helloooo everyone, I got a question.. is it possible to create two partions in one hard drive; one of them FAT32 and the other one NTFS. if it is possible, is it a good idea or not, and why...

Yes, it's possible. It makes sense if you need to share out files to other PCs that don't read NTFS file systems (i.e. Win 9x). If not, I'd stick with NTFS. Michael J

Hi Alex, Yes, it's possible. Whether it's a good idea depends on your intended use. NTFS is more robust, and can be more space efficient. But, remember that an NTFS partition cannot be gotten at in DOS. There are plenty of threads in this forum where a recover / repair which would have been quick and easy on FAT, were anything but quick and easy on NTFS. HTH M2

Would help in giving you a complete answer if you told us why you want to do this. To MichaelJ "It makes sense if you need to share out files to other PCs that don't read NTFS file systems (i.e. Win 9x)" Presumably such PC's would be networked in some fashion in which case it matters not what file system is in use.

Not only is it possible, but you can even go beyond, and have other partitions like linux partitions. Another possibility is that maybe you want to stick with fat32 in case your OS has problems, but create a ntfs partition to take advantage of security. I would stick to NTFS, unless you absolutely need to have a FAT partition.

thank you all for your help. I don't need to have two different partions in one hard drive. It's just that a friend of mine tried it and now his computer isn't working properly. he can't get to windows. it's getting to a blue screen and stopping there. He was asking me what to do. Since I know he doesn't need to share or have any network, I would suggest just format the hard drive to one partion, either FAT32 or NTFS and install windows.. thank you soooo much for your help..

A classic case of beating round the bush instead of spelling out the problem...lol