OK, here's the deal. I only have the Windows XP update disk... I tried to install a "clean install" it looked for previous version... well, previous version was Windows ME. If I format my HD NTFS, ME won't install to it... ME doesn't recognize NTFS. Soooooooo, I format FAT32, Install ME, update to XP.
So now I have XP with FAT32 and cluster sizes like 4k... not bad for FAT32. But NTFS is better, so I convert, YIKES cluster size 1/2 k (512). That's not good!
I cloned the HD b/4 I did all this, so I restored it to the original FAT32, but now the clusters are 32k (C
and 16k (d
. I have lots of drive space so everything is working well, very well. I guess so, almost all the files have their own cluster.
Well, not wanting to waste HD space I converted again to NTFS... but this time cluster sizes are 4k. Hey, that's good!
BUT HERE's the rub! It takes a lot longer to boot, much longer. My little 7200 rpm HD is just working himself to death. Anyway it whirrs and stuff and finally boots. Where with FAT32 I'd turn the system on, it would boot before the monitor warmed up and I had a screen.
So here's the question, is it slow because I could not do a clean install into NTFS and had to convert the files, or does it take longer just because its NTFS and checks lots of stuff?
If I clone this "converted to NTFS" HD to another HD of mine, will the cloned drive be more like a "clean" install? Once I clone both with NTFS there's no going back to fat32!
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