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piikea

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NTFS with Windows ME for external hard drive
Sep 6^th, 2010 at 11:39pm

Ok, I'm still using Win Me (I know it sucks Shocked

) & I'm not able to do an upgrade at the moment. I was reading the Partitioning guide & other sources & realized I have a dilemma where there's disagreement & no clear cut "answer".
I bought a 1TB external hard drive for data storage - the question is: do I simply format it as FAT32 with it's resulting "wastage" / inefficient use of space - OR - NTFS & try to use 1 of the (apparently) available 3rd party programs that enables Win Me to "see" NTFS files?

Any opinions or advice on this?
Thanks

(p.s. - surely this drive will outlive me using Win Me so at that point would "need" to be NTFS anyway.)

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Brian

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	Re: NTFS with Windows ME for external hard drive Reply #1 - Sep 8^th, 2010 at 5:52pm @ piikea How much storage space do you need at present? Let's assume 100 GB. Create a 100 GB FAT32 partition and a 900 GB NTFS partition.
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MrMagoo

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Re: NTFS with Windows ME for external hard drive
Reply #2 - Sep 9^th, 2010 at 12:46pm

piikea wrote on Sep 6^th, 2010 at 11:39pm:

try to use 1 of the (apparently) available 3rd party programs that enables Win Me to "see" NTFS files

I'm not sure how stable programs like that are. I tried one to get WindowsXP to use NFS, but it didn't work so well. I don't know anyone using these types of Windows apps, and so wouldn't recommend them for critical data.

piikea wrote on Sep 6^th, 2010 at 11:39pm:

surely this drive will outlive me using Win Me so at that point would "need" to be NTFS anyway

Not true. Almost any OS can read Fat32. You could keep using it for a while.

piikea wrote on Sep 6^th, 2010 at 11:39pm:

do I simply format it as FAT32 with it's resulting "wastage" / inefficient use of space

Depending on what you are storing, the waste might not be that bad. Large files actually waste less space than small ones (where small ~= 512KB.) I wouldn't worry so much about the inefficiency. The only real disadvantage of Fat32 in your case would be the possibility of more fragmentation over NTFS, but that might not even be a big deal if the data on the drive doesn't change often.

Brian wrote on Sep 8^th, 2010 at 5:52pm:

Create a 100 GB FAT32 partition and a 900 GB NTFS partition.

Probably your best option. Or even just leave the extra space unpartitioned and then decide later how to use it. Many tools exist that can grow your existing partition if you decide you want it bigger later.

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piikea

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Re: NTFS with Windows ME for external hard drive
Reply #3 - Sep 14^th, 2010 at 2:13am

Quote:

Brian wrote on Sep 8^th, 2010 at 5:52pm:

Create a 100 GB FAT32 partition and a 900 GB NTFS partition.

Probably your best option. Or even just leave the extra space unpartitioned and then decide later how to use it. Many tools exist that can grow your existing partition if you decide you want it bigger later.

I think I will do that since I can't figure out a better plan at the moment. Currently I only need it for about 100-200GB of storage. FAT32 or NTFS doesn't seem to be a big issue.

Followed the Rad Guide to Partitioning using FDISK but none of the partitions "took" - idk why not.
Tried Ranich but couldn't navigate or figure out how to use it. Looking into other options.

It's not being assigned a drive letter like my other 80GB ext HD is. I assume because it's not formatted(?).

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Brian

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	Re: NTFS with Windows ME for external hard drive Reply #4 - Sep 14^th, 2010 at 2:42am @ piikea Partition Wizard is a popular free app. Get the "Free Download Bootable CD Now!" 39 MB http://www.partitionwizard.com/download.html
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piikea

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Re: NTFS with Windows ME for external hard drive
Reply #5 - Sep 14^th, 2010 at 2:59am

Brian wrote on Sep 14^th, 2010 at 2:42am:

@

piikea

Partition Wizard is a popular free app. Get the "Free Download Bootable CD Now!" 39 MB

http://www.partitionwizard.com/download.html

Thanks - but just checked it & Win me isn't supported. I keep running into that w/ alot of programs a s time goes on (...being SO far behind!).

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Brian

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	Re: NTFS with Windows ME for external hard drive Reply #6 - Sep 14^th, 2010 at 3:23am I should have mentioned to ignore that. Because it is a boot disc it would even be OK for Windows 3. You are partitioning from a Linux environment so the version of Windows is irrelevant. Edit... I didn't mind WinME. It ran OK for me.
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MrMagoo

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	Re: NTFS with Windows ME for external hard drive Reply #7 - Sep 15^th, 2010 at 1:52pm Doesn't WindowsME have a built-in drive partitioning tool? If not, I've used the PartedMagic LiveCD a few times w/ success. http://partedmagic.com/
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OldCasper

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Re: NTFS with Windows ME for external hard drive
Reply #8 - Oct 29^th, 2010 at 7:02pm

This is a very interesting thread, but I'm thoroughly confused.

Windows 98 and its cousin Windows ME are both a GUI sitting on top of DOS. DOS cannot see any NTFS partition without some program like 'NTFS4DOS' being run first to enable it.

Boot up with any DOS disk and it will never even see an NTFS partition. It's like it didn't exist. Windows NT was the old OS that used NTFS, because of its high security, based on the fact that DOS couldn't see it.

So, I'd not want to try to combine Windows ME and NTFS.
With some hokus pokus it may be possible, but not in the natural.

I can access any NTFS drive with my DOS boot disk, but only after I run NTFS4DOS to unlock the NTFS drive.

I do have a Windows ME machine in my shop, that I keep for answering questions about ME. What I've said above, I've called from memory, but if you need more proof I can always fire up the old ME machine.
Let me know if you need more help.

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OldCasper

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Re: NTFS with Windows ME for external hard drive
Reply #9 - Oct 29^th, 2010 at 8:22pm

I'm sorry, it seems like I'm replying to my own post. NOT!

Something was bugging me so I did a little Googling.

One big drawback to using Windows 98 was the 64 gig partition maximum. Using 98/SE that went up to 137 gigs and with Windows ME, again 137 gigs per partition.

So if one was to try to partition and format a 1 Terrabyte drive with windows ME, it would have to be partitioned into parts of no more than 137 gig each.

For many years now, I've been using my Windows ME Utilities disk to set up and format new hard drives.
500 gig's is the largest drive I have yet to set up in that manner.

An alternative is to use a boot CD with Partition Magic 8 or another partitioning tool like Easeus partition Manager, that can both partition and then format the HD.

I just don't believe that windows ME can even see an NTFS drive or partition, so it surely couldn't read or write files to one.

OC

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MrMagoo

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Re: NTFS with Windows ME for external hard drive
Reply #10 - Oct 29^th, 2010 at 10:50pm

OldCasper wrote on Oct 29^th, 2010 at 8:22pm:

I just don't believe that windows ME can even see an NTFS drive or partition, so it surely couldn't read or write files to one.

It would be able to see the partition just fine. It just wouldn't be able to read/write files to it.

OldCasper wrote on Oct 29^th, 2010 at 7:02pm:

Windows NT was the old OS that used NTFS, because of its high security, based on the fact that DOS couldn't see it.

The fact that DOS can't read NTFS has nothing to do with the security features of NTFS. NTFS supports a set of user permissions that FAT does not.

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OldCasper

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	Re: NTFS with Windows ME for external hard drive Reply #11 - Oct 31^st, 2010 at 8:20pm TOUCHÉ My point was, that Windows ME and NTFS really are not compatible. ME was installed on a FAT-32 HD. OC
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