file system question OT?

[mariusv]

this is not directly FS related:

I've recently had trouble running DOS based programmes on my FAT32 HDD with two partitions. Some programmes even managed to corrupt the FAT (PS1.3 & AS2)...

Now I got WinXP and it's still using FAT32, but I'm considering reinstalling and converting to NTFS (and using just one partition).

Would this be a wise move, considering FS's relatively intensive hard drive activity? Is NTFS (recommended for XP) good for games?

And would there be Windows (as opposed to DOS) programmes that would have trouble with NTFS?

And has anyone ever heard of a DOS programme corrupting the FAT when run under Windows?

And what does "Remote procedure call failed" mean, besides that a remote procedure call has failed?

In short, pros & cons of NTFS and FAT32?

Any help would be appreciated

m.

[alastairmonk]

In my experience, and from various comments made over the past, it is fair to say that NTFS is primarily a business system. As NTFS is the core of WinNT I've read numerous comments about simmers who couldn't get WinNT to recognise their joysticks etc. In most cases the reply has been that as a business system, it was never really bothered about supporting games.

Thus, I think that NTFS is NOT the format you should use. For partitioning, I've always used Partition Magic, and within this program is the ability to change between FAT and FAT32 partitions. If it were me, I would re-partition part of your drive from FAT32 to FAT, and run the Dos games from that. Just remember that wheras FAT32 maintains the 8K cluster size up to 8 GB, FAT progressively increases the cluster size, causing increasing waste of space:

DOS and Windows default FAT cluster sizes

Partition FAT Type Sectors Per Cluster Size (MB) Cluster
_________________________________________________

0-15............12-bit....8.............512 bytes
16-127..........16-bit....4...............2 KB
128-255.........16-bit....8...............4 KB
256-511.........16-bit....16..............8 KB
512-1,023.......16-bit....32.............16 KB
1,024-2,047.....16-bit....64.............32 KB
2,048-4,096.....16-bit....128............64 KB*

*Only available with Windows NT.

Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2, Windows 98, and Windows NT 5.0 default FAT32 cluster sizes

Partition Sectors Per Cluster Size
Size (GB) Cluster
_____________________________________

0.256-8.01.......8.........4 KB
8.02-16.02......16.........8 KB
16.03-32.04.....32........16 KB
> 32.04.........64........32 KB
_____________________________________

Hope this helps,

http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...d85138992a.jpg

[Patkorn]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Oct-19-01 AT 05:15AM (EDT)[/font][p][font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Oct-19-01 AT 05:00 AM (EDT)[/font]

Ok - there is absolutely no problem with NTFS and Games, in fact my Win2000 System is by far more stable than any other Windows. I will never ever get XP because of Microsoft policies eg.wanting you to get a Passport account. And you have to get a code each time you get a new piece of hardware - that sux. For everything exept FS I use SUSE Linux 7.2. The source code is open and you do not get any error messages that you can not trace. Microsoft is a big mystery, nobody else knows what really happens in the code. And Linux is cheap - offers you 2300 additional Programs to the distribution package. I have read so much other bad things about XP: The only thing really good about it is that the bootup is real fast. If you have the Home version of XP - the XP Filesystem was cut short and does not offer that what the pro-version does.
If youre computer was not upgraded you will also experience a loss of performance since XP uses more resources. XP has many services that permanantly want you to go online into the internet even if you do not even use these. Even Micrsoftadverts are not on the HD anymore - it connects and sucks it in online from the internet, cheaky little thing. Soon Linux will be able to emulate games for windows - when that happens I'll throw windows out of my window for sure ! A whole lot of other stuff like arcade ROMS can be emulated quite nicely.

NTFS is a more secure file system and is far harder to hack. On Win2000 it is also a bit faster that FAT32. So I would go for NTFS. I think the best thing to do is to test it on your own mashine - there are different types of hardware which also deliver different results. Try it and deceide for youreself.

I have never had a program, that destructed my filesystem. Maby something else could be buggy - eg open filehandels in the RAM.

[alastairmonk]

Glad to hear I was wrong ! What version of Win2000 do you have ?

http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...d85138992a.jpg

[Patkorn]

I'll have to check at home, I have Servicepack 2 installed. The only thing though is that some Games are not NT-compatilble, (since I only flightsim that is not a problem for me). That has to do with the fact that directx for NT is a little different. Also the driver support of some companies is not that good -> joystickproblems. This all has nothing to do with the filesystem used. MSFS and Fly Win2000 work great though, no problem.
If you have a standalone system, it is wise to deactivate all the network services you don't need - that will make Win2000 really rock. I also experinced that Win2000 manages RAM far better giving you a better I/O performance, something FS2000 really relies on. In Win98 my FS2000 tended to freeze due to its bad RAM management and having problems with my onboard UDMA-controller. In Win2000 no such problem. There were also no known problems before I installed any servicepacks. What I've installed too, is the appupd.exe which you can download from Microsoft. It solves compatability issues with some games.

I say again - try things yourself. Operatingsystems behave quite differenly on other hardware configurations. It took me months to figure out what runs best on mine. The freezes in MSFS drove me absolutely nuts. There were many suggestions in the net, but none really helped me figure it out. It was due to my experimenting with different setups. I even figured out that some harddrives are less stable than others, (then again on my friends computer this drive worked fine.) It is very hard to figure the whole thing out because every piece of hard or software determines the performance of the whole system. I'm so happy that it is stable now.

[mariusv]

thanks for the replies... i went ahead and did what any selfrespecting idiot would do: i tried it anyway. in my experience over the weekend it seems ntfs as used in xp works perfectly. i might be imagining things but it does seem more stable, and, using a third party wrapper, i can now run PS1.3 with only one slight limitation.

BUT, i still get this strange crash, mostly when i switch on the pc for the first time in the day. when xp comes on it says my pc's has recovered from a serious system error, and it blames a device called "256_1" for it. the closest i have to that is the geforce 256. but why only when i switch it on for the first time?

my motherboard has a setting for "clear nvram" and when i reboot and first activate that, the pc comes on without giving me the error msg.

could this be RAM? and why would it only happen the first time i switch on the pc. can RAM be erm cold?

to anyone else out there, if you have the ram, i'd highly recommend getting win xp. ms got it right.

m.

[kdfwatc1]

If you convert your drive to NTFS, from Fat32. You will not be able to access the drive from a dos boot disk if something goes wrong. Trust me on this, I have an MCSE and i know alot about NTFS,FAT,FAT32. If you run your system on a FAT,or FAT32 and you run into a system problem you can access the drive with a boot floppy. On NTFS you can't NTFS is you security reasons to prevent anyone from accessing you computer from dos and removing file and data or hacking into your system.

[Biff]

This is an important point, and in general I agree that sticking to FAT allows for much more flexible disaster recovery if your NT installation becomes corrupted for instance. However, even with NTFS it still possible to mount the partition in another NT system or use a tool like NTFSDOS (http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/fr.../NTFSDOS.shtml ) , NTFS for Win98, or the NTFS-support built into the Linux kernel to help you salvage things.