Can XP/FAT32 see NTFS partitions?

[drpeppercan]

Can anyone confirm if XP is able of seeing NTFS partitions when installed on a FAT32 File System?
I have a primary partition that can no longer be accessed. This partition used to host Win2k/NTFS, and is found on my second master HD. The first Master HD has XP on it, but the file system is FAT32. I am hoping that the reason I cannot acccess the partition is because XP had to be installed on the same file system (NTFS).
I can see the partition drive in XP, and in Partition Magic when starting in DOS. PM shows me pretty much all pertinent information about the partition, except that it doesn't allow me to convert it to NTFS, only from FAT32 to FAT, the other options are greyed out.
Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Have a great day,

DrPepperCan

 

[BChumie]

I had my main hard drive as Fat32 with WinXP installed on it and when I added a new hard drive I formated it with NTFS and it was able to read it fine. Your situation is a little different but i think if you put the hard drive in with winXP on the fat32 partition you should be fine.

-Brad

 

[drpeppercan]

Thanks so much for your valuable feedback Brad.
One more question, do you think XP will be just as stable and reliable on FAT32 as on NTFS?

Thanks,

Javier

 

[BChumie]

Hello Javier,

As far as I know you shouldn't run into any stability issues with Xp on FAT32. The difference between the two is that NTFS is more secure and the way it handles files is faster than Fat32 (I believe these are correct but anybody please feel free to correct). My girlfriend has been running winXP on FAT32 for 6 months now and I have seen no problems with it (except for 3 virii.... but that is another story ).

-Brad