FAT32 to NTFS conversion

[dingo]

Hi guys,

I just converted my HD from FAT32 to NTFS but the damn computer is so slow now. When I startup (Windows XP) it takes forever to load compared to how it was before the conversion. Also when I try to encrypt or compress folders (the reason I did the conversion) the compter freezes and I'm forced to pull out the power and start it up again.
Any ideas on what is causing the problems and if BTFS is generally slower.

Thanks

[RC45]

WHat are the specs on the PC?

How big is the drive - and how much free space?

And how fragmented and polluted with bad sectors or physical drive errors was the drive before converison?

[AlienDB7]

Generally, compression and encryption will slow down the PC. Other than that, NTFS's performance is about same as FAT32, depending on type of access you're talking about. I run a mix of FAT32 (normal stuff) and NTFS (videos), minimal performance difference between them. It's more about the hardware than the file system.

For your slow bootup, are you sure it's not the scandisk (after a crash or improper shutdown)?

You mentioned about the crash when you encrypt/compress the drive? Was the prcoess completed... perhaps the file system got corrupted?

[RC45]

NTFS performance while similar to Fat32 on a given disk and controller subsystem - it's performance is very much affected by free space (should be around 25%) , fragmentation, number and size of files and "condition" of file system prior to conversion.

I have seen many systems where cleanup before would have prevented, and cleanup after conversion cured these types of ailment.

And as noted above, encryption and compression (especially for large amounts of data with many files and folders) will impact performance and highlight any deficiency in your system.

[SFDMALEX]

When I ran my benchmarks on the same harddrive which had one NTFS and one FAT32 partition the NTFS was way faster. At least 7mb difference in read and write times.

Never had your problem though. What did you use for the conversion? The WINXP partitioning options in the begining of the install?

[RC45]

I would love to hear details about the disk size, free space and fragmentation level before conversion...

[dingo]

The HD is a 20Gb with 4.66Gb free space, and I didn't check the fragmentation but I did a defragmentation only a few weeks ago so it shouldn't be to bad.

As for how I did the conversion I just used the command prompt and typed in:convert c: /fs:ntfs and then when I restarted it did the conversion (took about 5-10mins). I haven't reinstalled Windows put I might give it a try later.

Today when I switched the laptop on it loaded to the desktop and then when I tried to click on the Start button it froze and I once again was forced to restart. This occured 3 more time before it finally started properly and I was able to use everything normally.
Once the system is started the performance doesn't seem to be any slower than previously but its just the time taken to start (and no scandisk doesn't run) and the constant freezing.

PC Specs:

1.8Ghz Mobile P4
512MB RAM
20Gb HDD

Thanks for your help so far guys, keep it coming.

[dingo]

If I format it I'll lose all my data, and what the hell does fubar mean?

[dingo]

Ok, thanks for that. I'll copy the data onto another PC and format and re-install Windows. Let you know how it went tomorrow.

[dingo]

I've done all that and it seems to have sloved the problem, for now anyway. Thanks for all your help guys.

[RC45]

Just remember, NTFS really needs 25% or more free space to perform at a decent speed, minimize fragmentation, and be less prone to file system corruption.

Good luck