Hi;
One of my disks is FAT32 (it's the disk with the boot partition on it -
boot.ini etc) and it's in FAT32 format. Can I change this to NTFS?
Thanks;
Marvin
http://aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.php
Converting a partition from FAT32 to NTFS can be done by an inbuilt utility
in the Windows XP operating system - but it is important to realise that it
is a one-way process. You cannot convert back, except possibly by use of
Partition Magic 7.01, and that is not always successful. Windows XP has no
tool for converting from NTFS to FAT32.
There are a couple of things to do in advance if the conversion is to be
efficient. If you do not take these preliminary steps, you are liable to end
up with only 512 byte clusters, which is not a good idea.
What happens is that FAT32 partitions formatted by most Windows versions
except Windows XP itself (and possibly Windows 2000) have an odd multiple of
2 kilobytes in the "system" sectors before the data area, where the File
Allocation Tables themselves and clustering start. Therefore, clusters 4 KB
in size are not aligned on 4 KB boundaries, as NTFS will want. CONVERT.EXE,
finding it cannot use 4K clusters, gives up and makes the clusters only 512
bytes (one half KB) instead. (For a table of the varying default cluster
sizes used by FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS for partitions of varying sizes, click
here.)
Download the BOOTITNG.ZIP file to its own folder, extract the contents of
the ZIP file, then run BOOTITNG.EXE, which will make a bootable floppy. Boot
this floppy. For purposes of Partition Management, there is no need to
install the program to hard disk, so click Cancel Install, thus entering
Maintenance. Click Partition Work. Highlight the partition you intend to
convert. Click Slide, which has an option check box to Align for NTFS only.
Click OK. As it has to move almost every sector on the entire partition,
this will take a very long time - schedule it for a meal break, or start it
to run overnight. (If it finishes quickly, that probably means that the
partition was properly aligned already.)
Consult the Hints in the Windows Product Activation article (under What
About Formatting a Hard Disk?) regarding the resetting of the volume serial
number, which will have been changed. The hints given will assure that you
do not lose a Windows Product Activation "life."
http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php#format
HINT No. 2: Another thing that changes the VSN is converting a FAT 32
partition to NTFS. So, if you upgrade a system using FAT 32 to Windows XP
and intend to convert to NTFS, do the conversion before activating the
system. Remember, you can wait a while: you have 30 days before you need to
activate. The machine's hardware at the time of the first activation is what
counts. Or, if you have already activated, use Volume ID as described in
Hint No. 1. If you are doing this after activation, also first back up the
WPA.DBL and WPA.BAK files, as described in Hint No. 3 below, and, after
completion of the conversion, restore these files and reboot again.
. The Boot Volume - which may be just