Totally compressing FS2004 works wonders and much smoother.

[brucek 38]

Hi Jason,In an existing FAT32 system of multiple partitions and with XP Home installed, is it possible to convert one or some (but not all) partitions to NTFS, and leave some (in this case C: ) at FAT32, and will this compression tweak above still work then?Thanks,Bruce.

[peppy197 165]

I have only one partition of three on my HD formatted as NTFS, where I keep FS9 compressed. The others are FAT32 and all works seamless.You might want to partition your 70-G partition into two more.Allen

[Guest Ken_Salter]

Yes - that is possible. And once it is NTFS - you can compress even if other partitions are phat32.http://saltydogfly2.avsim.net/images/avsim_sig.jpg"Snakes - Nature's quitters" - Homer Simpson

[Jay R 0]

Hi Bruce,Yes that is possible, as Ken stated. With my PC I have some partitions FAT32 and some NTFS. Although I will be changing them to NTFS soon after I upgrade some hardware.Also if you need an easier way to convert FAT32, Partition magic 8 will do it in two mouse clicks. Although either way will accomplish the same thing.FYI: If you are running a Windows XP, that is, not a volume license version or a Corporate version, meaning after Installing Windows XP you had to activate it by phone or over the net, the page above has all the information you will need to fix those issues. Or if certain criteria are met you wont need to do anything afterwards.

http://www.forefrontgrp.com/jayssigsmall.jpg"There is an art . . . to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss!"

[Guest C17SimGuy]

Will I have to remove FS2004 first if I convert the drive it is on from FAT32 to NTFS? Or, along the same lines, do I have to format the disk first?-drew-

[Guest Ken_Salter]

No and no. The command to do this is:c:convert.exeConverts FAT volumes to NTFS.CONVERT volume /FS:NTFS [/V] [/CvtArea:filename] [/NoSecurity] [/X] volume Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon), mount point, or volume name. /FS:NTFS Specifies that the volume is to be converted to NTFS. /V Specifies that Convert should be run in verbose mode. /CvtArea:filename Specifies a contiguous file in the root directory to be the place holder for NTFS system files. /NoSecurity Specifies the converted files and directories security settings to be accessible by everyone. /X Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary. All opened handles to the volume would then be invalid.http://saltydogfly2.avsim.net/images/avsim_sig.jpg"Snakes - Nature's quitters" - Homer Simpson

[Guest C17SimGuy]

Cool. Thanks for the quick reply, Ken!Today when I get home, I'll run:CONVERT E: /FS:NTFS wait for it to finish, then defrag the disk, then compress it.If anyone sees anything wrong I am doing, please let me know! I'll check back in a few hours b4 I begin. :-) Thanks for all the help everybody!-drew-

[Guest]

Go to pcaviator.au and do all the tips mentioned in there for FS2004. The two Utilites they recommend are O&O defrag, and clevercache v4.With all the tips, plus a compressed FS2004 I now have gained on my system so far taxing anyway 5-6 fps more. Have not flown thorugh clouds yet to see what happens here, but suggest you do all the tweaks mentioned there.It is for FS2002 but the same applies, and all work for FS2004 also.using O&O defrag has shown me that the MS defrag that comes with XP does not work to well, as O&O defrag showed I had 270 defragged files that MS defrag did not move.

[Guest Ed_S]

Alright i'll give it a go and report back later this evening!

[brucek 38]

Thanks Ken!Bruce.

[Noel 4,487]

Though this was published for Win2000, I read some other evidence that the on-the-fly compression-decomp is processor-intensive. Hard to imagine why this is helping!Best Practices for NTFS Compression in WindowsMORE INFORMATIONWhile NTFS file system compression can save disk space, compressing data can adversely affect performance. NTFS compression has the following performance characteristics. When you copy or move a compressed NTFS file to a different folder, NTFS decompresses the file, copies or moves the file to the new location, and then recompresses the file. This behavior occurs even when the file is copied or moved between folders on the same computer. Compressed files are also expanded before copying over the network, so NTFS compression does not save network bandwidth. Because NTFS compression is processor-intensive, the performance cost is more noticeable on servers, which are frequently processor-bound. Heavily loaded servers with a lot of write traffic are poor candidates for data compression. However, you may not experience significant performance degradation with read-only, read-mostly, or lightly loaded servers.If you run a program that uses transaction logging and that constantly writes to a database or log, configure the program to store its files on a volume that is not compressed. If a program modifies data through mapped sections in a compressed file, the program can produce "dirty" pages faster than the mapped writer can write them. Programs such as Microsoft Message Queuing (also known as MSMQ) do not work with NTFS compression because of this issue.Because user home folders and roaming profiles use a large number of read and write operations, Microsoft recommends that you put user home folders and roaming profiles on a volume that does not use NTFS compression.Go figure!Noel

[brucek 38]

Thanks Jason,Much appreciate the help.Do you know- if I use the VolID product to update the volume name (which by restoring to the prior name won't count in the XP validation check); then does this also mean that products such as the PMDG NG won't see this change as a registration requirement? (I realize that posting to the PMDG forum may be required for this answer :) ).Thanks again,Bruce.

[Jay R 0]

Hey Bruce,Sorry for taking so long to respond. I would not be in a position to answer the question for PMDG, I am not sure how it will affect their software.Like you say PMDg will be able to answer that better. Glad I could help.

http://www.forefrontgrp.com/jayssigsmall.jpg"There is an art . . . to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss!"

[brucek 38]

Thanks Jason.Bruce.

[Noel 4,487]

Well my curiosity piqued, so I did the NTFS compression. It's kind of hard to tell, but it does seem like things load a little snappier. The flight I took was KSAN to KLAS in pleasant weather with hi upper levels winds, so it really wasn't a test. It did perform great, but then again it did before compression . . . I am running a fast SCSI sys.Noel