System Format?

[musotechy]

Hi All,


Just putting a new machine together dedicated to video apps. What would be the best format for the machine FAT32 or NTFS?

I will be ripping, encoding, transcoding and capturing.


Many Thanks In Advance.

[FOO]

NTFS
Videos regularly get way larger than FAT32 can handle.

[musotechy]

Many thanks for the reply. I thought NTFS would be the way to go, although, I have been running FAT32 until now and haven't had any problems so far. I was hoping that it may speed things up a little.


Many Thanks

[Syndrome]

Just make sure you know that once you go to NTFS, you cant go back. I went to NTFS because i do a lot of direct video capturing, where the file gets to be about 40 gig or so..

the problem that I have found with NTFS is that the file registry is kinda crappy! When i record a 40 gig movie, and im done with it... I delete it right? Thats what I do, the file goes away, but when i check my drive space, the drive shows it as still being 40 gig full!!! even though there is NOTHING on the hard-drive!! Even when I go into and try to record a new clip with virtualdub, it recognizes that my drive is 2/3's full aswell, even though there is nothing...

so every time i record something, I have to format my drive to make it realize that its actually empty.

Is there an easier way to fix this problem?
-Syn

[Solarjetman]

@Syndrome: are you sure you do not have any programs protecting deleted files. Things such as the recycle bin or Norton Un-erase Wizard. Your symptoms appear much more like that than any file structure difficulties. If you have any programs like that running, the files will not show up in explorer, but until you delete the cache, the space on the hard drive is still marked as used. Thus windows does not consider that space free.

@musotechy: as said before NTFS is the way to go. However, you may want to keep a small FAT32 partition avialable. Because if you ever have to boot with a floppy boot disk, you will NOT be able to read the files on the NTFS partitions. Also, if you deal with other operating systems or older versions of windows, they will not be able to read those partitions as well.

[pixel]

Just make sure you know that once you go to NTFS, you cant go back. I went to NTFS because i do a lot of direct video capturing, where the file gets to be about 40 gig or so..

the problem that I have found with NTFS is that the file registry is kinda crappy! When i record a 40 gig movie, and im done with it... I delete it right? Thats what I do, the file goes away, but when i check my drive space, the drive shows it as still being 40 gig full!!! even though there is NOTHING on the hard-drive!! Even when I go into and try to record a new clip with virtualdub, it recognizes that my drive is 2/3's full aswell, even though there is nothing...

so every time i record something, I have to format my drive to make it realize that its actually empty.

Is there an easier way to fix this problem?
-Syn

Nope, formatting the hard drive is actually the best option. Just a quick format though. I do not get the problem of having a drive tell me it is 2/3 full after I have deleted something.

(By the way, when you delete something you have to actually delete it from the recycle bin as well, otherwise it stays on your drive. Even once you do delete it though, it gets moved to the end of the drive, and is gradually overwritten by the next files. This is why you should format, so you don't actually have any old file fragments anywhere.)

[Solarjetman]

Just a quick format though.
...
This is why you should format, so you don't actually have any old file fragments anywhere.)

If your goal is to remove the file fragments entirely, a quick format will not accomplish that. You can think of a quick format as tearing the table of contents out of a book. Without it you do not know where the chapters begin and end, but they are still there.

There is nothing wrong with having those fragments as long as the area is marked as free space. Unless of course the RIAA is knocking on your door and those fragments are from your late night Kazaa party

Also, where did you hear that deleted files are move to the end of the disk? I don't think that is standard practice.

[FOO]

I had to go to NTFS. some things just can't be segmented.
The main fear I had was I can no longer boot the computer with
a floppy and fix things. I don't know if anyone has booted with a
windows CD and tried to do anything but it SUCKS.
there is no multiple file copy , you want to move a whole directory
with 200 files , give up. It is so incredibly STUPID .
I think with a lot of work I could make a bootable CD with lots of utilities,
But WHY do I have to. ? Ok Bill what's the answer

[tgm4883]

you should really think about getting a second hard drive just for video editing if you dont have one already

[Gazorgan]

You want 2 drives. Boot/OS drive and capture drive.

NTFS is not faster, never claimed to be. Fat16 is fastest but useless for capture. Fat32 is slower but stuck with 4 GB limit. NTFS is slowest but has few limits. With Ultra ATA100/133 it's a non-issue (unless you cap in RAW mode).

NTFS has some peculier qualities, and yes, you do lose space over time. It has to do with fragments in the FAT table. I just Re-format my capture drive once a month.

Norton System Works is EVIL, it won't delete anything and causes fragmentation. The rest of it is okay. Also, hold down the shift key when you delete things to avoid the messy recycle bin.

[Syndrome]

Nope, formatting the hard drive is actually the best option. Just a quick format though. I do not get the problem of having a drive tell me it is 2/3 full after I have deleted something.

Hey guys,

I was just wondering how to do this? I have winXP pro.. and every time i try to format it, it says that its currently in use (which its not) and that it will schedule a format next time i reboot.

When i do reboot, it does a standard format... and it takes like 40 minutes... lol what a pain in the @$$!

-Syn