Need help with a new hard drive

[williams22]

Hey,

I just bought a new Maxtor 160 GB 7200 RPM 8MB Ultra ATA/133 drive from Staples ($70 ) I now have to install this drive and partition it. My current drive (40 GB) is in the FAT32 format. I have heard that NTFS is much better. Is this true? If so, is it worth backing up all my data, wiping my existing hard drive and reinstall everything making it a NTFS? Please explain to me the best way to do this, I have 37 gigs on my existing hard drive and I dont want to lose anything.

http://www.techimo.com/forum/showthr...ntfs+vs+fat+32

http://www.techimo.com/forum/showthr...ntfs+vs+fat+32

http://www.techimo.com/forum/showthr...ntfs+vs+fat+32

http://www.techimo.com/forum/showthr...ntfs+vs+fat+32

you can convert Fat32 to NTFS without the loss of data

http://www.ntfs.com/quest3.htm

[williams22]

SO this will guarantee no loss of data?

look at the last link

[PresterJohn]

if you have 37gb of data, the CONVERT command probably won't work due to insufficient disk space. if this is the case, you will see the error msg...

[williams22]

May sound stupid but...how do i get to a command prompt?

start> run> type CMD

presterjohn how much space will he need then?

[williams22]

Is there any risk to doing this? should i bother backing up all my data?

converting will not lose data. hopefully john can shed some light on converting over to NTFS and needing space?