600 KB are available.
32768 bytes in each allocation unit.
7629261 total allocation units on disk.
1380175 allocation units available on disk.
Converting drive C: to NTFS…
Convert will take some time to process the files on the volume.
When this phase of conversion is complete, the computer will restart.
Determining disk space required for file system conversion…
Total disk space: 244195972 KB
Free space on volume: 44165600 KB
Space required for conversion: 667845 KB
Converting file system
Insufficient Memory
Error converting file MASSEF~1.IMP.
The file may be damaged or there may be insufficient disk space.
Error converting directory MASSEF~1.
The directory may be damaged or there may be insufficient disk space.
Error converting directory DOWNLO~1.
The directory may be damaged or there may be insufficient disk space.
Error converting directory TEMPOR~1.
The directory may be damaged or there may be insufficient disk space.
Error converting directory IMPULSE.
The directory may be damaged or there may be insufficient disk space.
Error converting directory STARDOCK.
The directory may be damaged or there may be insufficient disk space.
Error converting directory APPLIC~1.
The directory may be damaged or there may be insufficient disk space.
Error converting directory ALLUSE~1.
The directory may be damaged or there may be insufficient disk space.
Error converting directory DOCUME~2.
The directory may be damaged or there may be insufficient disk space.
The conversion failed.
C: was not converted to NTFS

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Rimbo · 2010-03-31T15:58:33.000Z

That file (of ME2) that you were trying to download that was giving you errors because it was too big? Delete it (and make sure you empty the Recycle Bin), and then try again.

Lloyd_Heilbrunn · 2010-03-31T16:07:07.000Z

Rimbo:

That file (of ME2) that you were trying to download that was giving you errors because it was too big? Delete it (and make sure you empty the Recycle Bin), and then try again.

I don’t see it anywhere, but would not it also be too big the second time?