Is there any way to change my Windows XP Professional filesystem from FAT32 to NTFS without reformatting the entire hard drive? I need to upgrade the filesystem, but it would be great if I could do it without losing all the data on my hard disk.

Thanks,

Jay

Look at the "convert" command in the help system file and
you'll find this...

Convert
Converts FAT and FAT32 volumes to NTFS.

Syntax
convert [volume] /fs:ntfs [/v] [/cvtarea:FileName]
[/nosecurity] [/x]

Parameters
volume
Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon), mount
point, or volume name to convert to NTFS.
/fs:ntfs
Required. Converts the volume to NTFS.
/v
Specifies verbose mode, that is, all messages will be
displayed during conversion.
/cvtarea:FileName
For advanced users only. Specifies that the Master File
Table (MFT) and other NTFS metadata files are written to an
existing, contiguous placeholder file. This file must be in
the root directory of the file system to be converted. Use
of the /CVTAREA parameter can result in a less fragmented
file system after conversion. For best results, the size of
this file should be 1 KB multiplied by the number of files
and directories in the file system, however, the convert
utility accepts files of any size.
For more information about using the /cvtarea parameter,
see "File Systems" at the Microsoft Windows XP Resource Kits
Web site.(http://www.microsoft.com/)

Important

a.. You must create the placeholder file using the
fsutil file createnew command prior to running convert.
Convert does not create this file for you. Convert
overwrites this file with NTFS metadata. After conversion,
any unused space in this file is freed. For more information
about the fsutil file command, see Related Topics.
/nosecurity
Specifies that the converted files and directory security
settings are accessible by everyone.
/x
Dismounts the volume, if necessary, before it is
converted. Any open handles to the volume will no longer be
valid.
Remarks
a.. You must specify that the drive should be converted
when the computer is restarted. Otherwise, you cannot
convert the current drive.
b.. If convert cannot lock the drive (for example, the
system volume or the current drive), it offers to convert
the drive the next time the computer restarts.
c.. The location of the MFT is different on volumes that
have been converted from previous version of NTFS, so volume
performance might not be as good on volumes converted from
Windows NT.
d.. Volumes converted from FAT to NTFS lack some
performance benefits compared to volumes initially formatted
with NTFS. On converted volumes, the MFT might become
fragmented. In addition, on converted boot volumes, NTFS
permissions are not applied after the volume is converted.
Examples
To convert the volume on drive E to NTFS and display all
messages, type:

convert e: /fs:ntfs /v

Related Topics



"kempshall" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
message
news:C855E49F-E351-43CF-8869-(E-Mail Removed)...
| Is there any way to change my Windows XP Professional
filesystem from FAT32 to NTFS without reformatting the
entire hard drive? I need to upgrade the filesystem, but it
would be great if I could do it without losing all the data
on my hard disk.
|
| Thanks,
|
| Jay