NEC DVD + Fat32 v NTFS..

[scarecrowdr]

Hi Good Peeps, Need some answers Please.....
I am NEW to DVD Copying/Writeing...A Whole New Ball Game to me so Please be Gentle!...
Installed a NEC DVD-2500A plus DVD Shrink & DVD Decrypter...Got Nero 5.5.10.56 n it shows DVD in it, but not tried it yet.....(do I need any other Burners)!?........Now then, My C: D: E: F: Drives are FAT32, n DVD Decrypter says>>>>FAT32 does Not Support Single Files 4Gbt<<<(no wonder I could not back-up a Full C: drive other day, its over 4 n half GBts)
Does that mean I Must Put one of my Hard Disks to NTFS.....
Got Loads of Photos on my D: Drive, its 80Gbt with 50Gbt space left....C: n E: is same HD......F:Drive is 120Gbt n Now in a USB2 Caddy with all my Music on...
So, Should I change my D: drive to NTFS!!....Will my Photos be OK?....
Last time i tried this I had Probs, thats why I decided to stick with FAT32...
Need FAT32 in order to Format my CF/SM Cards from Camera....
ANYWAYs----Good Buddies------What's the Thing to DO.......
THANKS....Dennis...

[fawlty]

What OS do you have? If you have multiple drives then you can change some to NTFS & leave others as FAT32. You can also set multiple partitions using NTFS or FAT32. Nevertheless you should be able to just convert existing HDD to NTFS without problem. Something like Partition Magic can do all the hard work for you.

[PhilEnfield]

A few things to bear in mind :

WXP can access both NTFS & FAT32
W98 can only access FAT32

Converting a partition/drive from FAT 32 to NTFS can sometimes cause a few problems with the Data ..... for example I converted a Partition with MP3 files from FAT32 to NTFS and when trying to burn these as Audio (from XP on a FAT32 Partition), it wouldn't process them properly.
IMO you would be better off moving your data around, then creating a new Partition in NTFS and moving your Data back.
Hope that makes sense.

[scarecrowdr]

XP Pro is the System....Had Probs last time i converted to NTFS...That's why i went back to FAT32.....Photos Work better in FAT32.....
So it looks like I gota Transfer 36Gbt of Music Albums to my Drive D: that has Photos on it.....Reformat Drive F: thats now in a USB2 External Case, Format it to NTFS, then Put All Music back on it.....Is that the Logical Way!!....Yea/No....lol

[PhilEnfield]

Assuming the 36Gb of Music Albums ar on Drive F: ...yeah ... lol

[scarecrowdr]

Got work to do then, haven't I!!......The Pains we have to Go Through!....
Thanks for Help......Will let ya know how I get on....lol

[Roger The Shrubber]

FAT32 does Not Support Single Files 4Gbt<<<(no wonder I could not back-up a Full C: drive other day, its over 4 n half GBts
I think you're missunderstanding the 4 gig limit. It doesn't mean you can't back up 4 gigs of data, it means that you can't create a single file that is larger then 4 gigs.

there is no reason you can't backup or create DVD's from a FAT32 partition. VOBs are split into 1 gig files so unless you are trying to create an AVI file that is uncompressed, I doubt you would ever run into problems on a FAT32 partition.

[PhilEnfield]

You will hit a problem though, if you use DVD Shrink and output to an ISO for burning with DVD Decrypter. The ISO will be >4gb and you will get an error message to that effect.

[Roger The Shrubber]

Ah, good point. I forgot about ISO's or image files.

[scarecrowdr]

Sorted At Last......My 80Gbt HD is now in NTFS, for use with my Photos n DVDs...Working a treat at moment.....Thanks for Helping.......

Just doing tests n sorting out some anomilies now.....Will make New Thread for some more Help.....Cheers All...