If you convert your partitions to NTFS you may wind up with an unoptimal cluster size of 512 bytes instead of the default 4K size for newly formatted NTFS partitions.
You can get an NTFS drive with a 512 byte cluster size to have a 4K cluster size using the cluster changing functionality in Paragon Partition Manager (uses its own FAT to NTFS converter) or the now discontinued Norton Partition Magic 8.0. (uses convert.exe for all NTFS conversions).
If you have Partition Magic 7.0 or 7.01 which only allows for the changing of cluster sizes on FAT16 or FAT32 partitions and which launches convert.exe for all NTFS conversions you can follow these steps which require Windows XP (Home or Professional).
System restore has to be turned off as it compresses system data that cannot be uncompressed by the compact program. You will need to apply the changes for the partition alterations in steps 5-6 and reboot as prompted before the P.M. convert dialog box will show the FAT32 (4K aligned) choice referenced in step 7.
After the final conversion you can check the cluster size by running chkdsk in the read only mode (look for bytes in each allocation unit), performing a defragmentation analysis with the XP defragmenter (look at the report), or using the info command in P.M.
Following are the actions that will result in an NTFS partition having a 512 byte cluster size.
In Windows XP convert.exe will maintain a partition's existing cluster size if the partition is aligned so that the number of sectors in the system area is a multiple of eight. If this is not the case a 512 byte cluster size will be used as with the NT4 and W2K convert.exe.
For more information see:
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