Hi,

Is it possible to save WinXP HDD (NTFS) contents such as "WINDOWS",
"Program Files", "Documents and Settings", (etc.) folder "trees", format the
HDD as FAT32, then transfer saved contents back to HDD without causing
problems?

Thanks in advance, Brad

Before you type your password, credit card number, etc.,
be sure there is no active keystroke logger (spyware) in your PC.

Brad wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Is it possible to save WinXP HDD (NTFS) contents such as "WINDOWS",
> "Program Files", "Documents and Settings", (etc.) folder "trees", format the
> HDD as FAT32, then transfer saved contents back to HDD without causing
> problems?
>
> Thanks in advance, Brad
>
> Before you type your password, credit card number, etc.,
> be sure there is no active keystroke logger (spyware) in your PC.
>
Why ever in the world would you want to?

Only with 3rd-Party Disk Management tools, such as Acronis Disk
Director or others. Is there a particular reason why you want to use
FAT32 instead of NTFS ?

Doing a non-destructive format conversion has some risk involved
so you wouldn't want to attempt this without a verified image to use
if something fails.

"Brad" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
>
> Is it possible to save WinXP HDD (NTFS) contents such as "WINDOWS",
> "Program Files", "Documents and Settings", (etc.) folder "trees", format
> the
> HDD as FAT32, then transfer saved contents back to HDD without causing
> problems?
>
> Thanks in advance, Brad
>
> Before you type your password, credit card number, etc.,
> be sure there is no active keystroke logger (spyware) in your PC.
>

Sure, use cloning software. But why on Earth would you want to do this?

John

Brad wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Is it possible to save WinXP HDD (NTFS) contents such as "WINDOWS",
> "Program Files", "Documents and Settings", (etc.) folder "trees", format the
> HDD as FAT32, then transfer saved contents back to HDD without causing
> problems?
>
> Thanks in advance, Brad
>
> Before you type your password, credit card number, etc.,
> be sure there is no active keystroke logger (spyware) in your PC.
>

R. McCarty wrote:
> Only with 3rd-Party Disk Management tools, such as Acronis Disk
> Director or others. Is there a particular reason why you want to use
> FAT32 instead of NTFS ?
>
> Doing a non-destructive format conversion has some risk involved
> so you wouldn't want to attempt this without a verified image to use
> if something fails.
>
> "Brad" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hi,
>>
>> Is it possible to save WinXP HDD (NTFS) contents such as "WINDOWS",
>> "Program Files", "Documents and Settings", (etc.) folder "trees", format
>> the
>> HDD as FAT32, then transfer saved contents back to HDD without causing
>> problems?
>>
>> Thanks in advance, Brad
>>
>> Before you type your password, credit card number, etc.,
>> be sure there is no active keystroke logger (spyware) in your PC.
>>
>
>
I have no opinion, and since an image is a byte by type restore, I'd be
afraid of using Acronis. It might pick up the NTFS structure.
Google returned some web pages suggesting Partition Magic would do the
trick.
But as most comments I've seen, NTFS is a better format then FAT32.

Acronis Disk Management isn't an imaging program, but more like
Partition Magic. But an image does retain the underlying format of
the volume so taking an image wouldn't help convert the format. A
conversion from NTFS to FAT32 has some restrictions if there is
"Sparse Data"/Compressed data and of course you loose the Security
ACLs on the NTFS partition.

"Big Al" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:MZLGj.4376$Dv5.2593@trnddc02...
> R. McCarty wrote:
>> Only with 3rd-Party Disk Management tools, such as Acronis Disk
>> Director or others. Is there a particular reason why you want to use
>> FAT32 instead of NTFS ?
>>
>> Doing a non-destructive format conversion has some risk involved
>> so you wouldn't want to attempt this without a verified image to use
>> if something fails.
>>
>> "Brad" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Is it possible to save WinXP HDD (NTFS) contents such as "WINDOWS",
>>> "Program Files", "Documents and Settings", (etc.) folder "trees", format
>>> the
>>> HDD as FAT32, then transfer saved contents back to HDD without causing
>>> problems?
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance, Brad
>>>
>>> Before you type your password, credit card number, etc.,
>>> be sure there is no active keystroke logger (spyware) in your PC.
>>>
>>
>>
> I have no opinion, and since an image is a byte by type restore, I'd be
> afraid of using Acronis. It might pick up the NTFS structure.
> Google returned some web pages suggesting Partition Magic would do the
> trick.
> But as most comments I've seen, NTFS is a better format then FAT32.

On Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:43:44 GMT, (E-Mail Removed) (Brad) wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Is it possible to save WinXP HDD (NTFS) contents such as "WINDOWS",
> "Program Files", "Documents and Settings", (etc.) folder "trees", format the
> HDD as FAT32, then transfer saved contents back to HDD without causing
> problems?


