Conversion from FAT32 to NTFS in XP

[eric]

Hi,

Is it possible to convert a partition from FAT32 to NTFS
without loosing its data in WinXP Pro (without using a
third party software)? Thanks for the help.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Is it possible to convert a partition from FAT32 to NTFS
without loosing its data in WinXP Pro (without using a
third party software)? Thanks for the help.

From FAT32 to NTFS? Yes.

The built in Windows XP Help and Support (on every properly functioning
system) will give you all the details you need. Look up the "convert"
application. Open a command prompt and type:

convert /?

But - as with any partition-wide utility - you are better off backing up
first. Things CAN go wrong (power could go off, could have a bad secotr
undetected so far on the hard drive, whatever..)

 

[eric]

Hi,

Thanks for the help. From the help it is better to
reformat than to convert. I was wondering if I make a
backup file with Ghost (Symantec) with the partition in
FAT32 and reformat the partition to NTFS and then
reinstall the ghost backup file to the new formatted NTFS
partition will it work properly? Does anyone has
experience doing what I would like to do?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Thanks for the help. From the help it is better to
reformat than to convert. I was wondering if I make a
backup file with Ghost (Symantec) with the partition in
FAT32 and reformat the partition to NTFS and then
reinstall the ghost backup file to the new formatted NTFS
partition will it work properly? Does anyone has
experience doing what I would like to do?

What you are suggesting won't work. Ghost cannot write to NTFS. It would
overwrite it with FAT32 and convert it.

Believe me.. Conversion works fine.. This comes from thousands upon
thousands of conversions..

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

You can safely convert your hard drive to NTFS whenever desired,
without having to format the partition and reinstall everything. As
always when performing any serious changes, back up any important data
before proceeding, just in case. A little advance preparation is also
strongly recommended, so you can avoid any performance hits caused by
the default cluster size:

Converting FAT32 to NTFS in Windows
http://www.aumha.org/a/ntfscvt.htm


Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

That wouldn't work. If the disk image was created from a FAT32
partition, it will be FAT32 when it's restored. Disk imaging software
replaces whatever file system is on the target partition with an
_exact_ copy of the original source partition, to include the file
system.

Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH

 

[Alex Nichol]

Is it possible to convert a partition from FAT32 to NTFS
without loosing its data in WinXP Pro (without using a
third party software)? Thanks for the help.

Yes, using the convert tool. But I most strongly advice using a third
party tool to first 'align' the clusters of the partition onto 4 K
boundaries, or you are likely to end up with inefficient 512 byte
clusters. See my advice at www.aumha.org/win5/a/ntfscvt.htm