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General discussion

Partitioning Question??

by Donita Mar 21, 2004 12:51AM PST

I have 3 fat32 partitions including the boot drive. I'd like to upgrade the boot drive to XP home. Is it posible to convert the other drives to NTFS? I would also like to create a backup image of the boot drive on one of the drives. Because XP does not support dos, should I do this before the upgrade to XP? I have Power Quest Drive Image but have never used it so I'm not sure what's the best way to go.

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4 Posts
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Re:Partitioning Question??
by Michael Geist Mar 21, 2004 1:18AM PST

Although Drive Image has its proponents, it does create another layer of software. In that layer is always the possibility of corruption.

I prefer to backup the files that I would not want to lose to some external source. In your case the other partitions would do, but a CDR/W is a good idea as well. Then I would do a clean install of the OS, load the motherboard/devices software, update Windows, reload your applications and finally put back your data.

The conversion of the FAT partitions is an easy transition using XPs tools found by typing "NTFS conversion" in Help and Support.

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Re:Partitioning Question??
by Donita Mar 21, 2004 1:29AM PST

I do have the imortant files saved on an external HD as they are to large for CD's. I just want to have a backup boot drive in case of some unforseen disaster. I'm just wondering if I can do this with XP installed?

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Re:Re:Partitioning Question??
by Michael Geist Mar 21, 2004 2:08AM PST

"I just want to have a backup boot drive in case of some unforseen disaster."

To this I can only say that as long as you have the installation disks, your programs are not important, nor is your Operating System. What is important are the files you have backed up. Since you already have one copy made (two would be better), go ahead and install ther OS then image the drive to an external media for that "unforseen disaster".

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Thanks Michael
by Donita Mar 21, 2004 2:11AM PST

Thanks Michael

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