Looks like I was right then as regards the fragmentation, it might be worth giving ext3 a go then, as long as rthe Windows drivers are stable. I'd much prefer to run Linux but most of the software I want to run isn't available, and I don't particularly want to run it under emulation. I know Unix and know full well how much more stable it is.
I have a 20GB mp3 player which I wish I'd backed all this stuff up to but I didn't, I also have a 2GB which had the precise total of one of the lost albums on it.