75million 512byte NTFS clusters gridlocked my PC

I converted a 36GB master drive from FAT32 to NTFS in line with a new 160GB slave drive.

Sadly it partitioned into 75 million clusters of 512 bytes each :eek: and my processor now runs at about 2Hz.

I could back up all the system drives on to the slave if I knew how, but I have no system disk (ex-Time customer you see) and can only re-load. Windows has 3.5GB of files and I just don't have 6 blank CDs!

Has anybody any idea how I can re-partition the master drive into bigger clusters without having to reformat the master drive and/or back up the entire volume?.

what operating system are you using?
the 512 byte cluster size was common with older versions of NT when converting from FAT32 to NTFS, and still happens with XP if certain measures aren't taken before conversion..the reason is that FAT32 partitions formatted by most versions of windows before XP have an odd multiple of 2 kilobytes in the "system" sectors before the data area where the FAT tables start. Clusters 4kb in suze arent aligned on the 4kb boundaries, so convert.exe gives up and makes the clusters 512 bytes instead. The bad news is that, without a third party program like partition magic, windows cannot change the cluster sizes on the boot/system partition without formatting the partition over.

(btw..cluster size has no impact on processor speed..it just seems slower)

Thanx Geo.

So I have to format the C: drive?

I have moved or copied all the data files to the new 160GB slave drive F: but the 36GB master drive C: is where the system files are, which are not backed up.

Now is this a format or a reload, where the files would I presume be returned to their factory state, i.e. overwritten in FAT32?

Is this something I can do without backing up the system files? Also, would drive F: be excluded from thr format?

the format should be able to be done in either fat32 or ntfs, but your system restore disk may have a preset mode..many of them do not give you the option..either way, a complete restore generally reformats the disk before installing the system files.

If your 160 GB was set as master and put in and formated and installed with Winxp NTFS,Couldn't you access your 32 gb download all the files to the 160 master then put the 32 gb back as master and format and do a fresh install to the 32 gb?In further reading it seems you may not have an xp install disk.By the way excuse my manners welcome aboard ,Windrivers is your friend!!You asked," about drive F:/ being left out of format".No but there would be a time when it would be left out of the computer.When you were doing your format.

Ah, Jon's original thread with my reply seems to have been deleted somehow, and this thread relates to another duplicate in the XP forum. It might be less confusing if I quote Jon's information here, and if you delete your topic in the XP forum, Jon.

"Yes Platypus, U R right!! 512 bytes in each cluster! I thought this was only supposed 2 hapn in early versions of XP. I am XP SP2. What can I do about it please?"

As said by geoscomp, this is usually caused by the partition being set up without consideration for the requirements of NTFS. XP will not set up a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB, so for a 36GB drive, setup is probably done with the Win98 FDISK or similar, this causes the problem. You have the option of using third party software as mentioned, to either adjust the cluster size or transfer the XP installation onto the new drive, or re-installing XP.

"Viruses, spyware? I have Norton, Ad-Aware, Spybot & Spyware Doctor. They have been run independently and are not on auto-check."
That's fine, it was just a consideration when we weren't clear on the circumstances of your problem.

"Yes the Hitachi slave was in PIO mode but that's NOT the 1 I'm having trouble with. The slow op' is on the Samsung SV4012H, which, ironically, was on Ultra DMA mode 6 !?!
Where to from here ???"

Backing up your files between the drives in this configuration would have been very slow, as I mentioned in my lost reply. It's preferable to have the drives on separate IDE channels, even if this needs a little juggling of other drives. Moving the drives around may also help Windows to get the modes right & solve the PIO problem.

"Oh yes........ Outlook Express seems to have lost its Address Book and all records prior to the NTFS conversion. I am being told to reinstall it! I thought you had to reinstall all of Windows XP to get any component of it!"
OE's database is annoyingly fragile & gets "lost" easily, did you have a backup of the address book? OE itself is a component of Internet Explorer, and if the IE installation in Add/Remove Programs offers a Repair option, this may get it set up again, but won't recover the lost information. Otherwise, re-install IE to get a fresh OE.

"If my data files are on drive F:, can I reinstall windows just on drive C: (so as not to lose the files) either by removing F: or separating it?"
The problem with this has been identified, if you have a recovery CD rather than a full XP installation CD, you will probably end up back where it was when it first came out of the factory. If you're going to try it, I'd suggest having the new drive disconnected while restoring to the original.