Converting to NTFS

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jon Lie
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J

Jon Lie

I'm running Winxp pro sp2 with all updates installed. My pc came
preconfigured with the OS on a FAT32 formatted HD. Can I convert this to
NTFS without any risk of loosing my data?
 
Jon said:
I'm running Winxp pro sp2 with all updates installed. My pc came
preconfigured with the OS on a FAT32 formatted HD. Can I convert this to
NTFS without any risk of loosing my data?
Click to expand...

Even though MS says you can do this (see my previous post) I would
still back up my data, email, address book, bookmarks etc to some
external media just in case.
 
Jon said:
I'm running Winxp pro sp2 with all updates installed. My pc came
preconfigured with the OS on a FAT32 formatted HD. Can I convert this
to NTFS without any risk of loosing my data?
Click to expand...


There is always risk. It's small in this case, but it exists.

To convert to NTFS, you use the CONVERT command. But first read
http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfscvt.htm because there's an issue regarding
cluster size that isn't obvious.

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.
 
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