Protecting folders?

[Redrobes]

Yeah, id back up the data and then convert !

 

[Ferret]

Honestly, I'd go ahead and convert to NTFS anyway. It's really odd to see a FAT32 Vista system, and there's no reason to keep it. NTFS is universally better.

Do you have any idea how it ended up like that? Did you put the system together?

That's how it came from PCWorld, it's a refurbished laptop. And I've just gotten the laptop comfy and how I like it!

Ok, something strange I just found out, only one of the partitions is fat32. What does that mean?

Use WinRAR and password protect the file compression?

I'm guessing it wouldn't be that easy to add to or watch stuff without decompressing then recompressing every time.

 

[Jeremy]

Fat32 is just an old file storage system. NTFS is more stable, and will allow the kind of file system protection you are looking for. Converting over to it will give you more granular control over what is and isn't accessible to whom.

 

[Ferret]

I know that Fat32 is an older type of file storage, but what I wanted to know was why is one partition in Fat32 and one in NTFS?

 

[SteelDraco]

I know that Fat32 is an older type of file storage, but what I wanted to know was why is one partition in Fat32 and one in NTFS?

I... I got nothin'. They selected the wrong menu choice when they were installing Vista? You're not going to have any trouble transferring files around or anything. An NTFS file system can always read a FAT32 volume.

 

[Redrobes]

Some questions that you need to ask yourself rather than reply. Is the NTFS partition large enough to hold your user data from the fat partition. Is the fat one the OS ? Is it more important to be comfortable with fat or more important to have the security of NTFS.

If the OS is on FAT then I would convert or even bin the Vista that you have because FAT is open to attack from viruses et al and as has been said I believe also that NTFS is universally better than FAT.

You tend to only see FAT on plug in memory sticks nowadays. They should have installed the OS from scratch on the drive and formatted it with NTFS. Thats PCWorld for ya.

 

[Ferret]

Not only is is PCWorld it's also a refurb. if I moved my files to the NTFS then the Fat one would be empty, leaving 80 gigs unused. Seems a bit pointless. Then again security isn't a huge issue.

Thanks guys!