Reformatting a HD

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PT

I have a new 250GB HD, which was pre-formatted as FAT32. What's the
safe/easy way to reformat it to NTFS? Any traps?
 
If its already installed in a working system, simply right click it in Windows Explorer, select Format and set the options as you desire. If its a new drive going into a new installation, you'll be offered the option to reformat it during setup.
 
"Doug Knox MS-MVP" <[email protected]> kirjoitti
viestissä:[email protected]...
If its already installed in a working system, simply right click it in
Windows Explorer, select Format and set the options as you desire. If its a
new drive going into a new installation, you'll be offered the option to
reformat it during setup.

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PT said:
I have a new 250GB HD, which was pre-formatted as FAT32. What's the
safe/easy way to reformat it to NTFS? Any traps?
Click to expand...

Following on DK's comment, he guesses it's a new EMPTY (as in no data yet)
data / slave drive to one already running.

But in any case, if it's seen in explorer, note the drive letter, open a
MS-DOS prompt (Start->Run cmd ) and give the command

convert x: /fs:ntfs

where x: is the drive letter noted. Works wether it's a data drive or the
primary system drive. Takes some time, and disk has to have at least some
20% free space to do it. Standard caveats, as there's usually no troubles,
sh*t can happen so, BACKUP anything you can't afford to lose.

--
Tumppi
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Most learned on these newsgroups
Helsinki, FINLAND
(translations from/to FI not always accurate
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PT said:
I have a new 250GB HD, which was pre-formatted as FAT32. What's the
safe/easy way to reformat it to NTFS? Any traps?
Click to expand...


Is there anything on it? Do you want to reformat it or convert it?

If you're going to reformat and install WIndows XP on it, no need to
reformat it first. Just boot from the Windows XP CD (change the BIOS boot
order if necessary to accomplish this) and follow the prompts for a clean
installation (delete the existing partition by pressing "D" when prompted,
then create a new one).

You can find detailed instructions here:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

or here http://windowsxp.mvps.org/XPClean.htm

or here http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm

If it's a secondary drive and not the one with Windows on it, just
right-click on it in My Cpomputer and choose format; specify NTFS as the
file system.

If there's data on it you want to keep, convert it instead of reformatting.
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.
 
Nice of you to mention some specifics. Your choice is probably okay for an
external.
If hard drive was onboard, I would go with Ken's advice for formatting, not
converting. The method he mentions creates a new partition structure.
 
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