Additionally, the filesize limit of any single file on a FAT32 drive is limited to 4 gigabytes. This is about 18 minutes of DV video. NTFS drives do not have this limitation and a single file can be virtually as large as the hard drive itself.

John

For Win2K or WinXP, format at NTFS

For WinME or Win98SE, you MUST use FAT32

XP can use either FAT32 or NTFS but you will be happier with NTFS

ME & 98 can ONLY use FAT32

Don't know about Linux.

Marquat,

> If I upgrade to XP, can it read the data as is

Yes, XP supports both FAT32 and NTFS

> ... would I have to copy it to a NTFS-formatted HDD

You can actually convert your FAT32 drives to NTFS after you upgrade to XP. This is what I did. Just use the CONVERT command in XP. NTFS the way to go if you don’t need FAT32 for some other co resident OS.

> Can Linux read the NTFS file system?

Yes, there are NTFS drivers for Linux.

Some advice:

I just upgraded from WinMe to WinXP 3 times in the past week! My system would run fine and then mysteriously lock up (Dell 8100, P4 1.7Ghz 512MB). Here is what I finally had to do: (back up all your personal data before you start!)

1) Check your PC vendor’s web site for possible upgrade instructions. I didn’t and the Dell site had a nice step-by-step set of instructions that would have saved me time and headaches had I gone there first.
2) Run the XP Upgrade Advisor on WinMe and heed its warnings. Download any drivers you need.
3) Upgrade you BIOS and chipset drivers to the latest levels required for XP. (You WinMe BIOS may not be sufficient)
4) Unplug everything from your machine except for your display card before you do the upgrade. This includes PCI cards, printers, USB devices, etc.
5) Boot from the XP Upgrade CD and be sure to format your C partition. If you just put the CD in the drive from WinMe it doesn’t give you the format option and even if you ask for a clean install (not upgrade) it doesn’t clean off your C: drive and leaves all the old garbage in your Windows directories! This is just asking for trouble.
6) Add back each PCI card and USB device you removed one at a time. Make sure you have downloaded the XP version of the device drivers before you do.

As I said, I’ve just re-installed my WinXP Home upgrade for the third time this week and it has been a nightmare. I’m still not sure that my system is stable (I did the last re-install just last night) but so far so good. I haven’t added my Pinnacle Deluxe AVDV card or USB devices back yet. I’m waiting to make sure XP doesn’t lockup on me again before I add everything back.

I did a search on the Dell forums on “XP lockup” and got over 300,000 hits! Who ever said XP was more stable had a different definition of stability than mine. I know it seems like a lot of work, but doing the upgrade right the first time will save you a lot of trouble in the end. Be weary of device drivers that are not windows certified for XP. Have a bottle of wine handy to take of “the edge”. Don’t forget to stop and hug the kids ;-)

~jr

XP IS far more stable. There's a big if. IF you use certified drivers. If you attempt to install older devices not on the approved compatibilty list then for sure you will have problems. The reason is XP is more fussy about what drivers will can run, which is why it is more stable, but also because it is more fussy with drivers. Attempting to use older ones can and does cause problems as you've discovered.

It also helps to have a Billy Gates Voodoo doll and at least every couple weeks give it a jab or two.

BillyBoy,

I don't believe my buddy, Bill, put a gun to your head and made you buy Windows. If you don't like Windows, there's always a Mac or Linux.

John

John, you need to work on your sense of humor.

I've used Microsoft applications back to the 80's and I'm also a stockholder. That doesn't mean I can't have a little fun with their well known ARROGANT attitude and apparent inability or desire to fix known bugs that have been part of Windows for YEARS.

Geez, I'm beginning to think you don't like me John.

"It also helps to have a Billy Gates Voodoo doll and at least every couple weeks give it a jab or two. "

Pretty sure that doesn't make your PC run better but it may make you feel better. :-)

BillyBoy, from your later post you may want to look at my web page:

Rex's Place

There is nothing video related there, but scroll down to the bottom of the page and check out my Microsoft logo. (Feel free to steal it.) This was from about 1997 when it was the main thing they produced. It may be a bit better now, but they chased me out of the computer industry so I can't say for sure.

-Rex

The response just above this insertion on how to upgrade drives from FAT to NTFS was great. I pasted those instructions to a text file for safe keeping. Thanks for all the helpful points above (and below).

I was way off when I mentioned using NTFS with Win ME or Win 98/SE. Glad that someone caught that. I don't know what got me off track there but I was. I edited the starting post to remove the references to those Windows systems.

I should have tried that CONVERT command, but didn’t. During the reformat of my brand new Maxtor 5000DV drive it started making increasingly frequent clicking sounds (real loud clicking sounds) and the reformatting was running slower and slower. It quit with a failure message when the reformatting was about 85% done. The drive then disappeared from the XP drive management list—poof!. Now when I power it up (even without attaching the IEEE-1394 / firewire cable) it clicks up a storm but nothing further happens. I think its toast.

