Erecovery etc and FAt32 and NTFS again

Hello All,
Apologies for posting about this well worn subject - but it's been one of those frustrating nights trawling thru the forums for answers.

I recently bought an Aspire 5685 - it is a nice machine. But I discovered the FAT32 and "hidden" partitions today after not being able to import video files larger than 4GB.

Anyway, basically I would like to switch to NTFS and it seems that the erecovery tools would no longer work.............
so: would it be unadvisable to live without those Acer erecovery tools?
Are they really needed, or can I just go ahead and do the conversion process from FAT to NTFS?

Many thanks in advance,
Briggy

 

U dont need erecovery if you burn your backup discs to DVD. Or just conver example drive D for ntfs for larger files. Or make new partition for NTFS system.

 

Thanks zeniitti,

Yes, I thought the simple thing would just be to add an NTFS partition for larger files. (One of the reasons I got this machine was to be able to edit video on the move).
Although I have read elesewhere that the Erecovery partition needs to see a FAT32 D: drive to function..........so I wonder if that D: partition needs to remain the same size.

A bit frustrating really that Acer kept an old system for their machines. I mean, this is a Core 2 duo machine with a 160 gig drive and a dual layer DVD burner!
You'd think they'd have used NTFS.
And then when people start moving over to Vista, surely that will require NTFS?????

Anyway, complaining aside, one of the first things I did was to make the DVD system backups - so are you saying that is enough for doing a system restore?

I was thinking I should just reformat everything (not want I really want to do) and do a fresh install of XP. I got nervous reading other posts about the Erecovery system being the only way to ensure resuming operability after a major glitch - can anyone tell me if that is correct?

Also, can I reinstall XP Media edition (I have the OEM version that was preinstalled) and keep my progs/settings?

I understand why (I guess ) manufacturers fill their machines with bloatware like Norton AV etc etc but it does get frustrating having pop up windows appearing all the time and apps running automatically.

Thanks for your help!
Briggy

 

briggy: I have a FAT32 C: drive and a NTFS D: drive. I can attest from personal experience that the alt-f10 method of erecovery still works, even with a NTFS D:. ERecovery left my D: drive untouched, which as far as I know, is what it's supposed to do. I do not know if it works with a NTFS C:.

 

Thanks moe,
Hmm, interesting info.
However, I think I will take the plunge and do a complete reformat, as really in 2007 I think FAT32 is pretty redundant and I am not so convinced that the E-stuff on the Acer is of any use except maybe the power management features. I got some very good advice from reading SSX4life's posts on this forum.

Thanks. This is a very good forum.

 

I have made acer aware of this problem and they promised to llok into it but...it seems like nothing has changed yet.

The recomendation i got from acer was just simply to convert the file system to NTFS, it will not be any problem to run/burn recovery after you convert. I can call them again and ask why nothing has changed, but if i remember correctly they have some issues to get their recovery to work with NTFS directly from the shop

 

the biggest suggestion that I have for you is to image your laptop with the D2D recovery tool outside of windows. Then do a full hdd partition backup with Acronis or Ghost, then get an oem disk of XP and reinstall using the key on the bottom of your laptop.

--ssx--