FAT to FAT32 ???

Is it recommended to convert a 1gig FAT drive to FAT32? OS is Win98se.
There is only about 70meg "free" on the 1gig C:drive. I was thinking that
the conversion might make some more space available.

System is a p-166, 48meg ram. How long would the conversion take?

Ogg wrote:
Is it recommended to convert a 1gig FAT drive to FAT32? OS is Win98se.
There is only about 70meg "free" on the 1gig C:drive. I was thinking that
the conversion might make some more space available.

System is a p-166, 48meg ram. How long would the conversion take?

You may go for "Gone with the wind" to local movie theater and come back
safely;^)


NO! On 70/1000 ratio the best is to throw away "junk". Next would be to
use drive compression utility which will slow the system even more.
The conversion between FAT versions has no effect on "wasted" space.
The last statement is partially true as usually you format the drive
with FAT system of choice, so you end with clean space - is this what
you want?

Have fun

Stanislaw
Slack user from Ulladulla.

"Stanislaw Flatto" wrote:
The conversion between FAT versions has no effect on "wasted" space.

Unless I am misunderstanding your "meaning", this is not true.

A 1GB FAT drive will be using 16K clusters. After being converted to FAT32, the
same drive would be using 4K clusters. A 1-byte file, as an example, is allocated 1
cluster of disk space, wasting the unused area of the cluster. A smaller cluster
size means less waste, since that 1-byte file under FAT is using 16K, whereas the
same file under FAT32 only uses 4K.
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Stanislaw Flatto" wrote in message
...
Ogg wrote:
Is it recommended to convert a 1gig FAT drive to FAT32? OS is Win98se.
There is only about 70meg "free" on the 1gig C:drive. I was thinking that
the conversion might make some more space available.

System is a p-166, 48meg ram. How long would the conversion take?

You may go for "Gone with the wind" to local movie theater and come back
safely;^)


NO! On 70/1000 ratio the best is to throw away "junk". Next would be to
use drive compression utility which will slow the system even more.
The conversion between FAT versions has no effect on "wasted" space.
The last statement is partially true as usually you format the drive
with FAT system of choice, so you end with clean space - is this what
you want?

Have fun

Stanislaw
Slack user from Ulladulla.

I think you're right too!
But he *really* needs a bigger drive. I mean, come on: a 1 GB drive???
That's like going back to the Stone Age; it's practically useless. :-)

glee wrote:
"Stanislaw Flatto" wrote:
The conversion between FAT versions has no effect on "wasted" space.

Unless I am misunderstanding your "meaning", this is not true.

A 1GB FAT drive will be using 16K clusters. After being converted to
FAT32,
the same drive would be using 4K clusters. A 1-byte file, as an example,
is
allocated 1 cluster of disk space, wasting the unused area of the cluster.
A
smaller cluster size means less waste, since that 1-byte file under FAT is
using 16K, whereas the same file under FAT32 only uses 4K.
--
Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Stanislaw Flatto" wrote in message
...
Ogg wrote:
Is it recommended to convert a 1gig FAT drive to FAT32? OS is Win98se.
There is only about 70meg "free" on the 1gig C:drive. I was thinking
that
the conversion might make some more space available.

System is a p-166, 48meg ram. How long would the conversion take?

You may go for "Gone with the wind" to local movie theater and come back
safely;^)


NO! On 70/1000 ratio the best is to throw away "junk". Next would be to
use drive compression utility which will slow the system even more.
The conversion between FAT versions has no effect on "wasted" space.
The last statement is partially true as usually you format the drive
with FAT system of choice, so you end with clean space - is this what
you want?

Have fun

Stanislaw
Slack user from Ulladulla.

For that size drive you will get between 10% and 20% additional usable space
by converting to FAT32. I would recommend temporarily moving some stuff off
the drive to give more free space before attempting the conversion. The time
required depends on the speed of the drive and the number and size of the
files.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Ogg" wrote in message
...
Is it recommended to convert a 1gig FAT drive to FAT32? OS is Win98se.
There is only about 70meg "free" on the 1gig C:drive. I was thinking that
the conversion might make some more space available.

System is a p-166, 48meg ram. How long would the conversion take?

glee wrote:
"Stanislaw Flatto" wrote:

The conversion between FAT versions has no effect on "wasted" space.


Unless I am misunderstanding your "meaning", this is not true.

[Noted]************************************************** *************************

A 1GB FAT drive will be using 16K clusters. After being converted to FAT32, the
same drive would be using 4K clusters. A 1-byte file, as an example, is allocated 1
cluster of disk space, wasting the unused area of the cluster. A smaller cluster
size means less waste, since that 1-byte file under FAT is using 16K, whereas the
same file under FAT32 only uses 4K.
[/Noted]************************************************** *************************

Now lets clear the "missunderstanding".
On a 900+ MB of various programms how many files fill exactly the file
system blocks and how many have some "little tails".
The change in size of blocks will have effect on the "tails" only.
Your guess is as good as mine how much space will be saved. (Peanuts,
not worth the effort.)
If his whole drive would be filled with files in the range 1-5KB then we
know what we are talking about.

Have fun

Stanislaw
Slack user from Ulladulla.

Just get yourself another hard drive..wouldn't that be easier than all this carry on about FAT & FAT 32..10,20,30,40 gig drives are dirt cheap

Ogg wrote:
Is it recommended to convert a 1gig FAT drive to FAT32? OS is
Win98se. There is only about 70meg "free" on the 1gig C:drive. I
was thinking that the conversion might make some more space
available.

System is a p-166, 48meg ram. How long would the conversion take?

"Touch Base" wrote..

Just get yourself another hard drive..wouldn't that be easier
than all this carry on about FAT & FAT 32..10,20,30,40 gig
drives are dirt cheap

I've deleted some major apps that are nolonger needed. There is now about
250 meg free space. That's more than adequate for the pc's intended
purpose. I may consider plopping in 2nd drive as a spare. This pc cannot
get any added investment except available spare parts.

"Jeff Richards" wrote..

For that size drive you will get between 10% and 20%
additional usable space by converting to FAT32. I would
recommend temporarily moving some stuff off the drive
to give more free space before attempting the conversion.
The time required depends on the speed of the drive and
the number and size of the files.

I deleted a few big apps. There were some large left-over .MSI files
inhabiting the drive. In all, there is about 250meg free now. I think the
pc will be fine with that, and just FAT will be fine - for now.

"Bill in Co." wrote...

I think you're right too!
But he *really* needs a bigger drive. I mean, come on: a 1 GB drive???
That's like going back to the Stone Age; it's practically useless. :-)

I deleted a few big apps (MS Visual Basic, Visual Studio and MS Office), and
that provided about 200 more meg. The drive now has about 250 meg free
space. The drive is not useless. It just needs to serve a small library,
with one main program running. It doesn't need wordprocessing, spreadsheet,
etc.. 1gig is actually more than adequate. But when the pc was dropped
off to me to work on, yes.. there was only less then 30meg space free.. and
that was a bit discouraging. I thought that maybe converting to fat32 would
provide atleast twice the free space - and provide a more efficient
operation. I now realize it's probably not worth the trouble to convert.
There is no money to put into this "relic" - except for a new keyboard that
I borrowed from another retired pc.