Convert FAT Drive to NTFS

  • Thread starter Thread starter MedRxMan
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MedRxMan

I habe a dual boot system.
The first Hard Drive drive is C drive and is FAT 32 and all one partition.
The C drive is Windows 98 SE

The second Hard Drive is partitioned in three partitions: D, E and F all
partitions are FAT 32.

The D drive is Windows XP PRO
The E drive is used for storage and the F drive is used to store images of
the C and D Drives.

I have been considering converting the D drive to NTFS. What is the best way
to do this or perhaps I should leave well enough alone?

TIA
 
this directly from XP's Help and Support

To convert a volume to NTFS from the command prompt
Open the Command Prompt window.
In the command prompt window, type
convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs

For example, typing convert D: /fs:ntfs would format drive D: with the ntfs
format.

Notes

To open a command prompt, click Start, point to All Programs, point to
Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
You can convert FAT or FAT32 volumes to NTFS with this command.
Related Topics

Your Backup of Storing Images on the same drive does not help if that HD
goes dead..........
A good backup strategy is to back/image to an EXternal
source......DVD...HD....???

peter
 
this directly from XP's Help and Support

To convert a volume to NTFS from the command prompt
Open the Command Prompt window.
In the command prompt window, type
convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs

For example, typing convert D: /fs:ntfs would format drive D: with the ntfs
format.
Click to expand...


Warning: before anyone does this, he should first read
http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfscvt.htm because there's an issue regarding
cluster size that isn't obvious.

Also note that conversion is a big step, affecting everything on your
drive. When you take such a big step, no matter how unlikely, it is
always possible that something could go wrong. For that reason, it's
prudent to make sure you have a backup of anything you can't afford to
lose before beginning.
 
From: "MedRxMan" <[email protected]>

| I habe a dual boot system.
| The first Hard Drive drive is C drive and is FAT 32 and all one partition.
| The C drive is Windows 98 SE
|
| The second Hard Drive is partitioned in three partitions: D, E and F all
| partitions are FAT 32.
|
| The D drive is Windows XP PRO
| The E drive is used for storage and the F drive is used to store images of
| the C and D Drives.
|
| I have been considering converting the D drive to NTFS. What is the best way
| to do this or perhaps I should leave well enough alone?
|
| TIA
|

Peter gave good information.
Realize however that once the partition "D:" is changed to NTFS, Win98 will no longer be
able to view data in the "D:" drive.
 
My thanks to all for such quick responses. After my post I googled
covnerting from FAT 32 to NTFS and found the article referenced, I even
downloaded and made the Boot disk and booted with it to see what was about
to happen. I decided that for the time being I will let well enough alone.
Again thanks to all.
 
I also have images storen on an external Hard Drive in addition to one set
of CSs.

Your advise is well understood. Thanks
 
MedRxMan said:
I habe a dual boot system.
The first Hard Drive drive is C drive and is FAT 32 and all one
partition.
The C drive is Windows 98 SE

The second Hard Drive is partitioned in three partitions: D, E and F all
partitions are FAT 32.

The D drive is Windows XP PRO
The E drive is used for storage and the F drive is used to store images of
the C and D Drives.

I have been considering converting the D drive to NTFS. What is the best
way to do this or perhaps I should leave well enough alone?

TIA
Click to expand...

If you *have* to use Win98, you're in one of the few situations where you
should perhaps leave the disks as FAT32.

The exception on your system would be where you need to create and/or store
files larger than 4 gig - you can't do this with FAT32. There, you'll have
to create an NTFS partition and use XP to access it.

If you are going to convert a partition, use the convert command from within
XP. It's easy and reliable, but it's always prudent to back up first.

It's also one-way; there's no way to convert back. If you needed to do
that, you would copy the files to another partition, then format the
partition as FAT32, and copy the under-4-gig-files back.

An alternative would be to get another system for your Win9x work, and
network the two systems. Then both systems can use all the drive space,
regardless of format.

HTH
-pk
 
Patrick said:
If you *have* to use Win98, you're in one of the few situations where you
should perhaps leave the disks as FAT32.

The exception on your system would be where you need to create and/or
store
files larger than 4 gig - you can't do this with FAT32. There, you'll
have
to create an NTFS partition and use XP to access it.

If you are going to convert a partition, use the convert command from
within
XP. It's easy and reliable, but it's always prudent to back up first.

It's also one-way; there's no way to convert back. If you needed to do
that, you would copy the files to another partition, then format the
partition as FAT32, and copy the under-4-gig-files back.
Click to expand...

Well, theoretically he could (at least to a certain extent). He could use
Partition Magic to convert the FAT32 stuff back to NTFS.

(Presumably in doing so, some of the "privileges" would be a bit different
(if even existent) then, but if it's for a single user, that may not be such
a big deal, I'd expect).
 
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