Preparing a Hard Drive

NTFS Drives

NTFS (New Technology File System) is the advanced file system which can be used solely by Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. If you intend to use the NTFS file system there are certain conditions which you should be aware of.

NTFS can only be used on a local drive by Windows NT, 2000 or XP. You will not be able to access an NTFS drive under Windows 9x or Windows ME unless it is available as a Network share on another computer. This may not be an issue on a single OS computer, however if you have a dual boot Win98 / XP set up then you would not be able to access the XP drive from Win98 if it was installed on an NTFS drive.

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NTFS is not a DOS based file system so you CANNOT use a DOS boot disk to create an NTFS partition. Third party utilities such as 'Partition Magic' can also create and manipulate NTFS volumes easily.
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You CAN use a DOS boot disk to bypass Win NT/2000/XP completely, however you will not be able to access any NTFS partitions on your drive except to delete them as non-DOS partitions via FDISK.

There are many advantages to using NTFS such as.....

• Supports volumes greater than 2Tb up to almost infinite size!
• Supports filenames up to 255 characters, including many special characters and spaces.
• Increased security options available to administrators
• Supports larger file sizes
• Windows 9x and Windows ME systems can access NTFS over a network
  

The following guide explains how to carry out the various procedures necessary to create, delete and format a drive using the NTFS file system.

1. Deleting an NTFS partition.

2. Formatting an existing partition as NTFS.

3. Creating a new NTFS partition.

4. Converting an existing partition to NTFS.

Deleting an NTFS Partition

How easy it is to delete an NTFS drive depends on your existing operating system and drive set up.

If you use Windows 9x or ME then you will have to use FDISK to delete the NTFS drive - see 'Delete Non-DOS Partition' in the FDISK guide

If you use Windows 2000 or XP then you can delete the drive in the 'Disk Management' service of 'Computer Management.

Simply right click the drive you wish to delete and click 'Delete Partition' from the context menu. If this option is greyed out (As it would be for a Primary Boot or System drive) then you will have to use an alternative method of removing the partition such as FDISK or the Windows 2000/XP set up process.

Formatting an existing partition as NTFS

This option destroys all the data on the existing partition.

There are several ways to format an existing partition as NTFS.....

Run the NT Format option from within Windows - (NT Explorer in Windows NT or Disk Administrator in Windows 2000 & Windows XP).

Issue the FORMAT command from a Windows NT/2000/XP Command Prompt using the '/fs:ntfs' switch e.g. 'C:\>FORMAT /fs:ntfs'

Select a drive in 'Windows Explorer' or 'My Computer' and click the 'Format' command in the 'file' menu.

Caution! Caution! Caution!
You cannot format a disk which has files open, contains the system or boot partition or has files displayed in explorer!

You can also carry out a quick format on an existing drive which will format a drive without carrying out a check for bad sectors. While this option is slightly faster it is always worth checking for bad sectors and I would advise you to always carry out a full format.

Creating a new NTFS Partition

The Windows 2000 & XP installation processes allow you to create a new NTFS partition as part of the installation process. This will obviously destroy any existing data on the drive during the format process.

If you already have Win2000 or XP installed and would like to create new NTFS partition from unused or free disk space you should use the Windows 2000/XP 'Disk Management' utility.

The 'Disk Management' can only be used if you are logged on to Win 2000/XP as an Administrator so make sure you have these privileges before proceeding.

To access 'Disk Administrator' in Windows 2000, go to 'Start/Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management'.

To access the 'Disk Administrator in Windows XP, go to 'Start/Control Panel/Performance and Maintenance/Administrative Tools/Computer Management'.

Under the Computer Management/Storage tree there will be an entry for 'Disk Management'.

Click the 'Disk Management' entry to start the utility (See example)

If you receive a message such as 'Server unavailable' or you cannot start the Disk Manager Utility, check that they have been started as 'Services'. To do this click on the 'Services and Applications' entry in Computer Management (See example) and make sure that status of both the 'Logical Disk Manager' entries are 'Started'.

If either of them are 'Stopped', double click the entry and click the 'Start' button on the property sheet (See example)

You will see a graphical representation of the drives in your system and you can perform various actions such as formatting, changing drive letters etc by right clicking the drive you want to change and selecting the required action from the context menu.

If any options are greyed out (Such as the 'Format' and 'Delete Partition' when you right click a System or Boot drive) then you will have to use an alternative method of carrying out the operation.

Don't forget that you can also use third party software such as Partition Magic to change and manipulate drives and file systems without affecting data. The standard tools that come with Windows, which are illustrated here, are limited in this respect.

Converting an existing volume to NTFS

Converting an existing FAT or FAT32 volume to NTFS is relatively easy and WILL retain the data which resides on the drive.

Caution! As with any major disk operation you should always back up the entire drive before you start. Norton Ghost is a particularly good tool for imaging drives and is also capable of writing backups to CD Writers.

To convert an existing drive in Windows NT/2000 or XP, you need to issue the CONVERT command from a Command Prompt. Type the following command at the cursor and press [Enter]...

convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs

*'drive_letter' = the letter of the drive you wish to convert.

If the drive can be converted you will be asked for confirmation and the process will begin, however if you want to convert the boot or system drive then Windows will ask you if you want to schedule the conversion at the next startup. This is because a drive cannot be converted if files are open and in use, therefore the only way for Windows to successfully convert the drive is to do it at startup before any files are locked or used.

Once the system has been rebooted, Windows will carry out the disk conversion after performing a scan on the drive to check for errors (See Windows XP example).

You should have realised by now that the process to prepare and format drives is a very involved and sometimes complicated process. You can save yourself a lot of trouble and an awful lot of time by purchasing a third party disk preparation program such as 'Partition Magic'. This software can create, delete, re-size and even move partitions without losing existing data! It is also extremely easy to use with a Windows graphical interface allowing you to carry out multiple operations at the click of a button.

You can purchase Partition Magic in the Techrescue.net software shop at up to 50% off the recommended retail price.