Sure. The easiest way would be to clone the entire drive to a second
drive using a program like Acronis True Image, then clone it back
after reformatting the original drive.

However, it's probably simpler to just convert the drive from NTFS to
FAT32, using one the several third-party programs with this
capability.

Why do you want to do this? Except for those dual booting to an
operating system that isn't NTFS-aware, NTFS is the better choice.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

On Mar 27, 6:43*am, bpet...@verizon.net (Brad) wrote:
> Hi,
>
> * *Is it possible to save WinXP HDD (NTFS) contents such as "WINDOWS",
> "Program Files", "Documents and Settings", (etc.) folder "trees", format the
> HDD as FAT32, then transfer saved contents back to HDD without causing
> problems?
>
> * * * * * * * * Thanks in advance, * Brad
>
> * Before you type your password, credit card number, etc.,
> *be sure there is no active keystroke logger (spyware) in your PC.

Why go back to FAT32 format? Microsoft has purposely limited XP to
only create 32GB partitions and limted file sizes to 4GB (per file)
when using FAT32. NTFS is way better for your files in XP. If you
need a FAT32 partition, look at partitioning tools like Partition
Magic. With thism you should be able to resize/more/re-sequence
partitions.

> On Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:43:44 GMT, (E-Mail Removed) (Brad) wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Is it possible to save WinXP HDD (NTFS) contents such as "WINDOWS",
>> "Program Files", "Documents and Settings", (etc.) folder "trees", format
>> the
>> HDD as FAT32, then transfer saved contents back to HDD without causing
>> problems?


"Ken Blake, MVP" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Sure. The easiest way would be to clone the entire drive to a second
> drive using a program like Acronis True Image, then clone it back
> after reformatting the original drive.
>
> However, it's probably simpler to just convert the drive from NTFS to
> FAT32, using one the several third-party programs with this
> capability.
>
> Why do you want to do this? Except for those dual booting to an
> operating system that isn't NTFS-aware, NTFS is the better choice.
>
> --
> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
> Please Reply to the Newsgroup


Ken & bpetria:
Actually that wouldn't work. Even if the user reformatted his/her HDD FAT32
after cloning the contents to another disk, the re:cloning process would
just carry over the file system on the cloned contents - in this case NTFS.
So the user would be right back where he/she started from.

As you & others have indicated if, for some reason, the user *must* have a
FAT32 file system, the conversion process should be undertaken using a
third-party program such as Partition Magic. (Nearly) needless to say, a
clone of the original contents of the HDD should most definitely be created
*prior* to the conversion process. (The relatively few times we've
undertaken this kind of conversion using PM we experienced no problems. But
unquestionably the potential for loss or corrupted data is surely present).
Anna

Anna wrote:
>> On Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:43:44 GMT, (E-Mail Removed) (Brad) wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Is it possible to save WinXP HDD (NTFS) contents such as "WINDOWS",
>>> "Program Files", "Documents and Settings", (etc.) folder "trees", format
>>> the
>>> HDD as FAT32, then transfer saved contents back to HDD without causing
>>> problems?
>
>
> "Ken Blake, MVP" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Sure. The easiest way would be to clone the entire drive to a second
>> drive using a program like Acronis True Image, then clone it back
>> after reformatting the original drive.
>>
>> However, it's probably simpler to just convert the drive from NTFS to
>> FAT32, using one the several third-party programs with this
>> capability.
>>
>> Why do you want to do this? Except for those dual booting to an
>> operating system that isn't NTFS-aware, NTFS is the better choice.
>>
>> --
>> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
>> Please Reply to the Newsgroup
>
>
> Ken & bpetria:
> Actually that wouldn't work. Even if the user reformatted his/her HDD
> FAT32
> after cloning the contents to another disk, the re:cloning process would
> just carry over the file system on the cloned contents - in this case
> NTFS.
> So the user would be right back where he/she started from.

Right. If it's just a partition copy, it partition copies the source
drive as it is.

> As you & others have indicated if, for some reason, the user *must* have a
> FAT32 file system, the conversion process should be undertaken using a
> third-party program such as Partition Magic. (Nearly) needless to say, a
> clone of the original contents of the HDD should most definitely be
> created
> *prior* to the conversion process. (The relatively few times we've
> undertaken this kind of conversion using PM we experienced no problems.
> But
> unquestionably the potential for loss or corrupted data is surely
> present).
> Anna

Yup, PM would be the way to go. But I'm curious here. What reason did
you do this, Anna? Because the user wanted to be able to see and access
his drive from Win9x in a dual boot situation, or??