When I got into the Win XP drive management utility (following the instructions of the vendor) I got to a screen where I had an option to change the record size of the drive, to choose whether or not I wanted to do a fast format (a rush to Windows yielded no help about that) and whether or not I wanted to enable the drive for compression. Not being able to find out good advice on either point (can anyone here help on that?) I opted not to do a fast format (figuring a non-fast format must be better some way) and to allow compression (hey, I have been reading that compression makes data errors correctable, that sounds like a good thing, although I could find nothing about that on Microsoft’s site either).

I feel (as I am under the clock and that was a real setback) that I should meanwhile order a new drive (probably a different kind) and get it here FAST. Do you guys think that a 7200 dedicated drive with firewire interface will do it (even though I am going to be inputting DV via IEEE-1394 at the same time as well? I'll try to get a drive that is pre-formatted for XP if I can find one. I learned only after opening the box and reading the installation manual that I got into it that most of the cute features of the Maxtor relating to backing up files, things like that, only work with FAT, they don't work with NTFS.

Best regards,
Ralph
July 12, 2003

The bonus section follows (this may become a regular feature). This section be skipped unless you just want to read some more. The following deals somewhat in personal experiences and contains no questions but does have a couple of tidbits of information.

I have the Maxtor 5000DV drive boxed up and have requested an RA number from the vendor. Meanwhile I had a look at the fine print of the company’s policies. They tell you (when you can chase it down) that there is a 15% restocking charge on returned merchandise within 30 days even if defective except there is a long list of companies that you cannot return the item at all. This includes Maxtor. Also in their policies is the explanation that they exchange units--they send you a rebuilt or second a.k.a. factory return in most cases it would seem as they say in another place that they will repair a defective item if possible but they like to ship one to you while yours is on the way to them, they call it cross-shipping. Plainly that unit coming back to the original buyer is not the one they returned. Anyway, they also say that they don’t accept Maxtor back even for exchange. They call this collection of policies their 30 day performance guarantee.

I choose the vendor for my drive based on its pretty good rating in Reseller Ratings. I am asking the vendor to take it back. I mentioned the ratings site to them. These experiences are educational all around.

I learned why it was so hard for me to remember NTFS. It is claimed to mean "New Technology File System" but it originally was named for the first Windows System that used it, Win NT (which probably is supposed to mean or suggest New Technology). If I remember “(Win) NT File System” I can remember NTFS. Hey, that special connector that we plug an external monitor into on a Laptop is called a VGA interface even though we are now at XVGA, XGA, and even UGA--way beyond VGA in most cases--except for DV which is fairly close to it in resolution (sigh). Those old names tend to stick.

BillyBoy,

> XP IS far more stable ...IF you use certified drivers

Would that I could sustain this moment and forevermore only use Windows Certified Drivers. What a better place the world would be. (lol) ;-)

And there lies the crux of the problem. The Pinnacle Deluxe AVDV capture card does NOT have certified drivers yet its listed on Microsoft Hardware Compatibility page as being compatible with XP. Who’s fault is that: Microsoft for listing a product that didn’t certify, or Pinnacle for being the lazy b*stards that they are not certifying? (I personally don’t think their drivers are capable of certifying they write such buggy software) It doesn’t matter because I (the consumer) get to pay the ultimate price in a unstable system that I can’t trust to use for video editing. I have wasted an entire week on this upgrade and it would have been much cheaper to just buy a new computer at this point.

In the future I promise to look for the Gates Housekeeping Seal of Approval but my current impression is that upgrading to XP is a joke. You would be better off just buying a new system because chances are, none of the hardware you bought for WinMe/Win98 is going to have windows certified drivers. Neither my scanner nor my tablet was supported neither was my SmartMedia reader from Olympus. All in all, I’d call WinXP a downgrade. Half of my computer stuff no longer works.

The only reason I’m bringing this up is because on several of the video forums I frequent people are so eager to say, “What are you still using the WinMe/Win98 why don’t you upgrade to WinXP its so much better.” The answer is, because we refuse to buy all new hardware just to upgrade our OS software. If your peripherals are new you stand a better chance but people should be prepared to buy new peripherals or risk an unstable system. Sorry for ranting so much but after a week of debugging XP I get a little testy. I must be getting old. I use to go two weeks of debugging a new OS before getting tired of it. ;-) (i'm glad i got that off my chest... i feel better now)

PS: I love XP. It's so much better than WinMe I can't beleive it. It just took a lot more to get here than I anticipated. No way I'm going back. You can't make me...

~jr

I'm on WXPpro now, but used 98se for years and got used to its quirks. XP does seem more stable, but I can still crash it if I try hard enough. With W98se, all I had to do to keep it happy was to reboot every night when I went to bed. Big deal.

The only limitation with 98se was the 4GB file size one, and the only time I ran into that obstacle was when I created DVDs. A 4GB avi only runs about 18 minutes, so my 90-minute DVD masterpieces had to be tweaked a bit in order to make sure my file breaks took place on fade-to-black sections, so you wouldn't notice the 1/4-second pauses as the DVD player switched from one VOB to another.

The only real reason why I went to XP was because I bought a Del laptop that did not have a 98 driver for the screen, and I wanted to be running the same OS and apps on both desktop and laptop systems. It took a bit of time to port over to XP, but now everything's fine.